Looking at the range of MGR cars designed and built,especially since 1999,I can't help but admire the engineering brillaince buy the group of guys (and girls ?) from designers to the mechanical enigeering and testing areas of MGR workers.
Considering the world class exellence they achieved with limited resources god knows what they would have built with some funds avaliable to them.
I think if Nanjing wish to survive they will also need to find some of this resourcefull talent somwhere. We all know the kind of guys that is, the guys who can make a round peg work smoothly in a square hole and make it look like it fits!!!!

Couldn't agree more. They were brilliant, and a real asset to MGR.

 

Yes, excellent group of people indeed, well said.

Richard

 

The sceptics on here will naturally disagree with you, but I don't happen to be one of them.

MG-R's engineers had their talents wasted in my opinion. It would have been brilliant for them to be let loose on a new car, but sadly, unless the Chinese get their act together, we may never see what could have been.

 

My comment stemmed from the fact that I was sitting in my 75 and thought how well designed and functional every part of the car was unlike many other volume production cars.
Little things, right down to the petrol cap having a retainer cord so it dosn't get lost and a whole range of gadgets which were miles ahead of most manufacturers for the time (in some cases still are)
I would have to say given the complex workings of a car such as the 75,its a tribute to all involved that it is way more reliable than most cars with half the workings.
Can you imagine if Nanjing identified any of the niggling issues (VIS motors etc) and resolved those,the car would be bullet proof and outlast any other competitor.

 

Looking at the range of MGR cars designed and built,especially since 1999,I can't help but admire the engineering brillaince buy the group of guys (and girls ?) from designers to the mechanical enigeering and testing areas of MGR workers.
Considering the world class exellence they achieved with limited resources god knows what they would have built with some funds avaliable to them.
I think if Nanjing wish to survive they will also need to find some of this resourcefull talent somwhere. We all know the kind of guys that is, the guys who can make a round peg work smoothly in a square hole and make it look like it fits!!!!

What a brillant post! 100% agree

With such a tiny amount of money they created great things. Especially when it comes to general driving. I belive no other make in the world could beat MG Rover on handiling, any new MG Rover (apart from ****ty rover) will handle fantastically.

 

Well supposedly a great number have ended up at SAIC, Ricardo, Nanjing and ARUP (and others might follow), but some of the more significant engineering work goes back 10 years or more.

Still once MG UK and SAIC UK are up and running, they will be a more attractive proposition to a young designer than LR who I don't think will be taking too many on.

 

i certainly hope nanjing/mg want designers.

both red_flame and i are studying automotive design technology at the University of Bradford, and we were talking to our lecturer about how competetive the design trade is.

we worked out there is about 200 jobs in automotive design, when Coventry Uni throws out 150 each year, most of whom will get jobs, that leaves 50places per year for every other graduate.

therefore nanjing will open up more jobs, and i'd like to be one of the people who shapes the new MG brand.

(by the way my coursework piece was the 75 coupe, that our lecturer thought i had made up myself!)

 

This is exactly what I was talking about, Nanjing need to employ people who not only have talent but a bit of passion for what they do.
My thuoghts are if Nanjing do get a decent R&D section at Longbridge it will attract those sorts of people.
My mate bought a 2003 BMW 2 door coupe ,model ? put my 2003 75 next to it and it crapped all over the BMW for finish,quality and accessories.
BMW probably pips the 75 in performance but the rest of the vehicle dosn't come close to the 75.
If Nanjing do anything,they need to get the right people in place and market their cars out the UK.This is what punters in the US ,Australia and Europe expect of MG. It matters not if some parts are produced in China as long as the final assembley and quality control is UK based.
Produce some luxury re skinned MGZTs etc and they will clean up financially if they can accomplish all this.

 

Yes, we had a huge amount of very talented engineers at MGR and if we had been able to have access to more funds we wouldn't have needed to go to a partner, or TWR or whoever to help develop our cars. Look at the mess that Prodrive made of 260. Yes, they get things going for us, but we had to take a vast majority of what they did and throw it away and come up with new components etc and it was done in record time!

I for one was extremely proud to fly the *** for the company and to work along side them all and show the public what we were capable of (hence the reason Pub Talk and Tec Talk existed). Excellent engineers making the best of what resources were available to us. Perhaps if more £££ had been available we would still be going and the new cars would have been fantastic.

Having said that, I wouldn't have told you who I was though I and would just be watching the site like a used to!

