MG Enthusiast

With the festivities over and the baubles packed away for another year (that will inevitably fly by), I’ve taken some time out to come up with my MG-related New Year’s resolutions. Like many people, I’m not very good at keeping them, but the fact is I own four MGs that should be road legal and only one of them currently is. My resolution, should it succeed, is to have three of the four up-and-running by the end of 2023, starting with finally getting my launch-spec ZS to behave long enough for a trip to the MOT station. That car is really trying my patience! Meanwhile, I’d be delighted to hear what your New Year’s MG resolutions are – drop me an email to mg.ed@kesley.co.uk and if we get enough we’ll…

Talking of ringing in the changes, we do have some afoot at MG Enthusiast, too, which we need to make you aware of. I don’t think any of us needs telling about the challenges presented by the cost-of-living crisis, but rising costs have hit publishing hard and to ensure the long-term viability of MGE we’re having to review our distribution model, as currently we have to produce three copies of the mag for each one sold. As a result, in Great Britain we’re moving to subscription-only distribution, meaning MG Enthusiast will no longer be available to buy in shops from the May 2023 issue onward (overseas and Northern Ireland news stand sales are unaffected). MG Enthusiast continues to be the world’s best-selling MG magazine, but we’ve had to take this…

MG Motor continues to grow across Europe and, in December, one of the more recent additions to the club, MG Motor Austria, celebrated its best monthly result so far since the brand’s relaunch in the country a year earlier. The number of new registrations rose to a total of 215 vehicles in November 2022, equivalent 1.2% of the Austrian passenger car market. January to November 2022 saw the best part of a thousand registrations in the country, an increase of 45% compared with the same period in 2021. MG Motor Austria’s Managing Director, Andreas Kosteleck, credits much of this to his enormously committed dealer network and team: ‘For the first time, over 200 newly registered vehicles in just one month is a real milestone for a brand as young as…

We first covered the MG Maze concept over a year ago, in the November 2021 issue of MGE, so the story of this clever concept, from SAIC Design’s ‘Advanced London’ studio, is not entirely new. What is fresh, however, is the news that the concept has been awarded a design excellence award, which has naturally delighted Studio Director Car Gotham and his talented group of designers working out of their studio, a stone’s throw from London’s famous Baker Street tube station. The concept was developed virtually and was specifically designed to appeal to gamers with an adventurous spirit; the key designers who worked on the project were Oliver Freer-Ash, Tom Hylton, Charles Purvis and Artur Ryndin. The design, with its large transparent carapace, is intended to convey a true gaming…

We teased you in a recent issue about a rather special design project, masterminded like the ‘MG Maze’ by Carl Gotham and his team, but unlike the entirely virtually-designed Maze, this one is a clever celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the MGB, just as the world gets ready in 2023 for the production form of the exciting all-electric ‘Cyberster’ concept. Such is the way of the international world of car companies that we had to hold back our excitement until the green light was given, but now we’re able to share more. The project is a beautiful hand-crafted sculpture (but using a range of clever modern materials and techniques in its creation) by sculptor Jonny Ambrose, already well known in high-end automotive collector circles for his stunning creations, which…

“THE WRIGHTONS PAID £1,500 FOR THE CAR, AROUND £6,250 IN TODAY’S MONEY…” Sometimes a car becomes part of the family, despite S you not expecting it to, and that’s exactly what happened to Terry Wrighton. Over 40 years ago, back in the summer of 1982, Terry bought WMH 678M as a second car, primarily for his wife to use for work. It was a step up for the Wrightons, who previously had owned three Midgets. The arrival of both a son and an Irish Setter meant that a Midget was no longer viable. “At the time, I had a company Ford Cortina,” said Terry. “That took care of most of the family duties but my work took me away from home quite frequently so we needed something more practical but…