IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME…. PART 2

YESTERDAY, WE AND PETER BOHR DISCUSSED a 1973 Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV, one of R&T’s Long-Term Affordable Classics in 1987. Today in Part 2, we see what Peter Egan had to say about the other car, a 1968 MGB Tourer.

The Marque’s Benefits. Peter Egan recognized the marque’s benefits: “Poor MGBs. Nice cars. Well built, poorly crafted and still good looking after all these years. But, like E-Types, they were something of a bargain when new, so many of the people who stretched their budgets to buy one soon begrudged every cent spent on maintenance and repair. Ditto for the second and third owners, for whom the cars were even cheaper.”

Peter warmed to his theme: “Easy to justify spending money on a Porsche or a Mercedes because, after all, you have to protect your investment. But pay a mechanic for regular maintenance on an MGB? We’ll fix it later.”

Three Classes of MGBs. Briefly, Peter identified the top-line MGBs belong to hard-core marque enthusiasts—and “they are usually not for sale. If they are, prices often range between $3500 and $4500.”

“The next floor down we have MGBs in the $1500 to $2500 category. Owned by just ordinary folks…. Drop very far below $1500 and you find cars owned by kids at gas stations and surfers, non-enthusiasts who tried to collect on a bad debt and ended up with a ratty MG in the driveway.”

The R&T MGB. “For the purposes of this story, we decided to look at cars in that middle group…. What we ended up with (after rejecting half a dozen cars with bashed bodies, rust, howling rear ends, bad gearboxes and no compression) was a 1968 British Racing Green roadster.”

“The ad said, ‘1968 MGB—rblt eng., new brks, tires, chrome, real wires,  knockoffs,  British grn. w/soft top, roll bar, exc. condition, $2500.”

Hmm… The “roll bar” and the nature of the engine’s non-California-certifiable rebuild would suggest the car’s most immediate use. Peter told the owner “the MG needed about $1000 worth of parts to make it legal and presentable and offered him $1500 for the car. He declined at first but called back three weeks later and said he would sell it for that price.”

Peter summed up: “So now R&T has a $1500 MGB that needs ‘a little work.’ ”

An Unintended “Project Car”? Peter described, “We’ve had the car a week, and have already replaced the exhaust system at Midas ($143.86); performed a major tuneup with new plugs, points, condenser, cap rotor and plug wires ($31.68): adjusted the valves, synchronized the S.U.s, removed the no-doubt effective but ugly roll-over bar (safety last?); and found a set of used seats ($100) and the correct steering wheel from a man who is parting out his wrecked 1968 MGB.”

He continued, “A new factory top ($257.50) and leather seat covers ($274) are on order. The air injection cylinder head and associated smog gear have been located in a Midwest wrecking yard, for $200. We’ll do a valve job on the new cylinder head, fix the speedometer and a few other miscellaneous items (new A-arm bushings would be nice), and the car will be ready to roll.”

“So,” Peter wrote, “for an added cost of about $1000 and an estimated 15 to 20 hours of labor, we should have a nice-looking, legal and very driveable MGB to use with a total starting-point investment of around $2500. If we were having a shop do the labor, another $700 to $800 could be figured into the cost.”

Peter concluded, “But then part of the charm of the MGB is that, with a little patience and a good shop manual, you can fix it yourself. Which certainly beats wasting weekends on the yard.”

And so ended the August 1987 introduction to the concept of R&T’s Long-Term Affordable Classics.

November 1987. Three months later, we published an “UPDATE: Long-Term Affordable Classics” with the title “Falling Apart And Falling In Love.”

“To say that our two long-term vintage sports cars have been melting hearts throughout the Road & Track offices is to overstate a bit…. The knee-jerk excitement of having the Alfa and the MG was tempered by the reality of living with them. The steady stream of compliments fermented into a fine whine.”

Our GTV. “Philosophy A: ‘Argh! An old car. Not only that, it’s Italian!’ ” Our Alfa required a quart of oil at almost every fill-up. And “For comic relief, the driver’s side-view mirror snapped off while being adjusted and was lost in traffic.”

“Philosophy B: ‘… the Alfa feels like a real sports car, not a generic neo-sports coupe. It has the ride, feel, sound and smell of a car built for fun and love. Just like all things Italian.’ ”

Our MGB. “Philosophy A: ‘I had a few English cars, but they were terribly fragile and untrustworthy. They seem to eat themselves. This car feels like that.’ ”

Its fuel pump resided low on the backside of the cockpit’s aft bulkhead. I recall using the knock-off hammer to unjam that recalcitrant pump by rapping at a particular spot of that bulkhead.

“Is it possible to love this 20-year-old hypochondriac car? Enter Philosophy B: ‘I gave this car a badly needed waxing and polishing…. I also rummaged through my old parts boxes and found a used heater fan switch that I took apart, cleaned  and installed in place of the old switch.’”

“If that ain’t love, what is?” ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026