Three-quarters front view of a blue, 1959, MGA, on display at the 2023 Deal Classic Car Show
The MGA design dates back to 1951, when MG designer Syd Enever created a streamlined body for George Philips' TD Le Mans car. The new bodywork traded the MG TF's articulated fenders and running board for ponton styling, with a single styled envelope fully enclosing the width and uninterrupted length of a car. The TF featured a high driver seating position. A new chassis was designed with the side members further apart and the floor attached to the bottom rather than the top of the frame sections. A prototype was built and shown to the BMC chairman Leonard Lord. He turned down the idea of producing the new car as he had just signed a deal with Donald Healey to produce Austin-Healey cars two weeks before. Falling sales of the traditional MG models caused a change of heart, and the car, initially to be called the UA-series, was brought back. As it was so different from the older MG models it was called the MGA, the "first of a new line" to quote the contemporary advertising. There was also a new engine available, therefore the car did not have the originally intended XPAG unit but was fitted with the BMC B-series engine allowing a lower bonnet line. The MGA convertible had no exterior door handles, however the coupe had door handles. It was a body-on-frame design and used the straight-4 "B series" engine from the MG Magnette saloon driving the rear wheels through a four-speed gearbox. Suspension was independent with coil springs and wishbones at the front and a rigid axle with semi-elliptic springs at the rear. Steering was by rack and pinion. The car was available with either wire-spoked or steel-disc road wheels. While the make (or marque) is MG, the model was named MGA by John Thornley in 1954. high-performance Twin-Cam model was added for 1958. It used a high-compression (:1 later :1) DOHC aluminium cylinder head version of the B-Series engine producing 108 hp (81 kW; 109 PS). Due to detonation problems, a 100 bhp (75 kW; 101 PS) low-compression version was
Size: 5607px × 3618px
Location: Betteshanger Country Park, Sandwich Rd, Deal
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -quarters, 1588cc, 1959, 2-door, 2023, aluminium, betteshanger, blue, body--frame, british, car, classic, country, cylinder, deal, design, dohc, drive, dunlop, front, front-engine, head, high-performance, knock-, layout, mg, mga, model, park, peg, rear-wheel-drive, roadster, sandwich, show, sports, steel, twin-cam, view, wheels
