Lot 351: 1975 MGB Roadster

Conceived in the late 1950s and launched in 1962, the MGB would turn out to be one of the most successful sports cars of all time. Attractively styled, cheap to run and easily maintained by the home mechanic, the ‘B’ carried on MG’s traditional role of providing affordable, open-top, sports car motoring for the ordinary enthusiast.
Although mechanically similar to the preceding MGA, the MGB benefited from a stiffer (and heavier) unitary-construction bodyshell. To compensate for the increased weight, the existing B-Series engine was stretched to 1,798cc, the ‘B’s aerodynamically efficient lines making the most of the 95bhp available to achieve a top speed which just bested the magic ‘ton’. A ‘right first time’ design that changed little over the years apart from the adoption of a more robust five-main-bearing engine in 1965 (fitted from the start of GT coupé production that autumn) a minor facelift for 1970 and the adoption of plastic bumpers (to comply with US legislation) for 1975, the ‘B’ enjoyed an eighteen-year production life and sales totalling in excess of 500,000 cars. Its popularity remaining undiminished today, the classic MGB is one of the easiest sports cars of its era to run and maintain in the 21st Century, being served by a worldwide industry of spare parts and service providers.
As well as being a desirable chromed bumper model – one of the last of that type made – this car also boasts the optional wire wheels and overdrive transmission, and thus is to what many would consider the ultimate specification. Currently forming part of a small private collection of MGs, this well presented car has been preserved, unused, in dry storage in recent years and will, therefor, require re-commissioning before returning to the road. Finished in white with black interior, it is offered with Swansea V5 registration document and numerous invoice dating from the late 1980s. No reserve.