A roadster is all about fun. Sunny, carefree Sunday’s driving somewhere,
anywhere, just for the sheer pleasure of driving. Cars like the MGB provided that fun, when
you weren’t sitting at the side of the road trying to work out why it wouldn’t start. The MGF was an attempt to recreate that MG
roadster passion with a mid-engined, nimble sports car. So why did the dream end after 10 years in
production when the car was still the number one selling UK roadster? This is the MGF Story. (music) The last in a long line of mass-produced MG roadsters, the MGB and MG Midget, rolled off
the production line at the Abingdon factory in Oxfordshire in 1980. Its death was the result of British Leyland’s
empty coffers, and a driving desire to save its mass-market passenger car division at
all costs, so anything that wasn’t mainstream had to go. British Leyland, always looking to use any
advantage it could to help sell its new breed of 1980s motors, used the MG brand for sports
models of their mainstream cars. Peugeot and VW got the GTI name, so the Austin
Metro became the MG Metro, red seat belts and all. With the octagonal badge on the steering wheel,
BL hoped the motoring public would warm to their warmed-up hatchbacks and saloons. But Austin Rover, as BL were now called, were
still hopeful that success in the mass market could allow them to make a new MG. They teased a possible car at the 1985 Frankfurt
Motor Show as the MG EX-E. Inspired by the Ferrari 308, the car was mid-engined using
the 3.0L V6 6R4 engine from the rally-going Austin Metro. This wasn’t your father’s MGB, and it
was intended to be a technological leap forward, showing that Austin Rover hadn’t forgotten
how to make class-leading cars. The 2-seater had a drag factor of just 0.24,
using a bonded aluminium body with plastic panels, producing a light but fast car. And a futuristic car needs a suitably futuristic
digital dashboard. It featured a heads up display that changed
to show only the most relevant information, which Austin Rover dubbed a “Reflex information
monitor”. But would the EX-E go into production? Austin Rover’s marketing team at the show
hinted it would see the light of day, but it was a forlorn hope. That aluminium frame and plastic body would
be heinously expensive to produce, and with Austin Rover sales cratering with the failure
of the Maestro and Montego, new money wasn’t going to be available for exotic sports cars
any time soon. However, the EX-E’s 6R4 engine would eventually
see the light of day in Jaguar’s XJ220. So, if the EX-E wasn’t going to be the next
MG, what would? While the EX-E was being prepared for its
big Motor Show debut, Austin Rover was designing the next Austin Metro, codenamed AR6. One variant was an open top that Austin Rover
hoped to make the new MG Midget. But the £300M AR6 funding failed to appear,
and this dream died. But work carried on in the background to try
to find a compelling, but cost-effective way of making a new MG roadster. The Austin Rover development team built the
front engined, front wheel drive MF F-16 prototype to give a sense of what a late 1980s MG might
look like. Austin Rover was owned by the Government after
BL went bankrupt in 1975 and the Government bailed them out. But in the 1980s the ruling Conservatives
were privatising publicly held assets left, right and centre, and they were keen to be
shot of a company that was still losing money. They made overtures to Ford, but the opposition
Labour party got wind of the deal and forced the Government to back down. So, the Government wasn’t keen on investing
more money, but anything that made Austin Rover look more attractive to a potential
suitor was alright in their book. So, investing in high profile sporty prototypes
like the F-16 might might be seen as a good strategy. By 1988 they’d found their suitor – British
Aerospace, the defence contractor who’d themselves been privatised beginning in 1981. With this new ownership Rover, the new name
for Austin Rover, were hopeful their new MG open top could be brought to market. But Rover’s new owner proved almost as miserly
as their former owner, and funding was refused. What would make them change their mind was
a modern reimagining of the classic MGB. The Mazda MX-5 was launched in 1989 and immediately
took the world by storm. This was everything drivers had enjoyed from
Triumph’s, Alfa Romeo Spider’s, and yes, even MG’s, but wasn’t plagued by dodgy
electrics or a plethora of mechanical issues that 1960s and 70’s British sports car drivers
just accepted as a matter of course. Companies that had inspired the MX-5 looked
on and wondered what they could do. Rover of course had their F-16 up their sleeve,
but they also investigated another prototype – the DR2. This was would be a more luxurious open top
grand tourer that would be either MG or Austin-Healey branded, and would be firmly aimed at the
US market. The prototype was built on a TVR chassis,
with a TVR interior although that would of course be changed in the final version. However, this wasn’t approved, and Rover
put development of the F-16 into high gear. The job to make the MGF a reality fell to
