When the MGA had been announced in 1955, it had set new standards for MG in terms of performance and styling, but by the beginning of the 1960's it had become out-dated and sales were falling.

By this time sports car design had moved up a gear, particularly in terms of refinement. The prospective sports car buyer was now demanding more sophistication than the MGA was able to deliver and a replacement car was now required and would need to offer better performance and a greater degree of comfort.

Monocoque construction was now the name of the game in car manufacture, whereby a cleverly designed body shell, constructed from a number of metal panels clothing a series of welded steel box sections with a reinforced floor pan, provided mountings for all the mechanical components, absorbed all the loads from the suspension and gave the car its rigidity. The advantage of this type of construction was that it produced a much lighter car, which had obvious performance benefits - especially for a sports car.

The MGB was made in this way, which was big departure from the design of the MGA that it replaced. At the front the inner wing panels, front panel, and engine compartment bulkhead formed one box; the scuttle bulkhead, and front floor formed another, while the rear inner wings, boot floor, and rear panels formed another. Box section strengthening pieces were added to the floor for stiffening and to provide mountings for the rear suspension, while additional box sections ran along the bottoms of the front inner wings for the engine and suspension mountings.

The front suspension and steering were much like that of the MGA, but with minor differences. At the rear there were the familiar semi-elliptic springs controlled by lever-arm dampers. The engine and transmission were also MGA sourced, again with some minor changes.

For this car the four-cylinder B-series engine had been increased in its capacity from 1622cc to 1789cc, which resulted in a power output of 94bhp. A diaphragm clutch was used between the engine and transmission and as standard the car was supplied with bolt-on steel wheels, these being of a slightly smaller diameter than before. This was a two-seat open roadster with squared-off styling with a curved windscreen, a removable hard-top and doors that had wind-up windows with hinged quarter lights.

In the cockpit the driver and passenger had separate seats, full instrumentation and a tonneau cover to put over the space behind the seats when the hood was down. The MGB was a bit shorter than the MGA, but the cockpit was roomier, which allowed it to be equipped with larger and more comfortable seats.

In 1963, the following year, the options offered for the MGB were an overdrive for the transmission, centre-lock wire wheels and a folding soft-top that could be stowed behind the seats. In 1964 a much stronger bottom-end for the engine was devised, as in the BMC Austin/Morris/Wolseley/Riley 1800 saloons, making the unit even more robust than it already was.

1965 saw the introduction of the coupe version of the MGB - the MGB GT, a car that had an attractive and functional closed version of the standard body. In appearance the front end, front and rear wings, and doors were essentially the same as the roadster, but the windscreen was slightly higher to allow for a higher roofline. The roof ran back in a gentle curve over the doors and rear side windows before sloping down into the rear panel. In the place of the boot lid of the roadsters the GT a much larger hinged tailgate that provided access to the load space inside, making it one of the earliest examples the now popular hatchback.

Inside there was a small rear seat, but this was not much use for anything except for carrying young children. However, the seat could be folded flat to provide a larger load platform for luggage, making the GT a really useful two-seat touring car. Although the coupe bodywork made the MGB much heavier, its shape actually helped the performance of the car by improving the aerodynamics. This gave the GT a slightly higher top speed than the roadster, and also an improvement in handling since the addition of the roof put more weight over rear end and increased the rigidity of the body. However, the extra weight also had a detrimental effect on the cars acceleration. The MGB GT was not only a good-looking car, but offered saloon car comfort levels with sports car performance. As a result, the GT became very popular with those who wanted something a little more civilised MG than a roadster.

In 1967 the MGB MkII was introduced. Still in open-top and GT forms the most significant difference was that the new model had a new transmission that had synchromesh on all four gears, together with a better set of ratios. This necessitated the widening of the transmission tunnel, which also allowed MG to offer the option of automatic transmission, introduced with the idea that new customers would be attracted to the idea and therefore buy the car.

Also in that year a new MG sports model was introduced to add to the current range. Based upon, and sharing the same body and appearance as the existing MGB, except for a wide bulge across the bonnet, this car was intended as a replacement for the Austin-Healey 3000, a car that was considered by now to have had its day. By shoe-horning the 3-litre six-cylinder cast-iron lump into the car MG had produced an apparently awesome MG sports model that promised much in the way of performance and had a power output of the like not previously known from anything wearing an MG badge. Despite the obvious power to weight ratio advantage the engine was very heavy and as a result the car was not well balanced. Whilst it could perform well in a straight line it was found to be somewhat unwieldy for negotiating bends, a point so brutally raised by an unsympathetic press following its launch. For more information on the MGC, click here or use the link at the end of this article.

Like its market rivals in the late 1960's MG cars were beginning to be affected by exhaust emission and safety legislation, which required frequent modifications to the specification of the car. This was particularly the case with those models destined for export, especially those going to the USA. Detail modifications continued until 1970 when the most obvious change to be made to the car was the introduction of a matt black recessed grille, which unlike the original grille, had no obvious link to the MG grille of old. Other changes included modified rear lights, Rostyle sculpted steel wheels, and revised interior fittings. There was also a change to SU HIF carburettors in an effort to improve the exhaust emissions performance.

