The exactly fifty-year-old MGB GT has been in Anthony’s safe hands for almost 44 years. We are curious about the story. “The MG belonged to a good friend, who in turn acquired it from a German acquaintance. He regularly drove it from London to southern Germany and that is why the odometer reading was relatively high; it had 72,000 miles on the clock, but that was mainly highway miles. The car had also been driven with care.”
For the first few years, Anthony used the B GT as a daily car and his first child even sat in the back seat. It just became a bit impractical for daily use and the rust became serious. However, there was never any question of selling. Anthony decided that the B could stay, because it is a special car with its V8. “Finding a storage facility was a challenge. When he was once standing in the barn at a friend’s farm and his pizzeria went bankrupt, I had to take immediate action. Before you know it, curators will be on your doorstep.”
Anthony took up the restoration in the mid-1990s and immediately tackled it very thoroughly. “There was nothing wrong with the engine,” he says. “It has been adapted to unleaded petrol and has never been taken apart since. Its Achilles heel is cooling. This has been improved over the years. In the beginning we were once stranded in Switzerland. The cooling was still original then. Visible changes to the outside in that area are the louvres in the hood, which allow the warm air to escape better. We never had an overheated engine again and it even did a great job climbing Pikes Peak.”

V8 fits quite well in the MGB

We are standing with Dennis near the engine compartment and we notice that the cool V8 fits quite well in the slender front of the B, where MG even had to make a bulge in the hood for the six-cylinder version. The thick radiator has a large cooling fan at the front; it now hangs in its own frame. The engine received a larger oil cooler and numerous improvements have been made. Needless to say, this engine room is a sight to behold. “Once I decided to start driving major rallies, the wish list kept getting longer. Fortunately, I found a very good and, above all, experienced partner in Klassiekerservice Altena, who also knows exactly which official requirements a rally car must meet. That was necessary, because the first rally was the Trans America in 2015, from Halifax to San Francisco, which is 9,000 kilometers.”
You have to keep in mind that Anthony has been meticulously keeping track of all the kilometers and any details in a small notebook from day one. We received a complete overview of all adjustments for rally use, which covers more than an A4 page. “In addition to the cooling, the suspension also received a lot of attention. Of course, we had to adapt it to intensive use on sometimes bad roads. Unfortunately, this could not prevent a shock absorber rod from breaking twice at the front. The happiness in an accident is that you can continue driving. Thanks to a smart conversion and shock absorbers from Bilstein, that problem is now a thing of the past.”

MGB completely prepared for rallies

A look at the interior shows that we are dealing with a real rally weapon. We see four-point seat belts, a roll bar, a center console with many extra instruments and beautiful rocker switches, a trip master and a raised loading floor. Underneath it appears to be a large storage compartment, with a spare wheel and many parts, but no fuel tank. “No, I never did that because of safety. The regular tank is not very big, so it is important to keep it filled. My motto during long rallies: fuel if you can, not if you have to. We once discovered in the US, after a downpour, that the roof is not waterproof. The luggage compartment was full and we unpacked everything in a parking garage and tried to dry it. Since then I have always looked for a covered parking space.”
We see the most adjustments at the bottom. This MG can take a beating, as it soon becomes clear. A thick sheet of aluminum protects the bottom of the engine, the suspension is clearly reinforced and there are even air springs on the rear axle. The tires are actually for a commercial vehicle, so they can withstand the rough work well. We note a spare cable for the speedometer near the propeller shaft, although Anthony mainly relies on the wheel sensors. “They are on the front wheels, where in countries where you drive on the left you have to use the right sensor to ensure that the distances on the tripmaster are exactly correct. Yes, we are that fanatical. During the second rally in America the overdrive gave up the ghost, but we never had any real bad luck. The car is perfect as it is, we don’t have to change anything anymore.”