Page 9 - Sample pages "Kim: A Biography of M.G. Founder Cecil Kimber" by Jon Pressnell

treatment. This upper portion of the body was now in steel, but the lower panelling remained in polished aluminium.
These were appealing cars, combining trusted Morris mechanicals with racy looks and a dose of extra performance. All this came at a reasonable price: £350 for a two-seater and £375 for a four- seater, against £260 and £285 for the respective mainstream Oxford models. Kimber had found the way forward, and in 1925 a full 142 two-seater and four-seater Super Sports would be made, as well as six Super Sports Salonettes and – apparently – three ordinary-chassised Salonettes.
Not all Kimber’s eggs were put in this basket, all the same: The Morris Garages continued to offer resolutely non-
sporting coachwork on the Morris chassis through until 1927, predominantly saloons, landaulettes and the rather gothic six- light Weymann fabric saloon. Additionally it furnished bodies on the odd chassis for marques it did not handle: Barraclough and Jennings show photographs of a Daimler fixed-head coupé and a Voisin open tourer, the latter with coachwork very similar to that used on the M.G. Super Sports.
Although this new activity was largely one of final assembly and finishing, its scale was not insignificant. Cecil Cousins recounts how ‘a large re-organisation of the plant’ occurred with the arrival of two electric drills. ‘The strength of the depot had now risen to about half a dozen. So also had the sales of the standard Morris
95 Chapter Four: Making a Marque
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