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MG MGA - Article on Design of MGA

There is a great short article on the design of the As in this month MGOC magazine. I would love to copy all 3 pages (1 of text and 2 of drawings) here but that would breach copyright law but I can summarise. It says the origins of this basic shape is the Jaguar XK120 but thinks the A is the best implementation of it including better than the Jowett Jupiter, the Healey 100 the TR2, and even the As predecessor in the 1951 MG EX172. The fundamentals are 3 curve, i.e. one the top line of bonnet through top line of boot, second is top of front wings along top of doors and onto rear wings and finishing touching the rear tyres, and the third less obvious one is around the rear wings.

All of the rear lamp designs are disliked. The 1500 for its poor functionality and the other 2 for poor design, I agree with this. He likes the front end lights particularly for the 1600s.

He doesn’t think the Coupe design works as well as the XK120 Coupe. Roof line could be tweaked and the windows come too far down at the ends. He likes the door handle though.

I would suggest that non Owner Club UK owners try and get to see a copy. I am afraid this doesn’t help non UK readers.

Cheers

Paul
Paul Dean

Sometimes you have to ignore the math and use emotion. If it pleases your eye, then the math is irrelevant. :)
Steve Simmons

Paul, if you ever get your hands son that article, please do post it. The premise that the XK120 was the inspiration for the MGA kind of runs counter to everything that's been written to-date about how the MGA design evolved from George Phillips' desire to make a more aerodynamic TC/TD. Perhaps his work & activities included in the article?
Nick Kopernik

I read the article and was less than impressed with it's premise that the XK120 was the inspiration for the MGA. Other than the use of drawings of both cars to highlight similarities, there were no facts presented to support this contention. It is well documented that George Phillips had a custom body created for his TD to race at Le Mans (pic #1); he lost, but it inspired him to look at a new design. Syd Enever, MG's chief designer, then created a new chassis & body design for another of Phillips' runs at Le Mans (pic #2). The intention of this new car went beyond just racing, as it was also meant to replace the ageing TD series of cars. Internal political compromises were made, especially as it related to the introduction of new Healeys, and the new "UA/MGA" car was basically sidelined for a couple of years. But, when the new "B" series engines were finally developed, the production was green-lighted, and the "UA" became the MGA. Could Enever had the XK120 in mind when he started to mock up the "UA", sure, but then he could have also drawn inspiration from MB's Silver Arrow, or Alpha's, or Lancia's, or BMW's, or other cars of the day.






Nick Kopernik

Post the article in quotes and give credit to the author and source

I’ve always seen the 120 shape in my A. Would love to have a more aggressive grille but can’t offer how. It is what it is and it’s great.

Ted
Ted Persons

They don't call them "Baby Jags" for nothing. Whether or not it was intended, they do share many similarities in the curves. To my eye, the MGA looks better from the side, but the XK120 looks better from most other angles.
Steve Simmons

With some exceptions, cars of various periods usually resemble others from the same time. Cars of the 50's, cars of the 60's, cars of the 70's etc etc all have similarities.. The exceptions include some such as the Citroen DS and the Porsche 911 models.

Beauty is always very much an individual thing. But to me personally the MGA looks much nicer than the XK 120 Jaguars, ESPECIALLY the Coupes. The XK 120 Coupes are VERY awkward from some angles.

The MGA Coupe to my eyes is one of the prettiest cars ever made, but still very much a style for its time.
It's amazing to think that Sydney Enever and his team from Abingdon were horrified when they saw what Eric Carter at Morris Bodies had done in styling the Coupe development of the MGA. But by then the bucks had already been made and it was too late to change. How fortunate!!

BTW I am not even an MGA Coupe owner, so I'd like to think I am not biased.






T Aczel

Hi Tom

I have tried Googling Eric Carter and Morris Bodies to read more about the Coupe development but no joy.

Do you please have a link?

Cheers
Dave
Bolney Coupe

Dave, I no longer remember where I read of the viewing of the MGA Coupe by Enever et al. It may have been in a book, or possibly in one of the magazines, such as 'Safety Fast'. The event was personally witnessed by the person writing the article, who in turn was an employee at Abingdon.
The Abingdon group had gone to meet with Eric Carter armed with their design proposals for the MGA Coupe. Enever may possibly have been rather forceful in expressing their disappointment in what Eric Carter had created, as Carter had to respond "please don't make too much of a fuss as the bucks are already made", or words to that effect.

There is no doubt Eric Carter did a wonderful job. History went on to show that the Abingdon stylists may not have been adept at creating closed versions of their sports cars. They freely admitted that they needed outside help to get the styling of the MGB GT right.

I will look through my older books and see what I can find. Unfortunately, for space reasons, I throw out my old magazines.
It's a shame Safety Fast doesn't have an on-line referencing system to allow MG Car Clubmembers to look up old articles.

As for my comment regarding the similarities of car styling in cars from similar periods, my father was a great lover of Rovers. We owned two Rover P4 90 sedans, a 1955 and a 1957 model. Look at the arrangement of the rear window. It was done in exactly the same way as the MGA Coupe.






T Aczel

Dave, I looked through some books I have on the MGA.
I did find this reference in the John Price Williams book 'The MGA'.
But I may have read something else as well, that I anticipate that I will not be able to find.


T Aczel

Hi Tom

Thanks for the trouble you have taken in your response to my query, much appreciated.

I see what you mean about the Rover rear window. Very much of a family.

Cheers
Dave
Bolney Coupe

I like the MGA coupe shape much better than I do the Jag!




Bill Spohn

A propos Tom's point about generational design similarities,Jaguar set a standard in 1948 with the XK120. That car instantly became the car that every motoring enthusiast wanted. Although it was a third the price of a Ferrari, at $3800 it was still very expensive and beyond the reach of most of its admirers (and the Brits did not want Italian cars anyway).
The MG team had to make design choices, continue with the TF like Morgan or offer people what they really wanted - an XK120 lookalike at half the Jaguar's price. They did a damn-fine job - in 1955, the MGA looked really good and was a commercial success.

MG and Jaguar owners must have been so happy that Jaguar did not develop the SS100 design at the war's end.



Roger Walker

I just saw this posting and it kind of goes along with what I recently posted on MG Experience last Saturday.

"I have always loved the Jaguar XK120/140/150 FHC body style and think that the MGA Coupe body style looks like a scaled down version of the Jag XKs. Today, I had my 57 MGA Coupe at a car show in Richmond, VA and was parked beside a beautiful 57 Jaguar XK140 FHC. Being side-by-side with the XK just confirmed my opinion that these two cars look very similar. I guess great styling like these cars is a thing of the past. I’m glad we can still enjoy them today.

Jim"

Here's the link to the entire stream of postings. Some get a little off topic.

https://www.mgexp.com/forum/mga-forum.2/jaguar-xk140-fhc-and-mga-coupe.4519052/

Jim
JL Cheatham

The most thorough information I have seen on the MGA Coupe is in Automobile Quarterly, Volume 29, No. 1 from January 1991 by Jonathan A. Stein. It starts on page 1 and then covers pages 4 through 19.

If you have access to a copy of this publication, it is well worth the read.

Jim
JL Cheatham

This thread was discussed between 05/04/2022 and 18/06/2022

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