SIXTY GLORIOUS YEARS

In 1962, the British Motor Corporation pulled the wraps I off its new ‘ADO16’ saloon car – a multi-branded model that would evolve the ‘badge engineering’ seen on BMC’s larger saloons since 1955, and which had been a huge success for the company on its ‘Farina’ saloon cars; the MG variant of which was the MG Magnette Mk 3.

The new compact saloon, with its maximised cabin space and bouncy ‘Hydrolastic’ suspension, was a perennial best-seller not only for BMC but for the UK as a whole, topping the nation’s sales charts from 1963 until 1969. It wore six badges in total: Austin and Morris at launch, then MG, Riley, Vanden Plas and Wolseley. The MG was the third model, introduced soon after launch as a more sporting alternative to the