Add Its Founder was a Farmer's Son

Its-Founder-was-a-Farmer%27s-Son.md

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+<br>Soon after two English automaking rivals joined forces to become the British Motor Corporation (BMC) in the early 1950s, the combine released a new type of small sedan -- the 1953-1958 Magnette. Its radiator badge said MG, but its design and engineering had other influences, too. In the early 1950s, the British were used to T-Series sports cars and sweet little Y-Type saloons (sedans). MGs were craggy and old-fashioned, with flapping fenders, headlamps that stuck out in the breeze, and suspensions hard enough to rattle your teeth. But the new Magnette ZA of 1953 wasn't like that at all. It looked smooth, it rode well, it went around corners without a skip, and it had comfortable space for four people. But only until we learned who had designed it. Not the diehards from Abingdon (MG fanatics didn't like steel roofs anyway), nor the Old Guard at Morris Motors, either. It was a new man, Gerald Palmer. Having created the stylish 1947 Jowett Javelin saloon, complete with wind-cheating body and flat-four engine, Palmer had been tempted back to Morris as chief designer for the entire MG and Riley ranges.<br>
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+<br>Though conceived at Morris, the ZA Magnette was one of the first cars introduced by BMC, born on March 31,1952, with the long-debated "marriage" of two longtime rivals. On the one side was Austin Motors, established in 1906 at Long-bridge, near Birmingham in the British Midlands. Its founder was a farmer's son, Herbert Austin, later Sir Herbert and (from 1936) Lord Austin in recognition of his contributions to British industry. One of his company's biggest prewar successes was the small, spartan, inexpensive Austin Seven of 1922. Boldly, Sir Herbert set up a factory in Pennsylvania to build it as the American Austin, starting in 1929,  [Prime Boosts Official](http://git.anyh5.com/blytheo7150666) but sales were poor despite the deepening U.S. Depression, and production ended after five years. The car was soon redesigned to become the American Bantam, built by a reorganized company that later submitted the [winning design](https://www.dict.cc/?s=winning%20design) for the U.S. For information on the development of the 1953-1958 MG Magnette, continue on to the next page.<br>
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+<br>Morris Motors, BMC's "other half," was founded in Cowley, near Oxford, by William R. Morris. He, too, was knighted (in 1929) and made a peer of the realm (in 1934), choosing the title Lord Nuffield. By that point, his enterprise,  [Prime Boosts Pills](http://xintechs.com:3000/britney0907699) subsequently retitled the Nuffield Organisation, encompassed not only the Morris and MG marques but also Riley and Wolseley, two of many companies Sir [William picked](https://soundcloud.com/search/sounds?q=William%20picked&filter.license=to_modify_commercially) up along the way. This was Leonard Percy Lord, production wizard and self-styled car designer. Though Morris was Britain's dominant motor company as early as 1913, Lord helped make it even bigger -- only to be fired by Lord Nuffield in 1936 in a dispute over profit sharing. Vowing revenge, Len Lord got himself hired at Austin some two years later and was heading the place by 1942 (after Lord Austin's death the previous year). By the early 1950s, he had built Austin into a near sales equal for Morris, helped by newer, more modern postwar cars.<br>
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+<br>But Lord knew that cutthroat competition was hampering both companies and had long favored a merger with Morris. It took him several years, but typical of the man, he finally managed it. Such was the backdrop for Gerald Palmer's work on the ZA Magnette. His first proposal, accepted with few dissenting voices, called for not just a new MG but also a new Wolseley saloon sharing the same basic unitized construction, running gear, and styling. In a ploy worthy of General Motors, he distinguished the models by having the Wolseley sit two inches higher, which he thought could be done with fair ease by modifying the fenders, underbody sills, and suspension pick-up points. At first, MG had little to do with this car, having no formal design office at the time. But MG general manager John Thornley insisted on having final approval as to styling,  [Prime Boosts Pills](http://git.pushecommerce.com/georginaclaude) use of the famed MG octagon badge, and other details.<br>