JustBritish

The Birmingham Mail is reporting that Longbridge is back up and running with a vengeance with plans to more than double the MG UK workforce at the car factory within 12 months. The Chinese owners of the famous Birmingham car plant aim to beat the financial downturn with proposals to hire more production, paintshop, sales and marketing staff and others during 2009.

And discussions are under way over the transfer of around 250 designers and engineers currently based at the Shanghai Motor Technical Centre in Leamington – a wholly-owned subsidiary of SAIC/Nanjing – to Longbridge. The recruitment plans would more than double the current workforce of around 200 based at Longbridge, at a time when motor industry jobs are under severe threat from the worst UK sales slump for over 40 years.

Meanwhile, the standard version of the two-seater MGTF will be on the road by the end of the year following a sell-out of the limited edition version, the TF LE500. NAC MG UK corporate communications manager Eleanor de le Haye said the car firm was set to recruit across all areas.
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The prototype MG X-Power SV-S WRC (William Riley Convertible) you see here is the very first and only example of the supercar. The drop top is the British maker’s second new model since the marque was bought by former racing driver William Riley from the ashes of the MG Rover collapse.

Hand built at MG X-Power’s production and development centre in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, first cars will be completed by January before production is moved to a new facility in the West Midlands early next year. Customer deliveries are expected to begin in summer 2009.

The SV-S is powered by a 5.0-litre supercharged V8, while the Kevlar bodywork means the convertible gains only 12kg in weight compared to the coupé. A manual cloth hood dispenses with the need for heavy mechanical moving parts, too. Every car will also come with a removable hard top, which Riley claims will make the SV-S “a true all-weather convertible”.

Performance is astonishing, with a claimed 0-62mph sprint time of 3.8 seconds, so the supercharged convertible loses none of the coupé’s crushing acceleration. However, top speed drops slightly to 195mph. A non-supercharged version will be available, too. Called the SV-R WRC, it will have 420bhp, but it will still do 0-62mph in 4.6 seconds and have a top speed of 185mph!

With a price tag of £87,000 for the supercharged version, the WRC has supercar heavyweights such as Porsche and Aston Martin in its sights. However, Riley hopes the hand-built ‘made in Britain’ status of the SV will win over enthusiasts looking for something unique.
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Normally I don’t cover any non-UK automotive news, but this one is such a potential game changer that I had to mention it. The New York Times is reporting that Chrysler and GM are in preliminary merger talks.

As the article says, “A merger would be a historic event, with two of the most iconic names in American industry coming together to survive in an increasingly difficult environment. Both have roots dating back decades in Detroit and, with Ford, long dominated the auto industry — until Japanese and other foreign car makers began making inroads into the American market.”

Amazing times we live in.

Oh, and on another front, I dreamed last night that MG started producing a minivan and a Hummer-like SUV. Please, say it ain’t so. I need to stop eating spicy food before bedtime.