Nic

 

Yes, we had a huge amount of very talented engineers at MGR and if we had been able to have access to more funds we wouldn't have needed to go to a partner, or TWR or whoever to help develop our cars. Look at the mess that Prodrive made of 260. Yes, they get things going for us, but we had to take a vast majority of what they did and throw it away and come up with new components etc and it was done in record time!

I for one was extremely proud to fly the *** for the company and to work along side them all and show the public what we were capable of (hence the reason Pub Talk and Tec Talk existed). Excellent engineers making the best of what resources were available to us. Perhaps if more £££ had been available we would still be going and the new cars would have been fantastic.

Having said that, I wouldn't have told you who I was though I and would just be watching the site like a used to!

Nic

Top post. If TWR hadn't screwed up MGR may still be here!

 

Streetrover,

I believe no-one came here to Arup, unless they are in America or purely advisory.

Fantastic engineers let down by management of those above and external, it is truly terrible. You only have to spend time enjoying the twisties in our 25 to appreciate that, and you may know the high regard Mr Goodwin as in Autocars Ask Goodwin section holds their talent in high regard particularly in ride and handling.

 

For anyone who is interested, I have done a few "talks" over the past year or so about life at MGR with a few people.

If anyone wants an ex-MGR homologation engineer to do a Q & A session for any Uni courses etc, just shout. My rates are reasonable and you'll probably get more out of an hour talk that you would out of a bucket load of lectures, especially as specific questions can be asked and I can come up with answers if I'm given a bit of time before hand to sort the answers out.

Nic

 

A tribute to you and your engineer mates Nick !
I just had a look on a Jaguar site specifiaclly at the S types and holy crap !! theres a lot of ticked off owners on their forums with a range of issues.
As I said, the 75 ,a truley remarkable car with a unique combination of class,style and reliability.Not an easy feat to accomplish.
I hope if Nanjing gets everything back online, some of these talented people like yourself get back on board and do what you do best.

 

A tribute to you and your engineer mates Nick !
I just had a look on a Jaguar site specifiaclly at the S types and holy crap !! theres a lot of ticked off owners on their forums with a range of issues.
As I said, the 75 ,a truley remarkable car with a unique combination of class,style and reliability.Not an easy feat to accomplish.
I hope if Nanjing gets everything back online, some of these talented people like yourself get back on board and do what you do best.

Thank you kindly.

well I'm sort of back on board, but I'm on board with the VCA (Vehicle Certification Agency) so I'm one of the chaps who makes sure vehicles are safe and legal. It's interesting but I can't say that I "own" anything the way I did at MGR. I can't look out of the window and think "that's "mine", I approved that and got it out there etc". I can help others though.

I just wish more people out there could look beyond the stuff that we were having to produce because of funds etc and look at what we were capable of.

We must have done something right, how else could we have designed a R75 Limo that had a better ride quality than the new Rolls Royce and have 20mm less shoulder room? We had some great guys and gals.

 

Great posts Nic, hopefully Nanjing will appreciate you and your colleagues as much as MGR did - and that clearly wasn't enough!

I believe no-one came here to Arup, unless they are in America or purely advisory.

Well it's good to hear people like Nic are (almost) on board at Nanjing MG, but if Nanjing and ARUP aren't taking many on where are they, and will people like Nic be taken on properly? Will Nanjing value what it has and what it can do?

My mate bought a 2003 BMW 2 door coupe ,model ? put my 2003 75 next to it and it crapped all over the BMW for finish,quality and accessories.

Good to see you have it well house trained

 

As an aside, I have been contacted by Nanjing to see if I would like to go back and work for them.

It took a bit of thinking about but given my current (family i.e. 5 month old!) situation, they simply can not offere a package that is acceptable to take the risk of going back. If for example they were to say we;ll pay you this much and give you this package for the rest of your life or the 33 years we've signed the lease on then I would probably go back.

However, they can't offer a decent wage or package or guarantee their plans so to speak and because there is that 6 month get out of jail free card, it's not (currently) worth the risk. They would need to be up and running and making ££ to potentially take the risk.

In a way it pains me to write that, but I have to look at the whole picture and what they would expect me to do in my previous life would require one hell of a slalry and package to even get me past Q gate. What they are asking someone like "me" to do is far more in depth and difficult to do from scratch. Perhaps if they were more up front with everything I would think differently, but having been made redundant last year, I'd hate to go through it again just because they have the 6 month thing.

