MG in motorsport

If it wasn’t for motorsport, MG would not exist. While the brand’s earliest cars were simply rebodied Morris Cowleys, Old Number One was created by founder Cecil Kimber to compete in time trials – and its performance in the Lands End Trial established MG as a sporting brand.

From there, MG sold dedicated open-wheel racing cars based on the Midget, and had considerable success. One example took the Brooklands outer circuit record at 122mph.

As part of 1935’s Morris merger, all racing activities were halted, and the MG Competition Department was closed. Yet MG continued to set speed records with its EX streamliners, including a remarkable 246mph run at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah with race legend Stirling Moss at the wheel.

The company also entered a trio of MGAs in the ill-fated 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours, with a best placing of 12th. And the MGB proved itself in rallying and endurance racing in the sixties.

In the eighties, MG returned to the global stage by entering its Metro 6R4 in the World Rally Championship. The mid-engined, four-wheel-drive car bore little relation to the roadgoing Metro, and was developed with the Williams Formula One team. It was outclassed in Group B, but after the class was outlawed it became an effective rallycross car, with Will Gollop taking 1992’s European title.

Even in hard times, MG was still going racing. It entered Le Mans and the British Touring Car Championship at the turn of the millennium, with limited success. And then, the launch of the MG6 (below) saw the factory return to the BTCC, with Triple Eight Engineering and driver Jason Plato.

There have been wins and title challenges, and we can expect more in 2014 as the team expands to three cars – with Plato and 2013 team-mate Sam Tordoff joined by ex-F3 champ Marc Hynes. Right now, the BTCC is the perfect platform for MG.

“It fits with our current strategy,” said marketing boss Guy Jones. “It ties in with our sporting roots and is perfect to promote the MG6 to our target audience. At the moment, it makes more sense for us to compete at a regional and club level before we move to a world series.”