In 1973, another big-engined MGB appeared, but unlike the MGC, this one, the MGB V8, was to be extremely well received to the extent that demand quickly outstripped supply. It didn’t have a different model name this time either, which didn’t seem to bother anyone. The car made use of the 3532cc alloy Rover V8 engine as fitted in the Land Rover Range Rover and the larger engined Rover saloons. Developed from an early Buick design, the unit was very light in weight and actually weighed less than the original B-series MGB engine. In standard tune it offered a healthy 137bhp and fitted snugly into the MGB engine bay after only slight a modification being made to the bulkhead. With the development of a low-rise exhaust manifold the MGB V8 could still use the standard MGB bonnet. Furthermore, unlike in the MGC, the engine could be fitted without the removal of the front suspension cross member and so the original coil-spring suspension could be retained. The standard MGB suspension was employed at the rear too, but the ride height was increased by an inch all round. The transmission was all MGC, from the gearbox right through to the rear axle, although the ratios were slightly modified.

The combination of the Rover V8 engine and the MGB body produced an excellent touring car with high performance, good economy, and with reasonable handling properties. The press received it well and it found a ready market, although it was never actually exported to the USA.

In 1976, however, the car was killed off, supposedly because of the limited supply of engines, which were being built under licence and were now required for the forthcoming Rover SD1 saloon. Another contributory factor to its demise was the fuel crisis, which led people to buy smaller engined and more economical cars. It seems strange that the production of this car was ended at what appears to have been a rather premature time. It was in far greater demand than the V8 Triumph Stag, and that car continued to be built in strong numbers. However, the Stag was also to disappear after a relatively short production run, the reason for that being mainly due to the poor quality of the product on account of its reputation for continually breaking down, which meant that very soon not many people wanted to buy it. Certainly it took the Americans just two short years to discover that they didn’t want it any more. So, the car that was a production success was forsaken for one that was a production flop.

It wasn’t British Leyland that were the first to drop the Rover V8 into an MGB. Former Mini racer, turned car tuner, Ken Costello set the scene when he up-rated an MGB by swapping its heavy cast-iron straight four 'B-Series' engine for the ex-Buick motor. It had not taken the engineers at Abingdon long to get wind of Costello's exploits, and indeed Lord Stokes, the then head man at British Leyland, invited Costello to demonstrate one of his MG V8 conversions to his team. Within a very short space of time, and in August 1971, MG was given instructions to build its own V8 prototype, and the finished car was launched two-years later.

Prior to this time, Costello had been making a healthy living at selling customised MGB’s with the 3.5 litre V8 installed. After all, he didn’t have all the bureaucracy of type approval procedures to go through that the manufacturer had to contend with as his cars were post market vehicles. However, when MG launched its own MGB GT, V8 Costello found that what had been a steady and easy supply of parts essential to his V8 conversion began to dry up and he began to realise this squeeze that was upon him threatened to put him out of business. Undaunted, Costello found a more ready and cheaper supply of Buick V8’s in Belgium from where he imported lorry-loads of them - all second hand. Having got them to the UK he set about rebuilding each one using parts from British Leyland Rover.

In 1974 something totally disastrous happened to the MGB and the MG Midget. They were fitted with large ugly black rubber bumpers. The new fitting was necessary to comply with new regulations that demanded cars be made to withstand a 5mph collision without sustaining any damage. Not only was the appearance of the cars spoiled by the new bumpers, but the ride height of both was increased, which did nothing to preserve their low centre of gravity. The front bumper was shaped to merge into the grille, which at least had a token resemblance to the earlier and familiar shape. As with the Midget, the weight of the bumpers and increased ride height spoiled their handling characteristics, increasing body-roll and making them prone to over steer. In 1976 an attempt was made to rectify this by fitting stabilisers to the front and rear suspension. This actually was quite successful and considerably improved the handling of the cars, but they were still ugly.

The MGB continued in this form, with further detail changes to the specification periodically being made, until production finally came to an end in 1980. With no replacement model waiting in the wings this looked like the bitter end for the famous and historic sports car manufacturer. The parent company, British Leyland, seemed reluctant to invest any more money into the cars, preferring instead to finance the Triumph name. British Leyland claimed they were losing money on every MGB built, but that seems hard to believe since there were few substantial changes to the cars specification over the years, meaning that development costs would have been recouped long before the end.

Not only was this the end for the MGB and Midget, but it was also the end of the Abingdon plant. When closure of the plant was announced there was such a public outrage, not only within Britain, but all around the world. It seemed that British Leyland had not realised the strength of the emotions of MG enthusiasts and indeed just how many enthusiasts there were. This, they realised, made the MG name a valuable commodity.

The factory, and MG, were given a brief stay of execution with the production of the MG RV8, a car that was a retro-styled two-seater sports model with the general appearance of the MGB roadster, still powered by the Rover V8. However, the production run was short and the life of this car too soon came to an end.

Today the MG badge is owned by The Rover Group and appears on sport versions of Rover saloons as well as the popular MGF two-seater model. Tastes and ideas may have changed in the modern world of car production, and indeed with the buying public, but no MG of today or of tomorrow will ever earn the loyal and avid following as that enjoyed by those older and more authentic cars.