Page 15 - Sample pages "Kim: A Biography of M.G. Founder Cecil Kimber" by Jon Pressnell

© DALTON WATSON FINE B
© DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS © DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS DALTON WATSON FINE BOOKS TON WATSON FINE B
ABOVE: Cecil Kimber in the West Country with the original 18/80 prototype, based on the Morris chassis and with a grey- painted body possibly supplied second-hand by Carbodies.
OPPOSITE: Kimber with Betty and Jean during the 1929 family holiday in Instow. ‘I now suspect my father was trying to give us what he never had: parents who did things with him. He never talked much about his childhood. The early death of his mother, and the total breach with his father when he deserted the family printing ink business for the world of cars, seem to have put the blocks on his memory,’ Jean would write in The Other Tack.
‘As there appears to be confusion between the M.G. and the cars produced by other companies controlled by Mr W. R. Morris, the M.G. Co. wish to make it quite plain that their
concern is definitely distinct and independent, the M.G. sports cars being assembled in their own factory, which they believe to be the only factory in the world devoted exclusively to sports cars.’ So read a note that appeared in the correspondence pages of The Autocar, in the 28 September 1928 issue.
This sort of thing was all very well, but look beyond the smoke and mirrors and everybody knew that M.G. cars were made of the most
127 Chapter Six: Building a Range – and Discovering Devon