I said earlier:
>There's a thread on the mini-list about what MOWOG stands for. That made me
>wonder if the MG group has had the inevitable discussion about what MG stands
>for. Comments on either?
I wanted to ask in case anyone has already told this story, but since people
seem firmly convinced that MG stands for Morris Garage, I don't think anyone
has. Here goes:
Sometime in '79 or '80, Donald Healy spoke at a brunch for the San Diego MG
Club and the Triumph Sports Car Club of San Diego. He said that:
Cecil Kimber, the father of MG, was an octagon freak (probably not his exact
words). Everything he owned that could possibly be octagon shaped was; tables,
plates, clocks, what-have-you. When he died, his only daughter inherited
everthing. It turned out that he was a packrat and a doodler and had kept
every piece of paper on which he'd ever scribbled. Included in his estate
were endless sheets of paper with octagons drawn on them with every possible
combination of letters drawn in the octagons. "M" and "G" don't stand for
anything, they were just the only letters that fit well inside an octagon.
This is not one of those urban legends where somebody claims that this
happened to a friend of a friend of theirs -- I personally heard this from the
horse's mouth. I can believe this story because, for one, Donald Healy is a
believable source, and two, I can't imagine the board of directors of the
highlysuccessful MG Car Company admitting that the name of the company is just
a
doodle. I can, however, picture them having a secret meeting where they try
to find something in the MG history that has the initials "M.G." The first
MG, Old No.1, was actually a bullnose Morris, but I can't imagine them naming
the company Morris *Garage* in honor of Sir William Morris. Why not Morris Loo
(ML)? He probably had one of those, too. And why the *initials* of Morris
Garage, and why are they in an octagon?
Here are some other interesting things Donald Healy said:
He wasn't allowed to say that the Datsun Z car is a copy of the Austin-Healy
3000, but he thought that it was interesting that the only two 3000's outside
of the UK or United States belonged to the Nissan Corporation. (Lots of
repressed anger on this one.)
His favorite car was the bugeye (frogeye) sprite and the headlights were meant
to be retractable but monetary considerations prevented that.
I've heard a very interesting story about MOWOG. I can't remember the details
at the moment -- I'll try to remember to call people tonight and find out.
Hopefully, it will be as slow here tomorrow as it is today so I'll have time to
type it in. I'm not so sure about the authenticity of this story. If anyone
has ever seen MOWOG on a pre-war part, then the story is bunk. Has anyone?
Denise "I know everything and I'm never wrong" Thorpe
thorpe@kegs.saic.com
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