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Re: MOWOG - final!

To: Kai Radicke <mowogmg@pil.net>
Subject: Re: MOWOG - final!
From: Paul Hunt <paul.hunt1@virgin.net>
Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 19:36:01 +0000
Kai Radicke wrote:
> 
> Well for everyone disputing this...
> 
> check out page 69, in 'Original MGB'.  Note of the picture captions...
> 
> "...Although barely visible, the detachable gearbox side cover bears the
> ledgend 'MOWOG' which was old Nuffield Organisation and later BMC parts
> trademark standing for Morris, Wolseley, MG."
> 
> So, there you have it from Ander Ditlev Clausager himself, yes the keeper
> of the BMHIT archives...I'm not saying that it couldn't be Group or
> Garages, but this is a powerful sentence from the 'keeper of the books'.

Final?  A little optimistic, Kai, even ignoring all those future "Does anybody 
know what MOWOG means?" questions.

Clausager is, of course, an employee of BMIHT (sic) and it was the BMIHT 
official magazine that stated that the 'G' stood for Group.  Furthermore, the 
magazine item was in direct response to the above question, whereas Clausagers 
comment was just in passing, making it 50/50 at best.

However, if we look a little further, at David Knowles' excellent 'MG - The 
Untold Story' we can read that in 1935 Lord Nuffield relinquished personal hold 
of Wolseley and MG passing them to Morris Motors (Abingdon losing autonomy and 
all design authority to Cowley for a number of years - food for the 'what makes 
a 'proper' MG debate, perhaps).  Also that Cowley used 'G' as a prefix for MG 
engine numbers and 'W' for Wolseley.  It's a fair bet that they were already 
using 'M' for Morris, so that gives the three consonants.  Question is, why the 
two vowels, other than 'Why not?".

PaulH.


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