Birthday bumpers
This week, something a bit different. We’re going to celebrate a birthday, the 60th birthday of a car that we all know very well: the MG MGB. We’re actually a day early because the car was announced on September 19, 1962, as a replacement for the MGA.
Compared to that earlier MG, the MGB was modern – it had a unitary or monocoque body rather than a separate ladder chassis on to which a body was bolted.
Initially the MGB was only available as a roadster, but two years later a coupe was launched and badged as the MGB GT. This was a remarkably practical vehicle featuring a rear bench seat and a tailgate so it was almost like a mini estate car.
I have always preferred the GT to the roadster, not just because it is more practical, but because it looks so good. The design wasn’t done within MG’S Abingdon home but by Italian masters of the art of car design, Pininfarina.
My Auntie Mavis had a mustardcoloured GT in the early 1970s and I remember her picking me up from school in it. Compared to the Escorts and Morris Minors collecting other kids, it was super cool. It also helped that Auntie drove extremely quickly, always and everywhere.
The car felt fast for the day but in reality it wasn’t that quick because its clunky 1,800cc engine was heavy and had its origins in an engine designed
in 1947. MG had a go at putting a 3.0-litre straight-six into the car in 1967 (and called the result the MGC) but that engine was even heavier and spoiled the car’s handling. Our new king’s first car was an MGC GT and Charles subsequently passed it on to his oldest son.
MG had a much better idea in 1973 when it put the 3.5-litre V8 from the Range Rover into the MGB GT. Although it had twice the number of cylinders as the regular engine, the alloy V8 was 20kg lighter.
One of my neighbours bought a brand new MGB GT V8 and I coveted it badly, mainly because of the noise it made. MG only came up with right-hand drive V8s and only GTS, but an enterprising engineer called Ken Costello developed and sold a V8 roadster off his own bat.
Our neighbour’s V8 was a rubber bumper version. In the latter part of 1974, MG had redesigned the MGB to meet American crash regulations.
Not only were the unsightly rubber bumpers fitted, but because the headlamps were too low and British Leyland didn’t want to redesign the car’s front end, it raised the suspension an inch, which didn’t help the car’s handling.
The journalists who drove those cars, which were built up until 1980 when production of the MGB ended, were very critical of the car. I worked with many of them when I started at a car magazine in the late 1980s and their poor opinion of the MGB influenced me.
It shouldn’t have done because up until then I’d loved the car all my life.
Not only is the MGB a great-looking car, and superb to drive in V8 GT form, it’s the simplest of all classic cars to own if you live in the UK and pretty straightforward wherever you live in the world.
Almost all parts are available new, even body shells, and are not expensive. Best of all, MGBS, both roadster and coupe, are still very affordable. The V8 models have increased in value over the past few years but even so, fine examples come up for not much over £20,000.
You’ll pick up a useable roadster for well under £10,000.
The year 1962 was a very special year for British cars because not only were the MG MGB and Triumph Spitfire launched, but also the Lotus Elan and legendary AC Cobra.
It is also the year that your esteemed motoring correspondent was born. A truly vintage year for British motoring!