CarBrandLogos archive · MG · 1962

MGMG MGB

Half a million reasons the affordable British roadster became a world habit.

Photo: DeFacto · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in MG history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the MG MGB, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Replacing the MGA meant abandoning the separate chassis, and Don Hayter's team went all the way. The MGB of 1962 was a monocoque, which made it stiffer, roomier and safer than anything MG had built while being shorter overall than the car it replaced. The B-series 1798cc four was unstressed and durable rather than exciting, and that turned out to be the point.

1974 MGB roadster gunmetal · Mr.choppers · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

For a decade it was close to the ideal cheap sports car. The roadster was joined in 1965 by the MGB GT, a Pininfarina-influenced fastback that added a hatchback and real weather protection, and in 1967 by the MGC, whose heavy straight-six dulled the steering and never sold. A V8 version using the aluminium Rover engine arrived in 1973, in GT form only, and was quietly very good.

1967 MG MGB GT rear · TTTNIS · CC0

In production

The long ending is the part enthusiasts argue about. American regulations pushed the MGB into rubber bumpers and a raised ride height in 1974, emissions equipment strangled the engine, and British Leyland invested nothing while the car soldiered on to 1980. By then it had run eighteen years, around half a million had been built, and most had been exported. Abingdon closed with it.

1968 MG C Roadster · Niels de Wit from Lunteren, The Netherlands · CC BY 2.0

Legacy

Then it came back twice. Body shells returned to production in the late 1980s for restorers, an unusually complete piece of support for an obsolete car, and in 1992 Rover built the RV8, a reworked MGB shell with a 3.9-litre V8, largely for the Japanese market. Neither was a serious commercial exercise, but both showed how much affection the shape still carried.

Chapter 5

The MGB remains the default British sports car: plentiful, cheap to run, endlessly supported by parts suppliers, and forgiving enough that people who have never restored anything start with one.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1962–1980

Designer

Don Hayter

Technical specification

The MG MGB, in detail.

Production: 1962–1980 (original); 1992–1995 (MG RV8)
Class: Sports car
Layout: FR layout
Designer: Don Hayter
Assembly: United Kingdom: Abingdon, Oxfordshire; Abingdon, England; Australia: Enfield, New South Wales; Enfield; Australia: Zetland, New South Wales; Zetland; United Kingdom: Cowley, Oxford, England (Plant Oxford; Cowley plant: M
Manufacturer: British Motor Corporation (1963–1968); British Leyland (1968–1980); Rover Group (1992–1995)