In the years immediately before the Second World War, MG had sought to supplement its popular range of ‘Midget’ sports cars with three saloons of various sizes and engine capacities.

This new One and a Quarter Litre car perpetuates the outstanding characteristics of its successful predecessors – virile acceleration, remarkable ‘road manner,’ instant response to controls, and superb braking.

Gerald Palmer was responsible for body styling and, in essence he took a Morris Eight Series E four-door bodyshell in pressed steel, added a swept tail and rear wings, and also a front-end MG identity in the shape of their well-known upright grille.

The car featured an independent front suspension layout designed by Gerald Palmer and Jack Daniels (an MG draughtsman).

The jacks were connected to a Jackall Pump on the bulkhead that enabled the front, the back, or the entire car to be raised to facilitate a wheel change.

Door windows, front and rear screens were framed in burr walnut, the instrument panel set in bookmatched veneer offsetting the passenger side glove box.

[3] The rival Autocar Magazine recorded similar results in a 1949 report, at which time it was already possible to see as outdated a car which "virtually alone ... [was] still offering the form of external appearance to which many keener motorists still cling, in spite of the wider acceptance of shapes that have come to be called modern".

However, the car's "fairly high" 7.2:1 compression ratio was problematic in view of the 72 octane "Pool petrol" which UK fuel buyers were still obliged to use.

[4] In 1948 several (currently believed to be 9) "YA" Types (consisting of chassis, engines and some body parts) were imported into Switzerland and given cabriolet bodywork by various coachbuilders, such as Reinbolt & Christé.

As a result a "TC" specification of the XPAG engine was married to a pressed-steel open body with fully folding hood and coach-built doors.

Only 904 of these cars were produced when production ceased in 1950—it was not the success that MG had hoped for, and indeed other British manufacturers were also having problems selling open-tourer versions of their saloons.

The "YB" had a completely new Lockheed twin leading shoe braking system, 15 inch wheels and a much more modern hypoid type of back axle.