Panorama is a Dutch magazine that in the 1950s used to be read by the whole family. They published this front cover in October 1958 and I remember having seen it when I was a kid. Off course the magazine eventually found its way to the dustbin and I never thought I would see this cover again. But recently, early 2007, I found it at an autojumble and was able to buy it for only a few euros. The drawing was made by the Danish born (in 1925) artist Kurt Ard, who produced many cover illustrations for well-known American magazines like The Saturday Evening Post, Reader's Digest and McCall's. Probably this MGA was also featured on the cover of one of these magazines. But... is it really an MGA? Yes, of course it is, but the artist has made slight changes to the model, probably not to get into trouble with copyrights. Look for instance at the grille that has a different shape and that is definitely not an MG logo up front (click on the cover for an enlargement).

This is not just any MGA... it's the MGA that was used by Elvis in his 1961 movie "Blue Hawaii". This MGA now resides in the Graceland museum in Memphis Tennessee. The MGA has some non-standard modifications, but it's not in pristine condition. It is what it is, one of Elvis's sports cars, on display just as he left it. It has the appearance (paint, condition, etc) of an MGA you might find on a used car lot in the late 60's or early 70's. One of the songs in the movie in which both Elvis and the MGA played a star role was "Almost always true" (oh yes, there was a girl in the scene, too).

In the early 1960s a plastic model kit of the MGA was made by The Lindberg Line. This model of the 1600 was also available as a 1600 Mk II. There's a company in the Netherlands that still stocks them.

This pub mirror of an MGA in Old English White I bought somewhere around 1975. It was made by a firm called Kimble.

"Otter Weathervanes" in Great Britain is a specialist designer and manufacturer of all kinds of weathervanes. They have a large selection of all kinds of automobiles, including the MGA. You can even choose between wire wheels and steel wheels! Their website is well worth a visit.

When way back in 1973 the Dutch MGATO (MGA Type Owners Holland) was formed, it was thought that a sticker was needed. so that members would be able to see if another MGA was also a member. Unfortunately one of the board-members (not me!) became a little overenthusiastic and had a whole batch of stickers made with an emblem he had drawn himself. Unfortunately for him, his design was not approved by the other board-members and the whole batch was destroyed. The whole batch? No, only one sticker was saved.











After this adventure another sticker was designed (and approved!). On the left is a pre-production model.

In the fifties and sixties when smoking wasn't yet frowned upon, many cigarette brands had pictures on the inside of the boxes. Boys urged there fathers to smoke as much as possible, just so that they could collect a lot of pictures. One of better known brands was "Full Speed". They had at first drawings of automobiles, and later photographs. Of course the MGA was also featured.

Not only cigarette brands carried pictures of cars. Other manufacturers followed suit, like this 1956 MGA that was included in a pack of biscuits (below) and an MGA 1600 Mk II that graced a box of matches.

If you have more examples of MGA's and Z-Magnettes that would fit in here, please let me know by Dit e-mailadres is beschermd tegen spambots. U heeft Javascript nodig om het te kunnen zien.