the newly formed Rover Special Products team. This team worked on vehicles that weren’t
part of Rover’s mainstream line of family hatchbacks and saloons, and as such they could
be laser focused on a car that was purely an open top, rather than a car that was merely
derived from an existing vehicle. The car project was known as “Phoenix Revival”
signifying how MG and indeed Rover would rise from the ashes by finally making their own
cars without help from Honda. Three directions were studied, all from outside
companies. Each was given an F-16 body and design sketches
from Steve Harper, who’d designed the Ford Escort RS Cosworth. This would ensure all the designs would be
roughly in line with the size and style Rover was looking for. The first, PR1, was designed by a company
called “Motor Panels”. It was front engined and front wheel drive
and was based on the Maestro chassis but using a 2.0L M-series engine from the Rover 800. It was clearly a design looking to reuse as
many Rover parts as possible to keep costs down. PR2 was an offering from Reliant and was based
on the Scimitar chassis. The engine was up front, but it was rear wheel
drive, using a 3.9L version of the Rover V8 engine that was used in the Triumph TR8 and
Rover SD1. The last design, PR3 was created by ADC and
was a mid-engine rear wheel drive design, attempting to make a car with ideal weight
distribution and great handling. To pick the best of these three models, the
Rover team drove each of them in turn to evaluate handling, acceleration and ride. Although each of them had their merits, the
first to be discounted was PR1. It was based on the Maestro platform, and
by 1991 it was clear the Maestro wasn’t long for this world so building a car around
parts that soon wouldn’t be available, didn’t really seem to make a lot of sense. It was harder to decide between the 3.9L V8
PR2 and the mid-engined PR3, but in the end the superior handling of the PR3 won out. So, Rover’s future was set – the new MG
would be their first production mid-engined car. Hoping to cash in on the resurgence in open
tops, Rover introduced the MG RV8 in 1992. If you think it looks like an updated MGB,
then you’re not far off! British Motor Heritage had restarted limited
production of the MGB bodyshell. Rover still had a slew of old MGB parts sitting
in a warehouse gathering dust. Could they use them to make new MGBs? The team responsible was given £5M to find
out. The first choice they had to make was the
engine. The old MGB had on occasion used the Rover
3.5L V8, so the new car would use the larger 3.9L version that had been tried in the PR2
prototype. New panels were built to give the car an updated
shape and to make the wider tyres look like they fitted on the old body. The car launched at the International Motor
Show in October 1992. Despite a limited slip diff, reviewers weren’t
impressed. The car was quick, with a spirited 0-60 time
of under 6 seconds, but with ancient leaf springs and drum brakes on the back, handling
made it feel like the old technology that it was. And to pay back that £5M investment, the
car wasn’t cheap. But it proved to be popular in Japan, and
almost 80% of the nearly 2,000 cars produced went there, although over time many of them
have been imported to the Australia or even back again to the UK. Meanwhile, Rover was focusing on MG’s future
by refining the PR3 design. While the mid-engined, rear wheel drive layout
might seem exotic and difficult to engineer for a company used to front engined, front
wheel drive cars, it was actually simpler than making a front engined car, rear wheel
drive. All they had to do was take the Rover Metro
subframe, engine and transmission and move it to the rear of the car. It was an elegant solution, but one with drawbacks
they’d only discover after the MGF had been released. The natural choice to power the MGF was the
current wunderkind engine within Rover, the K-series which they’d used in several cars,
from the Metro to the Rover 400. It was light, compact and powerful – just
what they needed for their new nimble roadster. But it needed more power, so Rover took a
page out of Honda’s book and added variable valve timing, giving more power at high revs
and more torque at low revs. The engine would also be expanded to 1.8L,
giving the car a lively 143hp. The next step was the car’s styling. Again, Rover had three outside firms compete
to produce the best design. The brief was to make a car that was clearly
an MG while showing some of the forward thinking from the EX-E prototype. The design from a company called MGA was chosen,
and it clearly had influences from the recently released Lotus Elan S2. The front of the car wasn’t to Rover’s
liking. It didn’t show the MG’s heritage, so it
was handed off to Rover’s internal styling team who gave it some design cues from the
1975 MGB. The suspension setup was an odd choice. Where manufacturers were running away from
hydropneumatic suspension that had its heyday in the 60s and 70s, Rover rolled out their
old Hydragas system. It had its roots as the Hydrolastic system
used by BMC’s Morris 1100 in 1963. Instead of regular springs and dampers, this