 

As an aside, I have been contacted by Nanjing to see if I would like to go back and work for them.

It took a bit of thinking about but given my current (family i.e. 5 month old!) situation, they simply can not offere a package that is acceptable to take the risk of going back. If for example they were to say we;ll pay you this much and give you this package for the rest of your life or the 33 years we've signed the lease on then I would probably go back.

However, they can't offer a decent wage or package or guarantee their plans so to speak and because there is that 6 month get out of jail free card, it's not (currently) worth the risk. They would need to be up and running and making ££ to potentially take the risk.

In a way it pains me to write that, but I have to look at the whole picture and what they would expect me to do in my previous life would require one hell of a slalry and package to even get me past Q gate. What they are asking someone like "me" to do is far more in depth and difficult to do from scratch. Perhaps if they were more up front with everything I would think differently, but having been made redundant last year, I'd hate to go through it again just because they have the 6 month thing.

Presumably they have told you what the package is, i take it it's not good.

Talk to them, tell them your concerns, i'm only speaking as a senior Manager here, in any industry. Perhaps you coould offer your services in addition to your current career. If it works out in 6 months then stay with them.

If they need you they should understand your apprehension. Interesting though that they are contacting people now. Presumably, the factt hat they have asked you is a sign that they need more than simply people to load up crates bound for china at least!

Gives me some hope. Damn I wish I was an engineer looking for a job!!!

 

Can't say that I blame you. You're right to want some kind of security after what happened not that long ago.

 

Presumably they have told you what the package is, i take it it's not good.

Talk to them, tell them your concerns, i'm only speaking as a senior Manager here, in any industry. Perhaps you coould offer your services in addition to your current career. If it works out in 6 months then stay with them.

If they need you they should understand your apprehension. Interesting though that they are contacting people now. Presumably, the factt hat they have asked you is a sign that they need more than simply people to load up crates bound for china at least!

Gives me some hope. Damn I wish I was an engineer looking for a job!!!

Believe you me, concerns have been raised by someone else in the same situation and they simply could not match the cash (which I know is not everything but it helps!) etc.

It's a very difficult call to be honest, as much as I'd like to be there again, I just can't afford to take the risk. I'm sure that there are others out there that understand where I'm coming from, there comes a time where the head has to rule the heart and this is one of those occasions. Much head scratching has taken place and my conclusions have been drawn from listening to people etc and one of which I trust a lot and I'm not about to leave my job here to take the plunge until such time that I feel that it is (if ever) right.

I know that there are more people out there like myself with the same feelings at the moment which is a crying shame because we believed in what we were doing at MGR and given the right backing we'd have been opening a can of whup you know what in the not to distant future that would have had detractors reaching for their apology buttons!

Time will tell and should things change in time then you never know, I could go back but I know what I'd want to do and where I'd like to be and that involves having one of the parking spaces that was originally put aside for people like KH! Nothing wrong with a bit of ambition but there is something to be had out there and if it's done right, MG could roll again properly.

 

Oh, I totally understand and agree with your decision - absolutely.

It's just a shame is all.... for you and the rest of us.

 

Who knows eh? May be in a few years there will be a few of us going for jobs there, a man can dream! It's tempting me toward doing Automotive over Aerospace for sure...

 

Things change, companies change, circumstances change as we all know. Who knows what the future holds. The future is not written........... Q Terminator 3 music and monologue..............).

Perhaps one day I'll be back (keeping the Arnie theme going!).

 

its amazing that despite all this talent no other manufacturers have really come in and raided all the old staff, I'd love to see what could be done by all the ex workers if they got their hands on jaguar or landrover

 

its amazing that despite all this talent no other manufacturers have really come in and raided all the old staff, I'd love to see what could be done by all the ex workers if they got their hands on jaguar or landrover

Landrover have a great team already and sales to prove it.

Jaguar have a great team too, but people just aren't buying the cars.

We have to remember that Jag and LR took to the majority of engineers with them anyway, MGR had few left, but clearly the ones they did keep were brilliant - of course.

 

Landrover have a great team already and sales to prove it.

Jaguar have a great team too, but people just aren't buying the cars.

We have to remember that Jag and LR took to the majority of engineers with them anyway, MGR had few left, but clearly the ones they did keep were brilliant - of course.

I'm not sure Landrover can offer the breath of design and engineering a reborn MG can offer.

Hopefully Nanjing (or UK people getting involved?) start to value what people like Nic can offer.