MG Car Club of South Australia
The MORRIS GARAGES MARQUE
of CARS (MG): CENTENARY
F
or many years across the MG com-
munity 1924 has been taken to be
the year when the first MG cars were
made and sold.
Some have put the case for recognition
in later years - 1925/6/7 - and have
given reasons for doing so.
ln the main though, 1924 has been the
accepted year and has been the basis of
past anniversaries which have been
celebrated by both MG clubs, and the
various parent manufacturers of MGs.
The 1924 date has been based upon the
modifled 'Bullnose' Morris Oxford cars
of 1924 which have been known as the
14/28s and accepted as the first 'MGs'. lt
has been known for a long time that a
car prior to lhe 14/28 was commissioned
by Cecil Kimber - founder of MG, and
from early 1922 manager of the Morris
Garage in Queen Street, Oxford.
Kimber ordered six Morris Cowley chas-
sis from the Morris works, had some
modifications made to these chassis at
the Alfred Lane workshop in Oxford, and
ordered bodies from Raworth & Co.
based in St. Aldates, Oxford.
None of these six cars have survived,
and nor - until 1998 - had details of the
alterations made to these cars.
The MG community tended to be divided
on the Raworths between those who felt
the 14/28s and the 1924 date was the
correct one, and those who believed that
the Raworths should receive recognition
as the first MGs - in concept, if not reali-
sation.
The 14/28 school had the advantage of
surviving cars which could be compared
to the standard Morris versions and the
modifications identified, along with the
very different Kimber-inspired bodies. of
the 14/28 school were reluctant to ac-
knowledge the signiflcance of the Ra-
worths because there was an absence
of evidence that they were more than
bespoke-bodied Morrises. The 1923
view was not helped by the fact that the
Raworths were a commercial failure,
unlike the 14/28s.
It has become apparent that this differ-
ence over the Raworths vs. the 14/28s
can now be resolved due to the consid-
erable efforts of The Early MG Society
and in particular researches in the Ox-
ford County and City archives by the late
Robin Banaclough and by Phil Jenkins.
Of the twenty-one mechanical differ-
ences between the standard Morris Ox-
ford chassis and those sold as Morris
Garages Sports (14/28), there is general
agreement that the significant differ-
ences were in the Iowering of the rear
springs and the alteration of the angle of
the steering column by relocating the
steering box.
ln themselves these alterations do not
appear very significant, but crucially it
meant that the chassis sat lower, and
the driver sat lower and further back.
This in tum enabled the bodies to be
different from anything currently avail-
able in the Morris Motors catalogue.
Research in the Oxford City and County
archives, especially microfilm copies of
newspapers and magazines - finally re-
vealed some of the alterations which
had been made to the Raworths prior to
their bespoke bodies being manufac-
tured.
The crucial changes, which have al-
lowed the 14/28s to be recognised so far
as the 'first' MGs, were, it has been
shown, made also to the Raworths a
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