Brochure images are from the collection of Hemmings Motor News.
Pop quiz: when was the first MG sedan built? MG sedan! you may say, but MG built sports cars! It’s true, and the first MG sedan — saloon, in the Queen’s English — was one of the first cars to wear the MG nameplate, the Morris-based 1925 “Bullnose” 14/28 Super Sports Saloon De Luxe. Indeed, MG had saloons in its catalog all through the 1930s, introducing the KN Magnette Pillarless Saloon with Mazda RX-8-style half rear doors in 1932, and culminating in the incredible SA , VA and WA luxury-sport sedans, whose production ended with the outbreak of World War II.
While the Y Types would be the first MG saloons of the postwar era, they retained 1930s styling cues; the first truly contemporary one would be the ZA Series Magnette of 1953-1956. A sister car to the Wolseley 4/44, styled by Gerald Palmer of the Nuffield Organization (soon BMC), this modern Magnette was a unit body car, the first of the MG marque, and it used a version of the twin SU-carbureted, 1,489-cc four-cylinder that would soon power the MGA; in the Abingdon-built saloon, it made 60 hp. The Magnette lived up to its sports car heritage with a double-wishbone front suspension, tubular shocks on all four wheels, a floor-shifted four-speed manual gearbox, and leather-trimmed front bucket seats. Indeed, a team of three BMC-entered ZA Magnettes finished the 1955 Monte Carlo Rally! This car was imported to the U.S. in small numbers, and cost $2,595 in 1954, dropping to $2,475 in 1955 and ’56; 12,754 ZAs would be built for worldwide consumption before the ZB Series debuted for 1957.
This second-generation Magnette is the star of this four-panel fold-out brochure. Its key visual changes from the earlier model were a wraparound rear window and a piece of chrome trim on the front fender: ZAs had a line that traced the leading edge of the front wheel opening and swooped back into the door, while ZBs had simpler, horizontal fender/door brightwork. That chrome flash was deleted on “Varitone” (AKA “duo-tone”) Magnettes, which were available in eight color combinations. Noted in the brochure was the more powerful (68 hp), MGA-spec engine, which featured higher compression and larger SU carburetors, and the optional availability of “Manumatic gear change,” which did away with the clutch pedal but left the shift lever intact; reportedly fewer than 500 were built, and that wouldn’t return in 1958, the ZB’s final year. MG’s Magnette won its class in the 1958 BRSCC Saloon Racing Championship, but that would be its last season, and 23,846 ZB Series were built.
Excuse the size limitations of our scanner, and click on the brochure pages below to enlarge.
from Hemmings Daily – News for the collector car enthusiast http://ift.tt/1RppmD3
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