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William Morris could be
considered one of the founding fathers of the British motor industry.
Beginning his career in Oxford in the 1890’s as a cycle mechanic, he later
branched out into the new motor trade and by 1910 had established himself as
the proprietor of the Morris Garages, Oxford’s leading car dealer. Three
years later he was to fulfil his ambition of becoming a motor manufacturer
when the first Morris car went into production at Cowley, near Oxford.
With Morris’ time and energy being devoted to car manufacture, his original
business was entrusted to a general manager. In 1922, Cecil Kimber (1888 -
1945) was appointed to this post. Kimber was a car enthusiast who had
already worked for several companies in the motor industry. He was
particularly keen on sports cars and had considerable design flair,
producing eye catching body styles.
It was Kimber’s idea to begin to produce a line of special bodied cars on
the Morris chassis. As he said later, he saw a niche for a car that was 10
per cent better than the standard product but would sell at a fifity per
cent higher price.
Determined to emphasise that his cars were more than just revamped Morrises,
Kimber showered these MGs with Octagon motifs; oval instruments gave way to
Octagonal ones.
It was thought that the Octagon symbolised the enthusiastic loyalty
customers had to their chosen marque. This magic began to weave its spell on
generations of true motoring enthusiasts. In addition, motorsports
activities rapidly elevated the fame and prestige of the MG marque.
The famous enamelled Octagon MG badge was embraced by the international
public when MG won its first international motor race in Argentina in the
heady days of the 1920’s. The winning car was a 14/40 four-seater, which
averaged 62mph in the hands of Alberto Sanchiz Cires.
The attractive octagonal badge quickly became a true mark of distinction and
the company was not slow to appreciate that customers enjoyed showing off
the MG presence. Thus followed the tradition of using the octagonal badge or
simply the octagonal shape, for any number of ingenious applications around
the vehicle. Bystanders, passengers and mechanices were never left in any
doubt as to the origins of these charistmatic cars. Octagons were cast into
the aluminium toe-board and the accelerator, MG hubcaps replaced the
standard Morris ones and even the tool-box carried the MG symbol.
Enthusiasts entered into the spirit of the idea and still write things like
"Octagonally yours" to sign off letters.
The MG octagon is one of the world’s most popular sports car marques,
associated with a history of countless track winners, record breakers and
classic road cars.
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