There's a picture of an MG 1100 in the MG Buyers's Guide at the end of the
sedan section. A couple of the other MG books show it as well. I like the
picture that has the MGB, Midget and 1100 parked next to the jet airliner. I
have dealer brochures and several magazine ads. One ad says "Don't drink our
suspension" (it was a water/alcohol/glycol mixture). Another ad says that
the 1100 beat the VW Bug in a customer preference test and ironically shows a
dapper looking MG 1100 next to a VW Bug with a heading something like "Guess
who won the popularity contest?" I guess we know the real answer to that
one.
My 1100 is a '67 and it has the 1098 cc engine (hence the name). I don't
think any 1300 cc sedans made it across the pond.
The BMC 1100/1300 had MG, Morris, Austin, Vanden Plas, and I think one other
which might have been a Wolesley. They had estate car versions of them. I
never saw any convertible ones. The Vanden Plas Princess version was POSH
with a full leather and wood interior and those fold down wooden trays behind
the front seats. I have a sales brochure aimed at the American market which
shows a car called the MG Princess which has a VANDEN PLAS grill with an MG
emblem and all the cushy fixings inside. As far as I know, no such car was
ever actually marketed here in the States. The BMC 1100/1300 are reportedly
almost a cult vehicle in Japan. Nice VP Princess models have sold over there
for around $8,000 so let's not look down our noses at the MG 1100's we still
have in this country.
I'll try to get some pictures onto the net this weekend. Someone will
probably sue me...
Glen
P.S.
I'm cringing in fear at the prospect of contradicting the Lord High
Goddess of the 1100 and Chief Potentate of SPAM, but I don't think I buy that
bit about the MGB engine in the Austin America. The America had the 1275 cc
engine with semiautomatic transmission. Wasn't it the Austin Marina that had
the B-series engine?
SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM
That Austin Marina aint got much SPAM...
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