MG decided to exhibit its technical prowess; it developed a 1.5-litre engine from an MGA that produced only 69hp. By the time they had finished their wizardry, the machine had made 300hp and whilst by modern-day standards, that may not be very impressive, in 1959, it was outstanding.
Now for the awe-inspiring bit, in 1959, the MG EX181 exceeded 250 mph, the Bugatti Veyron relied upon its 16 cylinders, 8-litre engine to achieve a similar result.
Additionally, its aerodynamic shape produced a drag coefficient of just 0.12, compared with the ultra styled Mercedes-Benz EQS, which has a drag coefficient of 0.20.
And even more impressive, the little MG achieves 0.84 mph for every hp produced by the engine, whilst the mighty Bugatti Veyron only makes 0.23 mph for every hp.
On the 23rd of August 1957, Stirling Moss took it up to a top speed of 245.64mph, taking the land-speed record quickly over the previous record holder who held it at 203mph.
MG wasn’t quite finished with the EX 181 and took the car back to Bonneville in 1959 with racing driver Phil Hill; the engine had been tuned slightly higher and now produced 300hp. American, Phil Hill took the car to a top speed of 254.91 mph.
Originally built with a Tail Fin, during speed trials at Bonneville, the engineers removed the entire tail fin and miraculously, the car remained stable and ran significantly faster without the fin.
To this day, this is still the fastest MG ever.