Inside
the Octagon
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the Octagon 2 - MG: 1946-1980 The first video Inside the Octagon - MG: 1921-1945 tells the story of the MG Car Company during the pre-war years and is cleverly supported by interviews with MG personalities who were around at the time, by rare archive film and period still 'shots' together with modern day action photography. A similar approach is used for the second video and the result is a DVD you will want to play over and over again. Where there's a will there's a way! The management at the MG Plant at Abingdon, supported by a loyal workforce, clearly faced what might euphemistically be called a number of "challenges" from restarting of production in September 1945 right through to the closure in October 1980. Lack of support and blocking by successive owners of the MG Plant (which was eventually to prove fatal) was overcome on more than one occasion by the ingenuity of the Abingdon workforce. They simply found another way around the problem and got on and did it! The film tracks the various highs and lows the Company went through: the post-war materials shortages; the realisation that the Company could not continue to prosper with the manufacture of what was actually a pre-war designed car despite the success the TC had enjoyed in paving the way for future exports to the North American market. Then the disappointment of not being provided with a replacement for the TC by Cowley, which led to Abingdon's own solution for the new TD model. Once again, euphoria at the TD's success was followed by extreme disappointment at the refusal by Leonard Lord to sanction the MGA project. However, where there was a will there was a way and the stop-gap TF, arguably the prettiest of the T-Types, filled the void until Lord finally relented under pressure from the North American distributors, desperate to have an updated MG model and so the MGA was born. Racing and record breaking There is generous footage of MG's considerable success at record breaking at Utah. The late John Thornley asserts in the DVD that "these record breaking cars weren't really development proving cars, they were publicity vehicles". So when some publicity was required for the XPAG engine in the TD, a 1250cc unit was fitted to the pre-war record breaker EX135 with 'Goldie' Gardner at the wheel. Similarly, when it was hoped to revive the flagging sales of the TF with the new 1500cc XPEG engine, EX179 with the unsupercharged 1500cc unit, achieved speeds in excess of 150 mph whilst driven by the Eyston/Miles partnership at Utah in 1954. Gardner had retired from record breaking following his collision with a marker post in EX135 at Utah in 1952. The appearance at Le Mans in 1955 to publicise the MGA is covered in the DVD with film of that dreadful crash which killed Pierre Levegh and took the lives of 80 spectators when the Mercedes 300 SLR flew through the air and blew up in ball of fire hurtling debris from the car into the crowd. There is extensive coverage of EX181 at Bonneville, UTAH, in 1957 and 1959. The late Phil Hill is interviewed for this section of the DVD as he was intimately involved with "The Roaring Raindrop" as it was known. One gets a first hand account by the driver who broke the Class E flying mile record at nearly 255 mph of a potentially serious incident with EX181 when the cockpit filled with "eye burning, membrane burning" nitro methane fuel." The move to monocoque construction The MGA was the last MG to be built on a separate chassis, albeit initial plans were for the MGB to be similarly constructed. The term "Midget" had been dropped with the introduction of the MGA but pressure was building from BMC for MG to build a Midget which would be a latter day successor to the M-Type of early 1929. Termed a "buzz box", it had to be cheap - as cheap as possible - transportation for two and this was the rub, for try as they might, John Thornley and Sidney Enever could not design a vehicle down to the price that was in the minds of the BMC 'top brass'. The film then describes how they were summoned to Longbridge to see a car, which was claimed to be the answer, with a potential price tag way, way below that which had previously been thought to have been acceptable. However, on closer examination by Abingdon the build cost was arrived at by what seemed to be 'wishful thinking' as far as the price of components was concerned and the construction of the car left a lot to be desired. The "buzz box" ended up an updated 'Frogeye' Sprite "the way we would have designed it" as the Midget in 1961to quote John Thornley. The new Midget was the first MG sports car of monocoque construction with the updated Sprite being produced alongside - another story here for which you will need to view the DVD! The MGB was a long time in preparation. Sidney Enever wanted to use the body shapes of EX181 and this evolved as EX205 but it was considered to be "rather fat" and wasn't going to live as a style on its own. Don Hayter took over and produced a flatter sided |
 V8 enthusiasts value the heritage that is MG so a video relating the post war story to 1980 is a DVD many will be keen to acquire. This review by John James will give you an insight into the content of the video. version with small tail fins, which were in vogue at the time. Another option was to send an MGA chassis to Italy, but the verdict on the car produced was "no, that's not an M.G.-it just isn't!" Yet another start was made and Don Hayter produced EX214/1, the first drawing of the MGB, being a slightly shorter car than the one which finished up in production. By now it was accepted that a body on a chassis was not an effective way to go for more performance and more space inside the body and the monocoque 'B' was announced to the public in 1962. This was followed by the GT version in October, 1965 - John Thornley's "Poor man's Aston Martin". The story continues with the introduction of the MGC in 1967 until production was halted in 1969, followed by the introduction of the MGBV8GT in August 1973 after BMC had noted the success of the Costello V8 conversion of the MGB. Emission and safety regulations From 1968 onwards these became progressively more demanding and took up more and more time which was set aside for future development work. The end result was that a successor for the 'B' was not on the horizon. Instead, BLMC channelled investment into the Triumph TR 7 leading to the inevitable closure of the MG Plant. Closure of the MG Plant There is substantial footage of the events around closure of the MG Plant in 1979, including demolition, which is sure to bring a lump in the throat of any MG enthusiast. For me the quote from John Thornley, a man who had spent a lifetime at Abingdon and had done so much to fight a rearguard action against closure, sums up his final air of resignation: "I remember when the crane with the big ball on the end was knocking my factory to pieces - so I went home and went to bed." Life after closure It might have been the end of the Factory but he film goes on to cover the rise of the enthusiast movement after closure. It features the Heritage body plant when it was at Faringdon (remember, the footage was shot in the early to mid 'nineties) and includes an interview with David Bishop, former Executive Director of British Motor Holdings. It also includes a recent interview with Peter Thornley as a stand alone extra. Entitled "Thornley on Thornley", Peter speaks about John Thornley's history, as a father, as an enthusiast, and his legacy. DVD availability The DVD should be on sale through the MG Car Club soon and available too from the V8 Register. The PAL version is currently available from the Online V8 Shop. The costs to MG Car Club members including packaging, postage and VAT (where applicable) are £12.50 UK, £13.50 Mainland Europe and £14.50 Zone2/Rest of the World. Copies of the PAL format DVD are supplied outside Europe as part of a separate retail agreement with Roadster Productions, Inc. the film makers. The NTSC format DVD is only available through the website www.insidetheoctagon.net Credit: prepared from a review of the ITO2 DVD by John James (T Type Register, MG Car Club) (27.11.08)
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