system used a rubber spring with dampening being achieved by passing fluid through rubber
valves. The front and rear units are connected, so
a bump felt by the front wheel pumps fluid to help stabilise the rear of the car. Or at least that’s the theory. On early cars it didn’t give customers much
more than they got on cars with regular suspension. It evolved into the Hydragas system in the
mid-70’s that was first tried out on the Austin Allegro, and famously used by the Austin
Metro. The system worked well and provided smooth
but effective suspension. But in the early 1990s the only car using
Hydragas, the Rover Metro was looking long in the tooth. With the biggest proponents of hydro pneumatic
suspension, Citroën starting to turn their backs on it, why use it? Well the fact was the recently updated 1990
Rover Metro still got high marks for its suspension which showed there was life in the old system
yet! Shorter cars can get unsettled easily with
conventional suspension, and Rover found the Hydragas system worked well on the MGF. It was highly tuneable to ensure it felt good
not only on the twisties but also on the supermarket shopping run. (music) The car was launched in 1995 as the MGF. Why did they use the letter “F”? Well the thinking was the MGA, B and C had
already been in production. The MGD was an abortive replacement in the
late 1960’s, and the MG-E had been the 1984 EX-E prototype. It was the first all-new roadster from Rover
since the Triumph TR7 20 years earlier, and the first all-new MG since the 1962 MGB! It was a hit with journalists, who loved the
stunning looks and good handling. Autocar called it “the most complete and
affordable open two-seater”. The interior parts were mostly taken from
the new Rover 200, like switchgear and the steering wheel, but in the MGF it worked perfectly. Like Toyota’s MR-2 reboot in 1999, it wasn’t
the largest car in the world. You’d have problems fitting into it if you
were over 6’, it had a boot that would have problems getting a suitcase home from the
airport, and the front only had room for a spare tyre and the battery. But let’s face it, it’s a roadster. If you were expecting bags of room then you’re
looking at the wrong car! The public loved the MGF, and it was soon
seen the length and breadth of the UK. To get a bit of publicity for the new car,
Rover took it to the Bonneville salt flats in Utah as the EXF. The 1.4L K-Series engine managed a top speed
of 217mph in 1997. Unlike many Rover cars of this period, this
one didn’t share any components with partner Honda. And that was useful, as by the time the MGF
had launched in 1995, Honda had exited stage left to be replaced by new partner BMW. The new owners would nix any plans Rover had
for exporting the MGF to North America, as they worried the car would threaten sales
of their Z3. They also took a dim view of making the car
more powerful. Prototypes such as the 200hp SuperSports in
1998 and 2000 were shown publicly, but none were put into production. Contrast this to Volkswagen’s takeover of
Škoda, where VW were happy to encourage Škoda sales anywhere in the world as a Škoda sale
was a VW group sale. They even improved cars they inherited such
as the Favorit, with VW components. British Leyland and Austin Rover had been
synonymous with build quality issues, but by the late 1980’s these issues seemed to
be behind it, using Honda bodies and components. The MGF was all Rover, and it was their first
chance to show they’d finally shaken that build quality monkey off their back. But that monkey was still firmly attached. There were body panel gaps that shouldn’t
be there on 1990s cars, but the main problem came with the engine. The K-series was generally a reliable beast,
but only when it had enough airflow. Rover hadn’t done enough testing to realise
their mid-engine layout didn’t work well for this engine, or more specifically the
positioning of the engine’s thermostat. This led to head gasket failure amongst other
problems. The MGB just about got away with dodgy reliability
in the 1960s, but this wouldn’t cut it in the 1990s. The UK JD Power report put the MGF in the
bottom 20 of the 120 cars it surveyed. The car got a mid-cycle spruce up in 1999. The interior was updated, with an alum key
design around the gearstick, speakers and fuel filler that looked suspiciously like
the Audi TT design from a year earlier. The BMW Rover marriage was annulled in 2000,
leaving Rover to go it alone. But they were now finally able to give the
MGF a little more power. This came in 2001 with the Trophy 160, with
160hp and a 6.9s 0-60 time. The car also got an automatic gearbox for
the first time. In 2002 MG Rover as the new company was known,
produced a refresh of the car as the MG TF. The TF badge came from the 1953 T-Type variant,
again trading on MG’s history. Outwardly the car’s styling had been updated,
and power on the entry level engine got a mild boost, but the suspension was the biggest
change. MG Rover had had a change of heart and had
