Thursday, September 24, 2009

MG Rover in 2009 models


MGs have been used in competition and from the early 1930s a series of dedicated racing cars such as the 1931 C-Type and 1934 Q-type were made and sold to enthusiasts who received considerable company assistance. This stopped in 1935 when MG was formally merged with Morris Motors and the Competition Department closed down. A series of experimental cars had also been made allowing Captain George Eyston to take several world speed records. In spite of the formal racing ban, speed record attempts continued with Goldie Gardner exceeding 200 mph (320 km/h) in the 1100 cc EX135 in 1939.

After World War II record breaking attempts restarted with 500 cc and 750 cc records being taken in the late 1940s. A decision was also taken to return to racing and a team of MGAs was entered in the tragedy-laden 1955 Le Mans 24 hour race, the best car achieving 12th place.

Prior to the use of the Toyota Tundra in the Craftsman Truck Series, MG was reported as the last foreign brand to be used in NASCAR. It was driven in 1963 by Smokey Cook. In 2001 MG re-launched their motor sport campaign to cover the 24 Hours of Le Mans , British Touring Car Championship , British and World Rally Championships and MG Independent British Rally Championship .

The Le Mans team failed to win the endurance race in 2001 and 2002 and quit in 2003. MG Sport+Racing raced in the British Touring Car Championships with the MG ZS between 2001-2003 as a factory team. In 2004 WSR raced the MG ZS as a privateer team and still race in the series today with many wins to date. After three years without a major sponsor, WSR teamed up with RAC in 2006 and the team was called Team RAC. The MG British Rally Challenge still runs today despite the liquidation in 2005.

In 2004 plans to race in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters with a heavily modified V8 powered ZT supertouring car were cancelled due to MG Rover's liquidation in April 2005. In 2007, a surprise announcement was made that a Super 2000 rally car has been prepared in conjunction with rally experts MSD, who used to manage the Hyundai works World Rally team. This is the first sporting step the reformed company has made. Testing has been carried out on the MG ZR based car & it is expected to enter competition in 2008.

The Roewe 550 is a car produced by the SAIC Roewe in the People's Republic of China launched at the April 2008 Beijing Motor Show. It is reported to be derived from the MG Rover RDX60 project which was under development when MG Rover failed.

The car, codenamed W261 during development, is the work of a joint Anglo-Chinese collaboration with ex-Rover experts at consultancy firm Ricardo 2010 and SAIC's own car development team. The 550 was previewed at the 2007 Shanghai Auto Show in the form of the Roewe W2 concept car.

The drivetrain uses either a 1.6 or 1.8 litre 160 bhp engine based on the Rover K engine with 2.0 litre turbo diesel forecast to join the range and a choice of five speed manual or five speed automatic transmission.

The car features a high-technology interior with digital instruments and the RMI (Roewe Multimedia Interface) digital multimedia interactive system, a multi-functional audio and video entertainment system with Bluetooth hands-free system, USB interface and GPS.

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