M.G.REPLIES TO "MAXIMUM SPEEDS -REAL AND IMAGINARY"

M.G. REPLIES TO “MAXIMUM SPEEDS—REAL AND IMAGINARY”

Sir,

My attention has been drawn to the article on page 118 of the March issue regarding a Road Test of the M.G. 2-litre. It is a pity your correspondent does not first make sure of the facts before rushing into print to ventilate his opinions on a subject upon which obviously he is not well informed.

This Company will be most pleased to lend an M.G. 2-litre to MOTOR SPORT or, for that matter, any other journal, provided they can satisfy us that they have a system whereby it can be ascertained that all their tests are carried out with standard motor cars and not cars specially prepared for the purpose.

We know of several instances in which perfectly well meaning journalists have been given what are externally normal cars to test but which in fact are far in excess of the standard product in performance, hence our present policy not to supply M.G. cars for comparative test purposes.

Our attitude is a sincere one, since we will with pleasure give any client who asks a reasonable test with a standard M.G.

Furthermore, the views of this Company are that it is high time the R.A.C., on behalf of the public, and the I.A.E., on behalf of the industry, took over road test reporting—if there is such a public demand for it—and then perhaps we shall see less of the boosted figures which are hoodwinking the public infinitely more than the oft erring speedometer.

We hope you will publish this letter under the heading ” M.G. Replies to Maximum Speeds—Real and Imaginary.” Yours very truly, The M.G. Car Company, Ltd., GEORGE C. TUCK,

Publicity Manager.

[Our ” correspondent ” is accused of being ill informed, but he wrote with the knowledge that the M.G. Car Co., Ltd., had been approached by us with regard to testing the 2-litre. We sympathise with the desire to ensure that if a standard car is submitted its figures be quoted only in conjunction with those of standard cars of other

makes. Obviously, and regrettably, non-standard cars have been submitted to innocent motor-scribes in the past.

Our own method is to take slow-running figures, fuel consumption figures and performance figures with the same car without letting it out of our possession meanwhile—if these figures are all favourable to the car it cannot be very highly tuned for effect. Obviously, to “scrutineer “for standard assembly and clearances, etc. is impossible. The suggestion that the R.A.C. and I.A.E. take over road-test reports is a revolutionary one. The continued usefulness of road-test reports is borne out by the reprints used by manufacturers— including the M.G. Car Co., Ltd.—Ed.]