Having finally agreed on a car to purchase for our big giveaway, ahead of the summer’s Festival of the Unexceptional, time was tight to get the Hagerty UK Project MGB MoT’d and ready for the big day . . .
It’s always a bit of a punt buying an old car – especially something built in the 1970s and from a member of the British Leyland family.
Now, before you start emailing, I’ll lay my cards on the table and admit, I have a very distinct BL bias – almost all of the classics I’ve owned have been in some way shape or form related to the ‘Flying Plughole’ as it’s known. In fact, if you opened my garage today you’d find my own MG BGT sat alongside a Mini, but let’s be honest here, in the 1970s BL were beset with a huge number of challenges, from financial issues to industrial relations, so the trials and tribulations of Britain’s biggest carmaker and well known.
To be fair, the MG factory in Abingdon had a much better relationship with management, and our B’s issues are more from age and use than anything from the factory over 40 years ago.
After an assessment, the B was dispatched to a local classic car specialist, who oversaw tackling the list of jobs to prepare it for a fresh MoT – technically the car is MoT exempt so can be driven without the need for a test, but I have always taken comfort in having a tester look over the car and give it the nod from the Ministry!
Firstly, the aged rubber was replaced with four brand-new all-season tyres, thanks to Falken Tyres. Though the tyres it came with looked fine, they were approaching six years old and best replaced. The leaking exhaust was exchanged for a brand-new stainless system from MG Owners’ Club Spares, and the decidedly spongey brakes were brought up to muster. New plugs and leads were fitted, alongside a new distributor, all of which should ensure the car starts on the first turn of the key.
The suspension came in for some attention, too – with one rear shock leaking, some new items were sourced from Andy Jennings, after a tip-off from the MG experts at Frontline Engineering.
A new grille completed the cosmetic work needed to the B, and on the 17th of July, it passed its MoT, having previously been tested all the way back in June 2020. In that four-year gap, the B had covered just 582 miles in all that time. One thing is for certain, the car will be doing a lot more than that over the coming year. We kicked it all off with a trip to Lincolnshire for the 10th anniversary of Festival of the Unexceptional!
There’s still plenty of time to enter to win this classic motor, so get to it . . .
