MEET THE OWNER – BRIAN HALL AND HIS MG 1100
By Ellie Priestley |
16th April, 2020
An MG 1100 has to be one of the most attractive cars of its generation - especially when finished in Connaught Green. Brian Hall came across his 1967 example five years ago – ‘it appeared at local shows having just been bought from the original owner who had kept it for 40 years, I had the first refusal on it, but I thought he wanted too much for it so I didn’t buy it’
The ADO16 then twice changed hands before Brian eventually acquired GCE 622 E from a dealer in Cardiff ‘I flew down to Bristol and drove it home 300 miles on a wet and windy November night nonstop, it didn’t miss a beat - bless it’. The very next morning Mr. Hall removed ‘all the silly window stickers’ and replaced ‘the mismatched headlights - one of my pet hates’.
Another challenge was that the MG had previously suffered from a less than adequate refurbishment of the leather trim – ‘this annoys me and makes me wish I got it earlier when I had the chance. I have undone a lot of the damage done to the car, but I’d love to find some good original seats. If only people put the original parts in a box to go with the car when they sell’.
When the MG made its bow in October 1962 as the second of BMC’s ADO16 range - the Morris predated it by six weeks - it was the first FWD car to bear the Octagon badge. BMC’s press office announced that here was ‘the most advanced MG of all time’, and it also boasted smart Italian tailoring. Brian remarks ‘if I had to choose the thing I most enjoy about is just how nice looking it is from all angles - hats off to Pininfarina for their finishing touch’.
The launch price was £713 9s 7d, £18 2s 2d more than the De Luxe version of the Morris. However, you gained twin SU carburettors, a top speed of 88 mph, a heater and a walnut veneered fascia. The MG also seemed more up-to-the-minute than the Riley One Point Five and more versatile than the Triumph Herald 1200 with its four-door layout. Meanwhile, the Ford Anglia 123E Super appealed to a different sector of the car market – less ‘dashing chap’ and more ‘super sales rep’.
By 1964 the MG 1100 was even starring in a hilarious road safety film - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHmVXfKdFgM. Readers will note that driving a two-tone ADO16 can potentially transform a respectable suburbanite into a howling sun-shade wearing cad. The new “Safety Fast” ADO16 appealed to the motoring press - ‘Every minute spent behind the wheel is a real pleasure’ thought Autocar. The scribe also praised the illuminated front ashtray - ‘smokers have no excuse for being messy’. Five years later Bill Boddy of Motor Sport wrote ‘The road-clinging qualities and comfortable ride of the Hydrolastically-suspended front-drive BMC small cars are such that even sports-car drivers find them acceptable’.
However, as a product of the British Motor Corporation, the narrative of the Octagon-badged 1100 is inevitably complicated. In June 1967 the MG, Riley, Vanden Plas and Wolseley were available with the 1.3-litre engine, followed a few months later by the Mk. II version with the cropped fins. By spring of the following year, the MG was sold only in two-door 1300 form. Today surviving examples of the 1962-1968 1100 are now as seldom encountered as an edition of Mrs. Brown’s Boys that does not make you wish to sell your TV set.
GCE is partnered in the Hall garage by a 1300 two-door. Brian remarks ‘my two MGs are a bit of an addiction I can’t live without. I suppose it’s a nostalgia thing as they make me feel close to my Father who died 26 years ago. His 1965 MG 1100, BCN 738 C - the same colour - as mine was my first love. I cut my teeth on car maintenance including paint repairs etc. and would go anywhere with Dad - I just to ride in it. It was the first car I drove on a quiet track at 14’. And this why cars such as the Connaught Green MG are so important.
With Thanks To – Brian Hall
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