Kimber Festival 2023

Abingdon Spares attended the MG T Register's Kimber Festival in Philadelphia, April 28th and 29th. The Kimber Festival is held to honor the birthday of Cecil Kimber, considered the founder of the MG sports cars. It is sponsored by the New England MGT Register. The event was held at the famous Simeone Museum, which houses some of the finest and rarest racing sports cars in the world. Most of the cars there are very significant cars in their racing history or their place in the history of sports car racing in the US and internationally. You can learn more about the Simeone Museum at www.simeonemuseum.org. 

The Kimber Festival is structured as a conference, where there are several presentations over the course of one day, all on different MG related topics. Presentations this year included topics ranging from MG component date stampings, a history of the pre-war MGs, and a presentation on the rare MG Arnolt cars. Other topics included the history of one of the presenters own pre-war MG and its history with the ARCA races in the states. I did a presentation on the MGA and MGB cars, the model's history and some of their racing exploits. The featured  presentation at Saturday evening's dinner was on the early history of the MG and a consideration of MG's actual beginnings as an MG, not a Morris.

Of course there is also the social aspect of the event. It is a good time to meet old friends and make new ones, in a relaxed MG atmosphere. There is also a flea market on Friday afternoon with lots of interesting MG parts, books and factory literature. It is a very interesting event and I would recommend it to anyone with a serious interest in MGs. Here are some photos of the MGs and other cars at the event and in the museum.