In a message dated 95-06-27 16:47:11 EDT, you write:
>
>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:
>
>
I hesitate to step into the quicksand of this thread, given the opinions (few
facts) given so far.....but with due respect to Mr. Healey who must have been
somewhat elderly in '80, some of what he reportedly said must be corrected.
Mr. Kimber the founder of the M.G. car company had two daughters. The
youngest and only survivor recently spent 4 days in my home. She had with
her several scrap books that her father had put together. While Cecil had a
certain marketing fascination with the octagon, he did not sit around
doodling octagons all day long. He spent most of his time in the shop where
the boys were cooking up one race car after the other. The name M.G. (notice
the periods as this is the proper way) was as Ray Gibbons related and that is
confirmed by John Thornley and others who were around at the time....It came
from the Morris Garage where Cecil Kimber was General Manager and started hot
rodding the stodgy old Morris' for his clients....they became so popular that
a new branch of Morris Motors was started, the M.G. Car Company. There is no
mystery about how this name came into being....I you are really interested,
get a copy of the "The Kimber Centenary Book" by Dick Knudsen with a long
article by Jean Kimber Cook and read about it from the Ladys own hand.....I
wouldn't take Don Healey's word on anything M.G. as he was a lifelong
competitor of M.G. and a good one at that......!
Cheers,
Terry
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