Texas MG owners celebrating centennial in Mineola

The Texas MG Register (TMGR) will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the MG Car Company at their fall gathering in Mineola Oct. 5-8. The feature car show will be Oct. 7 on Commerce St. downtown from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. 

Event organizers expect 100-plus club members and 60 vintage MGs from 1930 through 1980.

Events include a bourbon, cigars, art and wine crawl through downtown Mineola Thursday night, vintage airplane rides at Wisener Field, a drive and tour of the Mid-America Flight Museum and a live concert with Swoape and Meredith Crawford Friday. 

The Saturday car show will start with a caravan from the Best Western to Commerce St. to the Beckham Hotel at 9:30. The Saturday night awards banquet will be in the Beckham Ballroom with food provided by Logan’s Place.  

Event co-organizer Vic Savelli, who owns a 1939 MGTB, hosted a gathering in Mineola in 2014.

“I received a call from the club asking if I would consider hosting the 100-year anniversary event again in Mineola,” he said. “The membership enjoyed the last event in Mineola and Wood County so much that they wanted it back by popular demand for this iconic 100-year celebration. With Mineola celebrating its 150-year anniversary it seemed like a good match for the club event. The membership was impressed with the hospitality the local businesses showed them, and the rolling hills of East Texas were reminiscent of the roadways found in the English countryside.”  

Texas has one of the largest MG clubs in America with some of the rarest of the MGs that will be in Mineola.

British automobile pioneer Cecil Kimber and his MG Motorcar Company Ltd. could hardly have imagined the impact their first sports car would have on the automotive world. More than 40 years since the last MG rolled from the storied factory at Abingdon-on-Thames, that passion shows no sign of letting up.

This passion is kept alive by the more than 350 enthusiastic members of TMGR, custodians of almost 400 classic British automobiles, ranging from a 1930 M-Type fabric-covered roadster to some of the last MGBs produced. Members are devoted to maintaining and enjoying one of the world’s favorite cars.

Most automotive historians agree that America’s affection with open, two-seat sports cars began with the MGTC model of the 1940s, a distinction acknowledged in later company advertising with the slogan “The sports car America loved first.”

Look for a convoy of MGs traveling Wood County roads Oct. 5-8.