Our Classics
In a rare departure from big saloons, Richy buys himself a plucky British sports car – and for an absurdly low price to boot. Breakdown recovery crews across most of Wales prepare for action
OWNED SINCE MAY 2019 FIRST REPORT TOTAL MILEAGE 83,331 LATEST COSTS £200 (purchase price)
1998 mgf 1.8i
OMG – that’s exactly the expression I’d be running in a headline if I was working on a national daily. That, or something along the lines of ‘Barnett in sports car buying shocker’.
People who know my taste in cars will know that I don’t really have much time for sports cars, and British sports cars in particular. I’ve been around the classic movement a long time and, to be honest, there are certain British sports cars that seem to have been part of the scene since it really started gaining ground in the 1970s. Give me a saloon any day.
Well that remains the case, but every now and then a car comes along that shakes me up a bit and almost invites me to give it a go – throw saloon car caution to the wind,
go over to the dark side and, at last, try something different.
My very best buys have cropped up when I haven’t been actively looking for a car, and that was definitely the case with this MGF, which was being sold by a friend of the missus. Readers won’t be surprised to learn that I’ve never – NEVER – considered buying a post-war MG, but it’s clear that the MGF, especially in early guise, can make a great-value buy.
The early examples – to my mind at least – look way better than the later facelifted models, which lost the clean-lined purity of the first incarnations. But when you start looking, most of the early cars are often tatty, poorlymaintained and just a short drive away from the nearest scrapyard.
This, however, was quite different. The missus had noticed that her friend had just advertised her Nightfire Red MGF on a local Facebook page, so she picked up the phone to find out why she was selling it.
The simple answer was that it had to go because it was taking up space on the driveway and the replacement motor was having to be parked on the road. The downside was that the alternator wasn’t working and the MoT test had just four weeks to run.
Suppressing my saloon car bias, I had to go and have a look, especially when I discovered that it was just five miles away. It looked pretty good in the photographs, but we all know how that can sometimes work out…
We popped over a couple of days later and, to put it mildly, I was impressed. I put the failed alternator and short test to the back of my mind and gave it a good poke around inside, underneath and in the engine bay, but found nothing of concern.
Clearly this four-owner car had been looked after – the vendor had owned it for nine years. A new hood had been fitted two years ago and some paintwork carried out a little before then. The cylinder head gasket was replaced some time before that.
A deal was done at £200. Yes, you read that right – two hundred quid.
There’s no denying just how good the bodywork and the paint are. The panel gaps are first class, the doors don’t drop on their hinges and the boot – the one up front, that is – sports an unused spare wheel. It’s good inside, too – the seats have aged well and the bolsters haven’t worn through. The plastic trim’s great, and the windows work properly, as does the heater.
The short drive home didn’t reveal too much, but the engine’s willing and doesn’t get hot, the clutch is light, the gearchange snappy and the steering sharp and quick.
Next stop is Oklahoma Motors in Carmarthen, where it will get a full service, new alternator and, hopefully, a new MoT. I’m optimistic that it’ll vault the test with no problems, so with summer well and truly upon us it’s time to see what this sports car malarkey is all about.