Some musings including MG’s I have owned – Roger Latham

I’m a long standing member of the MG Car Club over some thirty plus years. Can’t say for sure how long as I don’t recall and the Club is unable to tell me when I joined.
As a Natter Leader at the time I was invited to a meeting to discuss the possibility of forming a Branch within SE Centre to look after Anglia affairs. From this we formed a Committee and gradually progressed first becoming a Sub Centre and then finally a full blown Centre in 1987.
I have been a Committee member of Anglia from day one right through to today holding various positions over the years. Firstly a very long spell of more than twenty years as Secretary followed by five years as Centre Chairman. Nowadays I’m serving as a Committee member without portfolio.
My MG motoring started in the 60s when I spotted an MG Midget on the forecourt at my local BMC dealer. At first they couldn’t start it, not a very good beginning! Undeterred I purchased it and used it for my daily commute; it was our only family car. As is often the case it eventually had to go to make way for something more family friendly.
All that was long before I became an MG Car Club member.
Since when I have owned many MGs and still do today.
Here is a list of them to the best of my recollection.
MGB Roadster, MGC GT and TC. These three I owned concurrently. Sadly they had to go first to do so was the MGC then the TC. The MGB was my daily driver for some three plus years.
A pause in my MG owning followed while I made do with other cars. Then the urge took hold again with the purchase of a new MGF in 1996. This had an unfortunate end as it was damaged at the dealers while there for service. It was repaired but unfortunately not correctly. The outcome was the car was returned to the dealer and the full invoice amount refunded!!
After a while an MGF VVC Abingdon followed. This gave way to a TF160 with aircon and hardtop too. A great car.
Restless again it was sold and an MG Maestro EFI replaced it.
That went but a new MG ZS180 filled the void very nicely. That in turn was replaced by the updated MG ZS180 which was improved not just in looks but in ride and performance; a better torque curve I thought.
I have owned various MGB GTs, probably about four in total, over the years including a very nice BGT LE, the pewter colour one.
An RV8 was enjoyed too especially as it had power steering fitted during its time in Japan, plus aircon of course.
I enjoyed a lovely black TF LE 500 which had a very full specification and was purchased with less than 1500 miles on the clock. It went to the Le Mans Classic where the aircon proved its worth in temperatures of 30 C.
With a desire for something more versatile it moved on and was replaced by a ZR105+ fairly quickly replaced by a ZR160, face lifted version, which I much enjoyed.
Coming right up to date last December I traded in my first MG3 a 3 Form Sport for an MG3 Style Lux which you can see in the photo above.
Enough from me I think hope you enjoyed my musings.

Roger Latham