MG Magnette ZB at the Josefuv Dul Car Show, Liberecky kraj, Bohemia(CZ), 2015

It's a common misconception that MG Cars (trading under various specific names over the years) only build sports cars. In reality, MG have also been building hatchbacks since the 1982, and sedans ("saloons" in the UK) since 1927.

This MG is a Magnette ZB, which was the saloon manufactured by MG from 1956 to 1958, replacing the earlier, but similar, Magnette ZA. The ZB used an Austin-made BMC B-Series 1.5L I-4 with dual carburetors that produced only 64 horsepower. This meant that the ZB ultimately wasn't very fast, but not being a sports car, the pressure for higher performance was arguably off, and indeed many 1950's-era British cars, including sports cars, were very slow.

One innovative feature for the 1957 model year was the option of one of the world's first semi-automatic transmissions. This is more significant in hindsight, as semi-automatics are now the standard of the automotive world (at least for internal-combustion-engined cars), even if they took decades to catch on.