1968 MGB Roadster: the perfect classic?

[Music] the first question I asked myself and I need I want to take a drive it's quite simple can I take the MGB and the answer is often yes unless I need to carry a ton of stuff where it's actually just tipping it down why well oMG bees are hoot to drive and you feel connected to the road in the way that a modern car ever does hello I'm manic tabash and I own this 1968 British racing green MGB roadster I bought it back in 2012 as an adjunct to my main car at the time which is a Porsche 911 certainly I've sold it now but but all too often that wasn't the car I chose to drive a lot of the problem was down to geography a 911 loves to stretch its legs on traffic free fast a roads or twisty back roads but where do you find those in clogged-up England in the south where I lived the opportunities to really enjoy all that power of superb handling appear only in small bursts if at all so the car all too often sat in the garage unless it was headed for somewhere lovely like Scotland or France the MGB on the other hand for all its ubiquity is a hoot to drive you can drive it as fast as it wants to go and still not break the speed limit officer so what made me actually buy one I enjoyed working on my mini back in the 70s but new cars have become so complex they're difficult if not impossible to work on so I wanted a car that was simple that wouldn't break the bank and for which space will be plentiful anything for an easy life and an MGB ticks all those boxes so let me tell you something about the car itself I looked at quite a few before buying but to me it looks best in brg British racing green though I'll admit it looks pretty good in red yellow orange white and quite a few other colors too I had a hankering for one ever since I first saw one in the 1960s and before British Leyland went and ruined it by bolting hideous black rubber bumpers on the front of it I wanted one that was fairly early then before it became too complex and before British Leyland had added its branding so when I finally bought one after months of looking I thought I had a good how wrong I was but more about that in a minute let me take you over the car first this one's over 50 years old now but everything works my first priority was to sort up the electrics which contrary to what some people think are pretty simple especially on the early cars so I fix the things that didn't work like the windscreen wipers which brief uses every time you turn them on and I made subtle upgrades such as adding relays to circuits like the headlamps and the heater both of which now work much better than they did before and this avoids passing heavy currents through ancient switches the cars got a more modern fuse box now to surf refused were to blow I can get a replacement anywhere what else well the cooling systems have been flushed through and is now more efficient complete with an electric fan the heater works it's got new dampers springs brakes shiny new wire wheels and tires a new central console which I designed and built so I could add more gauges and switches because who doesn't need more of those [Music] I haven't touched the engine yet because I have no idea what's in there the car didn't come with much documentation or history but it's been 100% reliable so far maybe I'll get around to upgrading that pretty soon but a couple of years after I bought it and now we get to the expensive bit I ended up spending far more than the car was worth repairing corrosion you know the kind of rust that you don't find even after crawling around under the car with a screwdriver before you buy it which is what I did but then rust emerges like a snake from its hole and you realize what's been hiding under that shiny exterior rust lots rust I still remember clearly in the moment when the MOT tests have ducked out from under the car and pointed out a rusty hole near the rear suspension it's a fail he said pointing up the hole my heart sank as I pondered the cost of fixing it it was so corroded that I employed the services of Peter Flynn an MGB restoration expert to weld it all back together again floor sills wings all new metal now and Peter did all that hard work including a perfect paint job while I restored the interior and bolted the exterior bits on like the bumpers [Music] a first I wondered if it was all worth it and the sensible half music of course not but after a lot of agonizing I press the Go button and now it's done I don't regret it for an instant so while restoring the car wasn't what you'd call a sensible decision there's not much of it now that I haven't worked on one way or another [Music] but it's never quite finished many a happy afternoon has been spent in the workshop spanners in hand tinkering and tweaking getting things just right it's in a permanent state of rolling maintenance and hours can pass happily as I check valve clearances and fluid levels change the oil grease the suspension you name it but the car is no garage Queen it goes down to the south of France most years and weather booting along French country roads or blasting down the a roads it's yet to plot its copybook by breaking down and the driving experience with the roof off is huge fun the wind in your hair the car keeps you alert since it feels connected directly to the road underneath you and you know what's going on under the wheels you can hear feel smell and see what's going on and the car turns heads as we rumble through those French villages [Music] so the MGB is not just a car it's a hobby so I'm always thinking of things to do I've not had much other than regular maintenance to do over the last couple of years so I'm now considering upgrade for example the rear suspension is pretty ancient and it bumps and skips over bumps in corners and it could probably have a bit more power so those the areas that I'm looking at [Music] so in summary why do I love my MGB well it's great to work on it's gorgeous to drive and I know it intimately I know how it feels I know how it smells even and what's more it's got bags of character what's not to like [Music]

Channel: Classic Car TV

Views: 95,444

Rating: 4.9259257 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: XklaMiZ9Yz4

Length: 8min 1sec (481 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 22 2019