DIESEL MGB PROTOTYPE UP FOR GRABS
A one-off 1972 diesel MGB GT recently appeared for sale on Carandclassic.co.uk – thought to have been built by the firm’s experimental workshop.
Featured in the November 2015 issue of MG Enthusiast, current owners Dave and Rupert Besley had decided to move the car on. Powered by a 1.8-litre B Series diesel engine, debate rages as to whether or not the car is a genuine factory prototype. Previous attempts to trace this MGB’s previous history with the DVLA drew a blank – although the MG Car Club (MGCC) has been aware of the car for at least the past 25 years.
Heavy oil B Series 1.8-litre engines appeared in boats and the Sherpa commercial vehicle but never in a British specification passenger car; while commonplace now, diesel coupés were unheard of in the 1970s. It would take Japanese maker Isuzu to break the mould in 1979 with its 117 XD – like the MGB GT prototype, fuel economy came at the cost of performance and cold starting.
Ultimately, sluggish road manners – top speed and acceleration through the gears was said to be well below that of a petrol-engined ‘B – put paid to any chance of any dieselpowered MG leaving Abingdon. Having bought the car on impulse from auction house Brightwells, recent owner Rupert Besley drove it back to his Bristol home: “The noise levels were incredible, but I managed to get it up to around 65mph and it cruised happily in overdrive. Being a diesel there’s also loads of torque on hand, so gearchanges were kept to a minimum. It was only when I got out of the car at the end of the journey that I realised my ears were ringing quite badly.”
The factory connection with this car remains plausible but unproven; pieces of its history came out during the MG
Enthusiast feature, including a chance encounter with a Castle Combe MG day visitor who claimed to be a prototype engineer at Abingdon and said he’d fitted the engine to the car in period.
Verifying its history will be the hardest challenge for a new owner. Given the sketchy development records kept by Abingdon, the fact that an oil crisis was looming and development engineers there often cobbled together cars without the full approval of management, it’s more than plausible that a diesel ‘B– a failed or hidden proposal that never saw the light of day – escaped the prototype works after British Leyland closed MG.