MGF

Currently one of the best modern classic bargains around, the MGF has the potential to become the MGB for a new generation of classic fans.

- Paul Wager 

Even the purists who derided the (inmany ways excellent) MG-badgedMetro, Maestro and Montego models were silenced when the wraps came off the MGF. Here was something utterly different, a modern-looking midengined car packing a state of the art twincam powerplant, variable valve timing and even a link to the past with its Hydragas suspension.

Much of this was born simply from the need to employ an awful lot of lateral thinking in order to keep the development costs down and find something to keep the MG badge burning brightly in the face of Mazda’s ambition.

A front-engined, front-drive replacement for the MGB had apparently been under development as early as 1985 but lack of management support and the usual uncertainty over the firm’s future saw it sidelined until the rapturous reception of the MX-5 proved the potential market for such a car. Moving swiftly, Rover management returned to the idea of a new MG sports car and commissioned three prototypes from outside consultancies: Reliant proposed a larger, V8-powered car, Motor Panels came up with an Elan-style front-driver based on the Maestro platform and ADC came up with an ingenious mid-engined solution using two Metro subframes – the rear one without its steering and the front one without its engine. A V8-powered reardrive car was something of a dinosaur and the Maestro platform was past its sell-by date so it was the mid-engined approach which got the nod. Crucially, it also made it easier to engineer an existing Rover engine to power the car and – perhaps most importantly – it allowed potentially superb handling.