General Manager of Oxford-based Morris Garages, Cecil Kimber brought sports car motoring within the financial reach of the man in the street with a succession of affordable MGs.

These were, naturally enough, based on existing Morris models, arguably the most famous and certainly the most influential being the Midget, which first appeared at the 1928 London Motor Show.

The first - M-Type - Midget was based on modified Morris Minor running gear and used the latter's 847cc single-overhead-camshaft four-cylinder engine, though it was its delightful two-seater body that set the little MG apart from its humbler progenitor.

Manufactured by Carbodies of Coventry, it was narrow, light in weight and adorned by a most attractive boat tail.

The latter feature was missing from the four-seater D-Type Midget that arrived in 1931, replaced by a sloping back with accommodation for a spare wheel.

Broadly similar to the D-Type and introduced at the same was the six-cylinder F-Type Magna that, like i...