Page 53 - Sample pages "Kim: A Biography of M.G. Founder Cecil Kimber" by Jon Pressnell

After the departure of Kimber, the Abingdon factory was administered by Harold Ryder, who had previously run Morris Radiators Branch. The construction of the Albemarle nose units had been mastered – M.G. even devising an electrics test-rig that was a first for the aircraft industry – and by the end of 1941 around 200 different contracts were keeping the expanded works a hive of activity. Among these were everything from making special Abingdon-designed variable-length hinges for storage bins to building entire Crusader tanks and repairing armoured cars.
By 1942 the M.G. works was making interchangeable power- unit modules for aircraft, having set up a flowline production process to speed manufacture of these ingenious assemblies that reduced engine-replacement times at the airfield. As part of this operation it put together over 8,600 Rolls-Royce Merlin engines for use in the Lancaster bomber and other planes. At the same time the company was deepening its expertise in military armour, building tank turrets and converting tanks to other uses such as flail minesweepers, mobile bridges and bulldozers. Making blood centrifuges was added to the list in 1943, and in 1944 the Albemarle contract was replaced by the building of wing leading and trailing edges for the Tempest fighter. Finally, as the war reached its end the M.G. workforce turned to the building of the huge Neptune amphibious carrier.
SEARCHING FOR A DIRECTION
Without Cecil Kimber, so strongly identified with the marque, what would be the destiny of M.G. in the post-war years? In terms of products, the answer was not reassuring. All the M.G. body jigs at Morris Bodies Branch had been destroyed in the 1941 Coventry blitz, Miles Thomas wrote in January 1944 to Kimpton Smallbone, by then running the Morris export department. This effectively put paid to reintroducing the VA, SA and WA, whose revival wouldn’t be viable, given their relatively small sales volume and elaborate body framing. They were also essentially mid-1930s designs and relatively high-priced, two factors that would have
TOP: Abingdon assembled 130 examples of the Neptune amphibian, developed by Morris Commercial Cars; it could do 5 knots on water and 18mph on land. (Ken Martin collection)
ABOVE: One of Abingdon’s wartime contracts was to turn tanks into bulldozers; in all, 170 were converted. (Author’s collection)
OPPOSITE: John Thornley’s aim for ‘a poor man’s Aston Martin’ was largely achieved with the MGB GT, which had styling honed by Italian design house Pininfarina. (BMIHT)
497 Appendix 6: M.G. After Kimber
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