British Invasion

[JustPassinThru_imp]

A shame how the British motorcar industry slid down...not unlike our own, twenty years later.

Did you know...the first postwar Nissan/Datsun car was powered by an engine licensed from an Austin design? That's right...the Japanese auto industry was so primitive and decimated they couldn't afford to engineer an engine that would meet Nissan's automotive needs. Even then the Japanese were dreaming of export markets; but that was many years off.

That humble beginning, the Austin engine made under license, was the seed for all manner of basic four-cylinder Nissan engines right up until the 1970s.

Meantime...I was a young guy with a fresh driver's license as MG was doing its disappearing act. The MGB was gone by this time but the Midget still hanged around until 1979. By then only traditionalists and romantics would even consider one.

It wasn't long after, with MG gone and British Leyland, the parent company, in dire straits...that the first Miata came out, IIRC.