My Car

[Tom Ward]

Well as there is a new section on here and I don't visit very often I thought I'd mention my car and this seems the place to put it (mods please move to MGB general if you feel it more appropriate).

I will start by declaring that it is not a competition car - YET. I've always been involved in motor sport and spent a good number of years in my 20's and 30's in the passenger seat of various modern and historic stage rally cars culminating in 2010 (gosh ten years ago) with a class win on Wales Rally GB as it was then. I still do the occasional rally - about one per year as an average to keep my hand in.

My MGB was originally a 21st birthday present, Dad owns a 1954 TF which he bought in the 60's and it shares the garage with a couple of other MGBs so it's kind of in the blood. The car I got on my birthday was sadly written off when stationary in traffic and was rather hurriedly replaced with this car I have now and owned since 2003. The pictures show it's current condition. It's a 76 rubber bumper car and I'm in the process of fitting Sebring valences, the pictures were taken over the last few weekends and include the large amount of fibreglass filler required to fill the gaps!

I've just bought a refurb gold seal engine which the seller claimed to have done only 1000 miles since being built and then stored with nothing more than assembly grease in it.

The engine which is in there was an MGB Hive Fast Road Engine fitted in about 1993. In 2003 when the piston rings finally gave up we threw some pistons, an oil pump and valve seals at it and 17 years later it's somehow still going. The current plan is to take my engine out, drop the Gold Seal in so I have a running car for 2021 then as money and time allows build a fast road/track engine from the old one. If it's really too far gone then I'll use the Gold Seal for the upgrade but I'd rather keep the car running.

Ultimately (and this is why it's in this forum) I'm thinking track days (MGs on Track) and sprints/hills would be a good place to have some fun without breaking the bank. I plan to fit some proper harnesses and towing straps front and rear. I'm toying with the idea of a rear section roll cage for added safety whilst still keeping it as a practical road car but I'll see how that one goes.









Ages ago Peter Cresswell gave me some good advice on the old forum and by e-mail and sort of got me started on this project but it was delayed by a house extension project and then Lockdown - the garage is 60 miles from my house which is not ideal, so thanks Peter. I'll be asking some more questions as I go.

[Peter Cresswell]

Hi Tom,
It's good to hear from you again, and to see the pics of your car progressing. I have had similar thoughts to yourself regarding some 'gentle' competition for my MGB, but I fear I might get carried away and challenge for corners if I did track days! Since our last exchange of 'letters' on here, I took the car for a long holiday (in distance rather than duration) in France and I had significant engine and overdrive problems. So I built a new engine which is roughly Stage 3 tune, but runs on standard size carbs. This brings me to a problem for you to think about with your sprint/hillclimb plans.
The best championship - not to do a full season but for the variety of venues - is MG CC Speed Championship. The problem is the spec of your car will not allow you to run in the standard road class because you have to run with bumpers. The second class up allows a modified engine but standard carb size, no bumpers and no LSD (which is expensive!). The third class allows Webers, or 1.75 in SUs and LSDs plus non standard gearboxes. I have built my car to be in the middle class. You can get the current regs from here:
https://www.mgcc.co.uk/speedchampionshi ... 020-V4.pdf

They have changed the requirements for personal safety gear this year and I've put some notes below this thread so see here:
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=913. it is also worth reading the blue book to see the standards

A rear roll cage is a good idea - best prices I've seen are from MGBhive and they generally have them in stock.
Here is a couple of pictures of my at at the Oakamoor Hillclimb Revival last year

Pete

[Tom Ward]

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your reply and good to catch up again. I'm glad you got your engine sorted.

First question. Looking through the MGCC regs in the link you sent, I think I should be able to run in standard class as my car is 1976 and it states in 3.2.1.8 cars built after 1974 may run with the rubber bumper and bumper irons removed. It's a slightly moot point as I have SPAX rear dampers fitted which takes it outside of the standard class anyway, although it's not hard to refit a set of the standard damper arms. Which, reading on I'd need to do for Road Going class A or B as well.

In your post about the relaxing of rules, I have my rally helmet in the loft but it's safety standard has expired. I presume I can't use it for sprints, I know I can't in the rally car? I might need to buy a new one anyway depends if I get asked to co-drive next year.

Can I use my original seats but with harnesses and do they need to be date stamped? There used to be a thing where you had to weld or fix the tilting mechanism on the seat? Also, I have access to competition seats which are no longer in date. Can these be used for sprinting?

Finally and a more general question, where can I weld a tow point to? There seems to be plenty of opportunity on the front but at the rear there isn't any structure behind the fuel tank I'm aware of, and I can't exactly weld to that!

