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Jonathan Mould's 1978 BGT (aka JC on various BBS)
This is JC's 1978 Inca Yellow BGT.
JC bought the car in August 2004 following a mishap with a screwdriver and a Triumph Spitfire. JC is now studying music at Bangor University, and I am not sure if he is taking his appreciation of octaves too seriously, but he has hankering for a V8 - so much so that he has already started the conversion and fitted V8 badges!
In all seriousness, this will be our site V8 feature car as we track his budget V8 conversion. JC's already been on Ebay and bought an engine suitable for a rebuild, and then blown 2/3rds of his rebuild budget on front suspension modifications, but at least he's happy with the handling now!
In his own words:
Introduction:
In July 2004 I decided to fit new top and bottom hoses to my first car, a 1977
Triumph spitfire 1500. I was just securing the bottom hose with a jubilee clip
when I slipped with the screwdriver I was using. Fortunately I did not skewer
the radiator. I did however manage to push the screwdriver right through the
front chassis member!
I started scouring the classified
ads looking at triumph TR4’s, and Stags before realising the only thing I was
going to get for that sort of money was a rusty shell and a few dozen boxes of
rusty bits. I looked at Jaguars and other spitfires and even went to look at a
Daimler DS420 hearse which was comfortably in my price range. When I showed my
mother a picture of the Daimler I was explicitly told that I would not be
allowed to leave it on the drive. Well, I guess she had a point. You do stupid
things when you’re young.
For fun I decided to look up MGB’s on the auto trader website. An Inca yellow
Rubber bumper BGT turned up only 8 miles away. It had just been resprayed and
had only 58,000 miles on the clock since new. The asking price was £2,000.
Bargain!
The car did have a slipping clutch so I offered the guy £1,600 to account for
the clutch and a deal was done. I drove the spitfire and the BGT together for
around a month before finally selling the spitfire to a bank manager up north.
He is now rebuilding the car to concourse condition and has promised to send me
pictures soon.
I have driven the car daily since parting with my first car. It has done
everything from delivering meals to my grand parents who both in their late
80’s and early 90’s to carting all my worldly possessions 130 miles into
deepest, darkest Wales so that I may study a music degree at Bangor university.
Actually I was pleasantly surprised by Wales. It’s actually quite civilised.
They even have running water and electricity!
I have found my BGT a very practical car. I play Double E flat tuba as my 3rd
study instrument. If I fold down the rear bench and slide the passenger seat
forward it will easily accommodate the Tuba. The rear seats have also been
occupied by full sized adults for short journeys. You can indeed fit four
students including driver into a BGT. Additionally all their kit will fit nicely
into the boot! Just don’t try going any great distance this way. I have sat in
the back seats very briefly to clean the rear door cappings and it was not a
pleasant experience.
My BGT has performed almost faultlessly ever since I bought it back in 2004. The
only work that I have had to do to the car is a replacement clutch shortly after
I bought it and then just recently at the end of April the water pump decided to
give up the ghost after 28 years sterling service.
I had toyed with the idea of selling the car and getting an MGC or a V8GT. My
decision was made for me by Perry Stephenson who took me for a ride in his
nitrous oxide powered factory BGTV8. I decided that my car although cosmetically
needing improvement would be ideal for a V8 conversion as all the panels are
original with the exception of the drivers’ front wing, which was replaced by
the previous owner after a neighbour managed to reverse into the car.
Curiously when I took the car in for its MOT the mechanic knew the car
but hadn’t a clue who I was. He shot into the office and came back with an old
MOT certificate that belonged to my car that he did some 10 years previously.
Having decided to do my V8 conversion I started to do some research into what
exactly was needed. I will not go into the details now, but sufficed to say it
was much more complicated than just “shoving in an engine” as I initially
perceived it to be. I am lucky in that I have access to the MGOC BBS where there
are many experts on MG’s not least Martin Williamson who has advised me on
suspension and handling modifications, Perry Stephenson whose drag strip
prepared V8 kick-started my enthusiasm for an 8 cylinder MG and who I blame
solely for my poor mothball filled wallet! The person who I have found most
informative on the topic of V8GT’s is a guy called Dave Wellings who, is an
experienced BGTV8 concourse judge and also who’s technical knowledge on MG’s
is quite frankly sometimes both astonishing and scary.
So far my V8 conversion has consisted of the following:
- Addition of V8 badges
- Up rating, and a slight lowering of the front suspension
- New Steering Rack
- Purchase and subsequent
refurbishment of Reliant scimitar Dunlop alloy wheels.
The Scimitar wheels were
purchased as they are almost visually identical to original BGTV8 wheels however
where a single very rough condition BGTV8 wheel would cost circa £60 I managed
to buy a complete set of scimitar wheels needing only slight remedial work for
the same figure.
