Cecil Kimber, increasingly at odds with Leonard Lord and Lord Nuffield over his different vision for MG, was dismissed in November 1941 by new director Miles Thomas. He never got to see the models under development for launch post-war, although he continued his interest in design;
The Autocar published a series of his drawings in 1944, showing his ideas for a new sports car range. It was not to be: Kimber was killed in a railway accident in 1945.
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| 1947 MG Y-Type saloon |
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Demand for new cars was high at the end of the war as Britain and Europe struggled to rebuild infrastructure and get moving again, though whilst most manufacturers concentrated on low-cost, practical mobility solutions, MG modified the pre-war TB Midget to create the TC - £375, in two-seater open form only. Essentially a '30s car, little changed even from the TB, it received little more than a minor makeover, with its body widened slightly, new shock absorbers and leaf springs and a 12-volt battery replacing the pre-war 6-volt. The company's claims for the TC's performance were controversial -
Motor magazine's road tests claimed it was far slower than the published figures, with a top speed of just 66mph and 0-60mph acceleration in over 27 seconds - but this may have been down to the magazine's having to use the rationed poor quality, low-octane 'pool' petrol. Whatever the figures, the TC was a huge export success nonetheless: despite its near-anachronistic design, with separate chassis and leaf spring suspension when most rivals were moving to monocoque construction and independent suspension, around 2000 of the 10,000 built went to the USA, 4600 to other overseas markets and the rest remained in the UK. The TC had some racing success, competed by drivers including Briggs Cunningham and Phil Hill, and a re-bodied version took part in the Le Mans 24 Hours. The Duke of Edinburgh did the patriotic thing and bought one, too.
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| 1949 TD Midget |
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More revolutionary was the Y-Type saloon: a young engineer called Alec Issigonis, later famous for his work on the Mini, had designed an independent front suspension system before the war for the new Morris Minor, and this set-up featured on the Y. The same chassis was then used for the TD-series Midget, a more comfortable and refined roadster than its predecessor, in 1950. The company also considered a new saloon with the Riley 1.5-litre engine, or making versions of the Morrises Minor and Oxford - the former with an 1100cc engine - and a Minor-based sports car known as the Midget Major, but in the end the MG range depended upon the TD Midget and Y-Type until well into the '50s.