[Peter Cresswell]

The MGCC regs! My understanding of them is the 'Standard' class must use lever damper, by 'Road Going' A and B can use telescopic dampers so long as the original mounting points are used. The conversion kits satisfy this. You have to bear in mind that and FIA spec car will be eligible for Road Going B. Also Peter Baldwin can build you a standard spec engine that gives 90bhp at the wheels (standard is 90 at the flywheel and about 64/65 bhp at the wheels)! However there are very few cars that compete in Road Going B for some reason. As for removing the bumpers from rubber bumper cars, I think the expectation would be that fit a chrome bumper conversion kit. You would need to check with the championship eligibility scrutineer.

For overalls - if the car is built before 2000 you do need to wear overalls that comply with one of these standards:
9.1.4. All Other Events (including overalls in accordance with
Q.13.1.2):
BS6249 part 1 Index A or B (but not part C).
BSEN533
EN533:1995 Index 3
ISO 14116
FIA 8856-2000
FIA 1986 Standard.

Problem is that if it is some years since you last wore them, do the still fit!!! Mine are (shall we say) a little tight!

Crash helmets (I believe) have to be 'in date', but Motorsport UK have extended the life by 2 years on much of the items of safety - seats, harnesses, extinguishers and helmets so check if your helmet meets one of these (note the first one expires at the end of this year):
10.3.1. Standards. Helmets bearing one of the under
mentioned ‘standards’ may be approved by Motorsport UK
subject to other criteria being met. See also
drawing 10.3.1.
(a) ALL MOTORSPORT UK NATIONAL EVENTS
FIA 8860-2004 (Not valid after 31.12.20)
FIA 8860-2010
FIA 8859-2015
SNELL SA2010 (Not valid after 31.12.23)
SNELL SA2015 (Not valid after 31.12.26)
SNELL SAH2010 (Not valid after 31.12.23)
SNELL SA2020
The blue book is on line here: https://www.motorsportuk.org/wp-content ... educed.pdf

Seats - you can use the standard seats that your MGB came with, but they are not very supportive, and the single post headrest doesn't keep the shoulder straps of a harness in place. I have fitted MX5 seats (from a late Mk1 or Mk2) to my MGB. They are a straightforward fit although on the drivers side I had to mount the seat on some steel strip first. Fore and Aft movement is restricted a bit by the transmission tunnel but they are extremely comfortable and supportive. I paid £80 on ebay for a pair of cloth ones - leather are available too but are usually around £400 as MX5 people want these as well! The main problem is finding a pair that don't have a worn bolster on the drivers seat, but you can source covers from Germany where the cars are LHD! Pictures below:

Tow points - easy on a chrome bumper - just use the bumper iron mounting points, but I'm not sure if these are there on a chrome bumper car. I have a pair of these to fit from Moss which are actually tie down brackets for a Healey 3000, but should be easy to adapt. The eye is really too small so they might need a 2.5 in shackle as well, but they are much bigger diameter that modern cars towing eyes which many seem to get away with in the standard classes: https://www.moss-europe.co.uk/towing-ey ... 1-426.html
Good luck with the work!
Pete

[Tom Ward]

I've made some slow progress since my initial posts so I thought I'd put a few updated pictures here. The paintwork has been done by a professional painter, it still needs a new or repaired passenger door so that's on the list. I had a tinker with some spot lights bought on e-bay but no wiring has been done for them. For Christmas I acquired a second hand Brantz Tripmeter and matching Brantz clock so the next part of the project is to start getting some wires in!

I'm not sure it will do any competition this year but I'm thinking MGB60 might be something to aim for!

[Peter Cresswell]

Hi Tom, It's good to see you are making progress and the car is looking a lot more business like these days.

I have found a few sources of competition parts so I'll compile a list and post it up. One that caught my eye was a reverse gear lock-out to prevent you from selecting reverse when hurriedly changing down from 3rd to 2nd. If you do Sprints and Hillclmbs this is a gear change you will do many times, and you can select reverse!!!

Although I have a stick on number plate on the bonnet of my car, I am not sure about the legality of yours! Before 1973 (when they changed to white and yellow backgrounds) the rules were mostly recommendations as to font, size of characters and position of the number plate etc. From 1973 onwards, the rules became much stricter and I think the number plate at the front had to be vertical, or as near vertical as possible. I know a lot of post 1973 cars have the plate on the bonnet (including E-Types), but I suggest you do a bit of research and come to your own conclusions. You could try looking up leaflet INF104
I'm planning to go to MGB 60 so hopefully we might meet up there.
Pete

[Tom Ward]

Yes I'm aware the number plate is an issue and was before I had it done. That is my spare bonnet, an aluminium one I picked up in the deep distant past so decided to use it. I have the original steel one still as well in matching orange. The worst case solution is to put a couple of rivnuts into the valence and paint them orange. The original plastic plate can be screwed in for road use.

Looking at the pictures of the Per Ardua ad Infinitum rally last weekend there are a couple of MGB rally cars post 1973 with the same setup in use.

[Gavin Edwards]

Built to replicate a competion car that my late father used in local events
Used RPS kit instead of welding new metal in,can just unbolt and fit original bumpers on
Pass all regs for local navagation events but as yet still to enter