Relevant to the discussion of the monocoque MGs is the following from an
article in "MGB Driver" last summer written by Peter Thornley in remembrance
of his father John Thornley, the General Manager of MG from 1952 to 1969. The
following is relevant to the discussion of unibody MG sports cars.
"After the MGA was off the ground and in production, long range thoughts
turned fairly rapidly to it’s successors. In November of 1955 after the Earls
Court Motor Show, John and Syd Enever wrote the following paragraph to S.V.
Smith, the BMC director in charge of Abingdon:
"The great disadvantage of the monocoque form, particularly in the case of
relatively small production rates such as our own, is that, unless the
general construction of the car is to be very orthodox, one must of necessity
tie oneself to a body design too far ahead of production. By using a
self-supporting chassis (even though this may ultimately be welded or
multiply-bolted to the body) development of chassis and body can proceed
independently. The complete design then enjoys the benefit of flexibility,
such that the style may subsequently be changed without interfering with the
chassis, and vice versa.
We consider therefore that all future Abingdon products should have chassis
frames."
These paragraphs, when the MGB is considered, were to give John considerable
amusement, for it was only months later that Syd was deeply involved in the
monocoque design for the next generation MG. And to perhaps give you a new
perspective on the MGB and John’s respect for Syd Enever let me quote again
from his own writing:
"I think if you want an indication of how remarkable it is, as a design: take
an MGB roadster with the ‘shed’ down: open both doors fully; and then look at
it from the side with your eyes about a foot of the ground; and you will see
two large chunks of motor car joined together by ‘not very much’; into that
‘not very much’ he had to build, not just the beam strength to hold the thing
up off the road, but the torsional rigidity. You see if you are designing a
saloon motor car, you’ve got tin over the top, and you can stress that, you
can make the thing as torsionally tight as you like. He got it built into the
sills. He deserves a Putty Medal for that lot.""
Kim Tonry
Editor - MGB Driver-Journal of the North American MGB Register
Downers Grove, Illinois, USA
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