Hello from a new forum member

[GSEldredge]

Hello all. I’m a new member on this forum. My name is Scott Eldredge, and I live in La Honda, California, other side of the pond. Recently I faced a difficult decision, not too uncommon as one reaches late middle age (my age now until I am gone). The final choice came down to a new Miata or a 54 year old MGB GT. And here I am.

I had a rustbucket ’66 Midget lifetimes ago when I was in school, and my best friend had a ’69 MGB. The exposure left me hooked for life; the more cars developed touch sensitive screens, the more I wanted a toggle switch. I don’t have my GT yet. I am having some work done before it is shipped to me. While waiting I’ve been learning about the history and models in a book I have, and I began searching forums for some technical information about a particular item of interest to me: reducing the amount of understeer inherent in the car as designed. I found myself on this site reading a highly informative post about handling by Peter Cresswell, and I knew I was in the right place. (I have a copy of the Special Tuning book on the way.) I look forward to learning more at this site.

[Not_Anumber]

Hi I think you have made a very good decision in buying a classic MGB. They are strightforward vehicles to work on and have a lot of character.

[Ian F]

Here's a reply I posted earlier when you first posted to Pete Cresswell:

Hi Scott. I thought I should let you know that Pete Cresswell has been absent from this forum for many months, not sure why, and I have been unable to find out anything more. I hope he may reply, but if he doesn't then don't be surprised.

What year is your MGB? The handling of the later cars with a raised ride height is quite different from the earlier ones, and requires some different solutions.

In my case, a 1972 BGT, I found a thicker front bar was all that was required to give good handling. I have adjustable telescopic dampers on the rear, set at their softest setting. No need for a rear ARB.

Ian F

[GSEldredge]

Hi Thanks for giving me some feedback. The car I am interested in is a '71. It's not final, as I am waiting on a professional inspection, which ran into people's vacation schedules. I think I came across another post by Cresswell that talked about the issue, an old one also. Several people have suggested a front bar only, slightly larger, typically 3/4, although some like 7/8. I saw one bar that had holes for both levels of stiffness, with 7/8 suggested for track days. Because the GT has more and higher mass at the back, I'm thinking of a small rear bar also. That has worked well in my other cars (BMW Z3 and Chevy Astro cargo van.) A panhard bar has also been suggested, which made sense to me based on what I learned from a 2000 Mustang, a car with a death wish when it came to actual handling. Anyhow, 3/4 sounds good for my use, and I'lll keep investigating the others.

I live in an area of twisty coastal mountain roads and enjoy a level of spirited driving. A lot of the time the chassis is going to be under twisting load with all four wheels at different altitudes and attitudes.

[Ian F]

Lots of advice out there, but I would say just drive it for a while and make incremental changes to fine tune the suspension.

# the Moss MGB catalogue has advice and all the parts you need.
# Peter Burgess's book " How to power tune the MGB" is well worth getting hold of.
# the US "MG Experience" forum is worth joining, but you will find lots of conflicting advice!
# the FIA specification for MGB historic racers may be worth a read (section K) if you want to see what was done " back in the day"

I'm not really a fan of modifying these cars so that they don't really resemble the car that came out of the Abingdon works, but each to his own of course!!

Ian F