IN THIS FEATURE The 1920s - MG is born The 1930s - Midgets and motorsport The 1930s - Setting records The 1940s - War recovery The 1950s - Reshuffle The 1960s - New Midget The 1970s - Struggling through The 1980s - MG revived The 1990s - BMW buy out 2000 - BMW sell off The future

MG was selling record numbers of roadsters, but the Rover Group as a whole was foundering and BMW wanted shot of "The English Patient". Land Rover was sold to Ford's Premier Automotive Group and the firm was broken up; wild rumours circulated as to who would take on Rover and MG, and a number of groups put in offers and tenders, but in the end, the brands were famously sold to the so-called Phoenix Consortium for a nominal £1. The newly independent company, based at the Longbridge site near Birmingham, now called itself MG Rover and its ambitious strategy for MG kicked off with revisions to the MGF in 2001: a new 1.6-litre entry-level model and the 160bhp Trophy SE both joined the range. Sported-up versions of the Rovers 25, 45 and 75 were produced, the MGs ZR, ZS and ZT, and in an audacious move, MG announced that it was buying Italian sports car firm Qvale and the rights to its Mangusta super-coupe. Bravest of all, MG co-opted racing firm Lola and its Le Mans prototype to enter the 2001 Le Mans 24 Hours: the MG-Lola LMP 675 cars didn't manage to finish this gruelling endurance event, but at times, they were the quickest cars on the circuit. The ZS was credible too, in the British Touring Car Championships (BTCC), and the ZR in British rallying.

2002 MG TF

2002 saw the launch of the MG TF to replace the F: "attractive and more sporting than before, but flawed," we concluded. The range was broader, refinement improved and styling more masculine, but the TF couldn't square up to the likes of the highly desirable Audi TT and Mercedes SLK, even if it was cheaper. It has fought it out with the similarly elderly but much-loved Mazda MX-5 and Fiat Barchetta, however, and maintained its ground against the new breed of supermini-based drop-tops such as the Peugeot 206 CC and Ford StreetKa. Only in the last year or so, with the launch of the BMW Z4 at one end of the roadster market and the highly amusing Smart Roadster at the other, has the TF begun to look seriously outdated. The 150,000th MG, a Golden Jubilee special edition TF160, was produced on 16th April 2002.