North America News

Overseas Director

Hello MG enthusiasts,

                                     At our recent October 2024 Council and Annual General Meeting, decision-making forums which determine our policies, rules, and voting for Directors I was again voted in as your Overseas Director. This will be my final year and I will step down next October having enjoyed being involved with you, attending your events and reading your magazines and newsletters. My role for the coming year will be as it has been previously – representing Kimber House to all parts of the globe from the Antipodes to Europe, and from Japan to North America and nations in between.

If you visit the U.K. and Kimber House you will get a welcome and if you wish and provided there is notice I can take you on my Morris/MG tour of Oxford – where the MG story started. Many of you have been in contact with me in the past using what should be known as my personal or private email address – but is actually so well known that’s it’s pretty public! In future it would help if my Kimber House address is used:

Peter.cook@mgcc.co.uk

Finally, we have recently started a special offer for overseas MG enthusiasts who are members of a club affiliated to the U.K. club. It is a digital offering at half the U.K. digital price of £50. For £25 you get access digitally to Safety Fast! and to our Registers of your choice. Our website has details of the offer.The Registers are an invaluable source of technical and other advice and in some cases sources of otherwise difficult to obtain parts.

Thanks, and all the best,

Peter

MGCC UK: North American Affiliates Special Offer

                                Join The Mother Club!

The UK MG Car Club has long had strong connections with affiliated MG clubs throughout the world. Members of these affiliated clubs have always been free to join the UK club if they wished, and many have done so. Many others have not, probably because they did not want to pay two subscriptions just for a English magazine they did not read.

The UK club has always offered membership to non-UK owners at UK rates, even though mailing costs are considerably higher than for UK members, and this has reached the point where we have had no choice but to substantially increase subscription rates for non-UK members.

We are aware that this may discourage owners from joining the UK club and have given a lot of thought to this. We recognize that the facilities available to UK members are not so easy to provide for those outside the UK. Mostly, these facilities are provided by your local MG club. At the same time, many of you wish to maintain contact with us, especially with the Registers, but can only do so by joining the UK club.

To address this, we last year introduced a new form of membership for those wishing to join the UK club who were also members of local affiliated clubs. The offer is that affiliated members can join the UK Club at 50% of the normal UK subscription (currently £60, so 50% is £30), but will not receive the magazine as hard copy, but can read it online, i.e. “digitally”. For those who wish to pay in Euros the paper magazine will cost p.a. €98 and Digital membership €35 (€40 joint) if a member of an affiliated club.

This offer is ONLY available to members both of clubs affiliated to the UK MG Car Club and who are happy to have “digital” membership. Those who want to join the UK club, but not their local club, can only join the UK at the new rates just announced, i.e. £50p.a. for digital membership, or £85p.a. if they wish to receive the UK magazine mailed to them.

This offer represents a substantial saving, therefore, and recognizes that the facilities available to you from the UK club are limited, but at the same time grants you full membership, so that you can enjoy receiving our support, for example, from the Registers for the MG models you own.

If you wish to take up this offer, please apply for membership by providing details of your membership of your local club, which we will be confirming with them.

If you are not a member of a local MG club that is affiliated with the UK club, or you are a member but wish to continue to receive the UK magazine Safety Fast! each month, do not apply by this means, but join or renew membership through the UK website https://www.mgcc.co.uk/membership/. Due to fast rising shipping costs we are unable to offer the paper version of Safety Fast! at a discount.

Please contact us if you are unclear:

LizAllsworth@mgcc.co.uk

petercookdr@btinternet.com

Come and join us!

MONTREAL MG Car Club

After an estimated absence of 56 years, the Montreal MG Car club has regained affiliated status. As the second oldest surviving MG car club in North America, Montreal took a bit of a detour in the mid-60s as their club members got into racing, initially with TDs and MGAs, but then ventured into many other marques. After a few years (of treachery) they refound their roots, and with the now retired racers joining with the core of the club, re-enegised it and took it forward and today the club has around 80 members and 45 cars. They have regular meetings and outings, attend local car club events, and is host club of the Montreal BASH ( British Auto Scavenger Hunt) annually in August bringing together other clubs for a day of fun and frustration. With MMGCC club member cars including a good selection of MGAs, MGBs, a MG-TF with its original owner from new, and collection of TCs and TDs. In addition, their ‘racing division’ is newly reformed, loyal to the MG marque, and proudly racing the Morris Garages and Montreal MG Car Club logos at events around the North Eastern USA and Eastern Canada.

“It’s great to be back” , says Bill Smyth, Montreal MG Car Club President, “There’s nothing but benefit as we look beyond our fine city, and connect with other MG car communities around the world. Our shared love of these cars is what unites us”. For more information, visit their website at www.MMGCC.com . New members are warmly welcomed. 

With a climate not contusive to year-round driving of classic British cars, the Montreal MGs are all presently hibernating, or receiving those upgrades and fixes put off during the driving months.  After a crazy 2020, a less crazy 2021 cannot come soon enough!.

MGs of Baltimore

MG Car Club San Diego

90th Anniversary

          The MG Car Club 90^th Anniversary.

October 12^th 2020 will mark the 90^th anniversary of the founding of the MGCC. The club’s origins lie in an advert placed in the Light Car magazine suggesting the formation of a club for MG owners. The venue was the Roebuck Hotel, Broadwater, Stevenage, Hertfordshire in England which still exists. Over thirty cars and their drivers and passengers attended to the inaugural event and a club was quickly formed. The following year the first club dinner was held with Cecil Kimber as the guest speaker. In 1932 the first dinner-dance was held at the Café Royal in London where Sir William Morris, George Eyston, and Earl Howe were among the guests.

To celebrate the 90^th year of the MG Car Club, we would like clubs to mark the occasion by organising a contribution to a world-wide event on the following lines:

1. The celebratory event to be organised is a run or rally by every club, register and centre in both the UK and across the world.

1. The date for the event will be Sunday 11^th October, 2020.

1. The run or rally should be as far as possible different from the usual runs put on by the club, register, or centre. One suggestion is that an approximate ‘octagonal’ route is devised. Another could be passing over a river on a bridge or a ferry. Essentially something which is different, acts as the focal-point for the run, and enables some memorable photos to be taken.

1. Mid-day local time should be used as the start of the run, or the point at which an unusual feature is crossed, passed, seen etc. – the focal point.  In this way the event becomes a ‘whole day’ global event from New Zealand, Australia and Japan in the east, to Brazil, California and Hawaii in the west.

• As far as possible local and national media should be alerted and used as a means of raising both the MGCC’s and the marque’s profiles.  Local media especially is often open to a prepared ‘feel good’ human interest story.

• Consideration could also be given to video and photos being uploaded to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube etc. which have a wide reach and enable comment and participation.

• As we get closer to October 2020 I hope to provide more information on the founding meeting and those involved in getting the MGCC off the ground in 1930.

Peter Cook

MGCC, Overseas Director.

14/12/2019

Baltimore

Newsletter

San Diego MG Car Club

MGs of Baltimore

The latest newsletter from our affiliated Baltimore club may be found below.

P.C.

OCTAGRAM March 2020

MG Marque Centenary

Below is a brief rationale for the MGCC’s decision to start a year’s centenary celebrations in 2023.

Microsoft Word – Summary of MG Centenary,final.docx