Bought another MGB GT Factory V8 :)

JC. · Post by **JC.** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 1:19 am

I sold my last factory V8 back in March to start a business.
Well, 12 months on I've managed to earn enough cash to get another so here she is and I feel like Im able to post again:
I set out to buy a rubber bumper v8 without a sunroof and I ended up with a chrome bumper car with a webasto... AGAIN!
I just don't seem to be able to say no to these things. They say don't buy the first one you see - i've done it twice now. LOL!

It's a '73 MGB GT V8 in Blaze Orange.
Built in October '73 and finally registered in '75. She sat in a London showroom for the first 18 months of her life.

Nice little car - only 82k on the clock so not too bad, eh? Apparently it won some MGOC concours award in '82 and I can believe it with all the chrome all over the engine bay.
No idea which clown decided to fit the front valance - that's got to come off pretty soon! Apparently they were all the rage in the 80's.

Plans are to run her for a little while and get all the niggles out - sorted the (lack of) rear brake lights, a bit of touching up of some stone chips, sort that valance out and then start "playing".

Anyway...

Here's a few pics and a short video of her running.

ChrisJC · Post by **ChrisJC** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 8:04 am

Nice.

Chris.

v8trev · Post by **v8trev** » Wed Mar 09, 2011 10:24 pm

Looks good - and far superior to the later rubber nosed effort

Risky · Post by **Risky** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 6:44 am

Looks gorgeous, sounds fantastic. I remember driving one of these when I was about 18. I fitted a windscreen to it and had to move it around the yard....I took it up the road, as you do, It was about then I fell in love with V8's and their sound!

Lovely car.

mgbv8 · Post by **mgbv8** » Thu Mar 10, 2011 8:55 pm

Sweet Ride Dude!!!

I can build a very discreet nitrous kit to go on that orignal intake if you should feel the need ??

Pel

kiwicar · Post by **kiwicar** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 11:06 am

"I can build a very discreet nitrous kit to go on that orignal intake if you should feel the need ?? "

And you say I'm bad

Look out JC he will lead you astray!

Best regards
Mike

mgbv8 · Post by **mgbv8** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 11:35 am

""Look out JC he will lead you astray! ""

Much too late for that Mike

JC has even driven my car on the strip

He will want to make this one a sleeper I reckon

kiwicar · Post by **kiwicar** » Fri Mar 11, 2011 1:26 pm

Oh Good
can I join in?

I think what he really needs is a blower like Tony. . . may be some nice heads, a roller cam set up. . . . .

Best regards
Mike

JC. · Post by **JC.** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 10:34 am

Cheers for the positive comments, guys.

I'll start playing with her in due course - I bought a set of cobraslot alloy wheels for it even before I knew the car was for sale and I've been trawling through the V8 tuner website for shiny bits.
However, at the moment, I'll settle for a working gearbox!

I've got overdrive problems.

I've disconnected the o/d electronically as it just decided to engage permenently. There's obviously something up inside - once the box gets warm the o/d sort of half engages so I can't get reverse gear.

Not decided how I'm going to tackle it yet - I don't really have anywhere suitable here to work on cars.
I *think* it can be fixed from underneath though. Well... I hope it can!

CastleMGBV8 · Post by **CastleMGBV8** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 1:00 pm

JC,

Apart from the overdrive problem looks, like you found a nice one, even the wheels look good and their quite expensive to refurb.

Just need a set of high comp 9.75/1 pistons, a pair of heads from Peter Burgess, and a decent fast road cam and you've got 200 BHP, but you'll probably neeed a LT77 gearbox as the MGB one wont last long.

The front valence, special tuning part? is to stop the front lifting at 70MPH + why not have it painted body colour?

Have fun,

Kevin.

JC. · Post by **JC.** » Sat Mar 12, 2011 3:10 pm

She's a pretty straight car. It needs about £700 throwing at it for paint - passenger side door is a bit flakey - but solid metal underneath? Must have been prepped badly. The tailgate isn't the best either.
The paint has been on the car since about '85 so any grot that was going to come through would have done by now.
Structurally it's one of the most honest MGB's i've owned.

Eventually i'll be swapping the 'box out for a BW65 but I havent even started collecting parts for this yet appart from an original MGB shifter to canibalise for spares and the auto centre consol - I really dislike the LT77. I had one in a v8 conversion I built and I didn't enjoy it.

I'll be swapping the valance for an ST spoiler. The current one has the ST lower lip with foglights integrated into it. You can't really tell from the pictures, but in the flesh it just looks like a solid great black box attached to the nose of the car. It isn't pretty at all hence the change to the plain ST type front end.