Alternative history

[coldplugs]

I was reading one of those "what if?" history books recently about how the world would be different today if some event in the past had or hadn't happened and think it'd be interesting to apply the approach to automotive topics. For example, we've all heard that the 50's sports car craze in the US was started by returning GI's who brought back MG's or at least saw them in Britain during the war. I have my doubts, but this probably was a factor.

So – what if William Morris had never hired Cecil Kimber and the T-series never existed. Assuming that nothing similar filled that specific vacuum, would Triumphs, Austin-Healeys, Jaguars, and the rest have been as successful here as they were? Would there have been more US/UK hybrids like the Nash-Healey? Would LBC enthusiasts have just stuck with Detroit iron and all been hot rodders? Would sporty cars have been just toys for rich folk as they were before the war? Would the Corvette have been built?

What's your opinion?

 

[Steve_S]

If GIs hadn't fallen in love with the MG TC, they would have fallen in love with whatever alternate sports car took its place in that price slot. The same thing would have happened. American cars were big, clumsy things and British cars were quick and nimble. Lots of people wanted something like that and voila, there they were coming in from England after the war.

Pick up a copy of Time magazine from 1949 and you will find an article on this strange fascination sweeping the country. Apparently people were buying these funny little British cars as fast as they could and were having great fun with them. Clubs were forming and some even predicted that it wasn't a fad.

 

[Roger]

Assuming that nothing similar filled that specific vacuum, would Triumphs, Austin-Healeys, Jaguars, and the rest have been as successful here as they were?

Well, there were more than MG! If MG had never started, there were still Austin, Riley, BSA, Morgan and other sports car makers back then, to say nothing of the more expensive makes. So if it wasn't MG, there'd have been someone else surviving post WWii. There were many who might have filled the space which wasn't really a vacuum. What's more, the MG of Kimber disappeared in 1935.

But to take your point - if MG hadn't survived WWii for some reason, what might have happened? I don't think much would have changed - only the brand name. If that hadn't caught GIs' fancies, surely another one would?