To continue on with the recent Midlands theme…
ast week as a part of Three Counties MG (Staffordshire, Worcestshire and Shropshire if you must ask) myself and a small group friends were lucky enough to be given a tour around the MG Motor UK Limited Longbridge plant.

I was actually surprised just how much of the place was still left. I grew up about fifteen miles away and it seems every time I’ve gone through Longbridge over the past couple of years there is another massive area flattened away. So it was good to see that cars are being built there, and also that the space to build more is still there too.

My own history with the place is limited to a somewhat chaotic job interview about eight years ago, for work on their website. I arrived with about three other people to much confusion with no one there expecting us and everyone who was there, unsure as to where to send us, I mostly remember a French exchange student running back and forth doing her best to figure things out. I didn’t get the job, in the end, which given how things went on, was maybe for the best.

Visiting the plant last week we got a chance to see where and how our own cars were put together and take a look at the new MG TF’s being built there. The walking tour through the factory that we we’re taken on was very honest, open and entertaining, we got to walk along the production line which was somewhat of a novelty. It was also nice to see and hear facts about the cars and the business rather than the chinese whispers [no pun inteneded, honest] that had been floating about online and in the press. The new cars do look more solidly built, certainly more so than my ten year old F, and the interiors, which are rarely refered to without the word dated, looked good too.

We also got a chance to see the upcoming MG TF 85th Anniversary model, if I only had £15,664 lying about the place (I know I haven’t, I’ve had the place upside down this week looking for a pair of swimming trunks I need for the Screamin’ Festival next week) It does look a fantastic car, photos don’t do the paintwork justice and even the graphics, which I was none too keen on, do look quite good in person. with less than a couple of hundred a hundred only fifty being made I can see myself spending many hours scouring the autotrader website in a few years. Anyway, heres hoping for a sunny summer, which can only help things along all round.

In the meantime, if anyone’s stuck for a Birthday present for me next month…

Many thanks to Ian for organising the day and to Ian Pogson for the tour, I’m now reading Ians book ‘Carry on car making…’ which is availible from all good book stores, and here.

Normal music related posts and maybe even some comic book work, here shortly.