fitted conventional suspension instead of the clever Hydragas setup, maybe because the only other car using it, the Rover Metro had ended production. However, reviewers were happy with the new setup,
and with a stiffer car it handled better than ever. Had conventional suspension improved over
the past 7 years, or was the Hydragas suspension the wrong move in the first place? The company celebrated the milestone of producing
1.5M MGs in 2002 with a special gold version that also commemorated the Queen’s 50th
jubilee. A blue and silver MGB GT had been made for
the Queen’s silver jubilee in 1977. The company tried a hybrid performance version
in 2003 as the MG TF 200 HPD. As the name suggested the car produced almost
200hp. Drag was reduced, and a generator was attached
to the 1.8L engine to charge a battery pack that would drive the front wheels. It was claimed the 0-60 time was reduced from
6.9s to under 6 seconds. This ended up little more than a design exercise
and didn’t go into production. Another special edition appeared in 2004 marking
the 80th anniversary of MG. Rover MG were trying to find more and more
creative ways of shifting their cars to stay in business, like slapping the MG badge on
every car in their range like they had in the 1980s. But the MG TF was a bright spot on MG Rover’s
balance sheet as it was the top selling UK roadster. The independent MG Rover tried to make a go
of it, but they weren’t selling enough of their aging cars and couldn’t do a deal
with another car company to stay afloat. The receivers arrived in 2005 and MG TF production
ended. MG Rover’s assets were purchased by Nanjing
Automobile in China who restarted production of MG TF components in China in 2007. Before we get to what happened to the MGF
in China, here’s a quick review from TopCars TV on how the MGF compares to other cut price
mid-engined roadsters. And don’t forget to subscribe to the channel
if you like it. The MGF was the first mid-engined car from
MG, but the idea of an affordable car with an engine that vibrates the back of your seat
isn’t anything new! There were loads of little blue-collar Ferraris
dating way back to the Porsche 914, that was half Porsche, half Volkswagen and all soulless
thanks to its dry design. More interesting is the Fiat X1/9 from around
the same time that was a passionate little lady killer who owed its good looks to Bertone,
the same guy who actually styled the Countach. But as with any Italian car it was breaking
down, constantly! Maybe the smarter choice then is the Toyota
MR2. Simple, honest and bullet-proof! And if we’re talking about the second generation car,
insanely fast too. On a drag strip it would beat the NSX, Supra
and even the Ferrari 348! But the closely rival to the MGF has to be
the car that brought it to life, Mazda’s MX-5. The best-selling sports car of all time which
also happens to be mid-engined. It may have the engine up front, but as long
as it’s inbetween the axles it counts. Then there’s a four-seater mid-engine, another
with 500hp, and other mid-engined cars made for the masses. Links in the description! Nanjing Automobile had hopes they could sell
existing MG Rover cars in the UK, China and around the world. Knock-down kits arrived from China to MG Rover’s
old Longbridge factory in Birmingham for final assembly, a reversal of the British motor
industries hey day when they would ship knock-down kits around the world. The first roadster would be the MG TF LE500,
as the name suggested a limited edition run of just 500, but the car was little changed
from the 2005 car. They also had plans to sell the car in the
USA in a new coupé guise that had been designed in the dying days of MG Rover, as an homage
to the MGB GT. Work began on a factory in Ardmore, Oklahoma
in 2007 and production would begin by 2008. However, the American backers could never
agree on the details and the deal fell through. Not even a desperate 85th anniversary model
in 2009 could boost sales. I mean who celebrates an 85th anniversary? With the 2009 global recession production
was suspended at Longbridge once again. The car could never compete with newer, cheaper
and quite frankly better cars like the MX-5, and it could no longer get a sales boost by
claiming to be an entirely British sports car. Production ended for good in 2011 after almost
120,000 MGF and MG TF sales with the official replacement being the 5-door MG6 fastback
that wasn’t fooling anyone it was in any way a suitable replacement. Austin Rover started the MGF project as a
way to continue the tradition of the MG roadster. The MG name today is synonymous with cheap
Chinese econoboxes. But Nanjing Automobile is growing and maybe
one day will return with something truly worthy of the MG name. The MGF was, and still is a fun roadster that
puts a smile on your face. And at the end of the day, isn’t that all
you want from a roadster? A big thank you to all my Patrons for supporting
me as always! To get early advert free access to new videos,
or to appear in the credits, please consider supporting me using the Patreon link below
from just $1 or 80p a month and hit that subscribe button to get notified of new videos. Thanks for watching and see you in the next
video!
