Page 40 - Sample pages "Kim: A Biography of M.G. Founder Cecil Kimber" by Jon Pressnell

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Chapter Fourteen: A Marriage Ends, a New Car Arrives
CREAM CRACKERS AND MUSKETEERS
At the same time as the nature of M.G. cars was being redefined, the company’s approach to competition was also taking a new direction. Trialling was still a popular form of motor sport, and one that received good coverage in the motoring press. Kimber had of course been a keen practitioner himself, and was well aware of the potential publicity dividends – not least as M.G. cars were a dominant presence on any British trial one might care to name. But as individual privateers the various M.G. drivers had less media impact than they might have had if competing under a single banner.
Espousing this logic, in 1934 three enthusiasts, Maurice Toulmin, Jack Bastock and ‘Mac’ MacDermid, put together a team of J2s. By the end of the year, the trio having moved on to PAs, the cars were painted in the same cream with brown wings as George Eyston’s racers and became known as the ‘Cream Crackers’. Although the drivers owned the cars, the venture was supported financially by the factory and the ‘Cream Crackers’ were regarded as an official M.G. team. In a similar process a team of three ex-TT Magnette NEs were campaigned as the ‘Three Musketeers’.
More than twice as many VA saloons as tourers would be built – 1,238 against 591; a drophead (564 made) would later join the range. The tourer body was sourced from Morris Bodies Branch.
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