Visiting MG factory 1979/1980
I came across the website of a Trevor Smith on which are 218 pictures MG related.
A lot are about a visit to MG Abingdon's factory in 1979 & 1980, of course the are
LE and LE GT's visable, even US spec LE's !!! 😀
Mr. MGB a.k.a. Ken Smith is visable at least in two pictures, in one picture he is next to his purple (aconite/black tulip) MGB with white hardtop and the registration 8351 MG wearing a red coat and in another picture he is is a field with GT-LE's leaning on a LE, I received once a copy via mail from Ken with the indication that it was him next to the LE.
Some pictures I do recognize from various MG books I've seen over the years, like the white MGB roadster covered with Union Jack flags which is the last export MGB in porcelain white destined for Japan.
Hereby the weblink, hope it works coz it's a long one:
Im thinking that the photos now belong to his son Trevor. I might investigate this as Ken also sent me some of these photos.
Hi Bob,
Yeah that would make it logic, especially if you approach the website via galleries and seach with "Ken Smith" you find partly other pictures amoung these a mini estate with the "8351 MG" registration.
Also I found pictures where in the factory a GT-LE is partly resprayed on the leaft rear panel, probably after failing qualty control.
Rob - you are a star. These are amazing!
Some appear in the book "Aspects of Abingdon" by Marcham Rhoade (or should that be Road?!) as Ken used pseudonyms I understand. My comments:
15 & 20jpg – can I have the red E-reg & Grampian grey GTs please? JJW 183K was last MOTd to June 2010 but is SORN so lasted well.
70 jpg – now I know why I have a small paint run on my C-pillar!!
89 jpg - white US spec roadster with Towing number plate – Geoff Allen’s V8 Ermine white roadster JWL 319W started life as a 1974 US spec car used to tow cars off the line. Is this his car?
99jpg – white roadster with red back bumper?
102jpg – A block being demolished with the BL Quality signs still hanging from the roof. Poignant.
126jpg – unusual colour?
128jpg – show us the number plate! Non standard colour with pop-up sun roof. Whose car was this?
159jpg – Vanden Plas Allagro – don’t recall ever seeing a photo of these at Abingdon before
Pride of Abingdon photos
These are stills from a film produced by BL. I have never seen or heard of this before with some amazing photos of life in Abingdon and the factory.
Thanks very much for sharing these. I love looking at the old photos.
Richard
Hi Richard,
Thanks for giving me the credit, but it's not me who took the photo's is the days and posted them lateron, I'm just - and nothingmore - a happy websurfer who came across something interesting whilesurching the web on a daily base for a few hours. B)
Rob
Hi Rob - John Seager is credited with quite a few photos in the Aspects of Abingdon book as he took his camera into work the week before closure which would have been when my girl was being pushed up the line.
A great find and thanks again for sharing- I don't find much exciting when I idly google!!
Richard
Well here is another lot of just 1,038 (!) pictures regarding MG over the years and including a visit to the factory in late 1974, it's amazing that in those pictures quite a few US market rubber bumper MGB-GT are visable, those are the very rare 1974 1/2 model cars and only 1,247 GT's with rubber bumper were made for the US/Canadian market. The 1974 1/2 model is rather rare because they still had the double SU carburator setup and not the rather notorious Stromberg single carb and catalyst.
Found those on the digital libary of Stanford Univeristy in Stanford, California.
https://revslib.stanford.edu/?q=mg&utf8=%E2%9C%93
PS when you go to the home page you can also seach for other car brands.