MGB - the Classic British Sports Car

The faithful old 'B' Series engine continued on, now in 1796cc guise, and was shortly updated from a three-bearing crankshaft to a five bearing increasing the robustness of the engine. It also means that those early three-bearing crank models command a premium in the collectors market, but as an everyday drive the later cars are a better bet.

With the capacity increase the power rose from 86 bhp in the MGA to 95 bhp in the MGB, and while more power can be extracted from it many opt to bolt in the ubiquitous Rover V8 and get the performance increase without any reliability problem.

The roadster was joined by a GT coupe in 1965 and in 1967 a MK ll model gained the benefit of an all-synchromesh gearbox, or an option of an automatic transmission.

In 1974 the car gained, much to most people's disgust, large rubber bumpers to meet US safety laws. The earlier 'chrome bumper' cars are the more popular cars with most buyers. Which does mean you can pick up the odd bargain on the later cars if the looks don't offend you too much. There was a potential second problem with the 'rubber bumper' models which was that in order to get the bumpers to the right height to comply with the US legislation the cars suspension was raised which did nothing for the handling. It can be more tail happy than earlier 'chrome bumper' models. Now if your looking for a fun, cheap sports car that you can opposite lock your way down the back roads in that may not actually be a disadvantage at all.

The MGB was eventually dropped in 1980.