MG RV8

The RV8 was the prelude to the MG brand’s 1990s sports car rebirth, but it was much more than just a pastiche of the original.

- Craig Cheetham

I’m going to stick my neck out here, but I reckon that the best interpretation of the MGB wasn’t an MGB at all…

Well, it kind of was, but it was never officially a part of the MGB line-up. The RV8 was actually a clever amalgam of Rover Group (as it was by now) parts bin bits – a British Motor Heritage MGB Roadster bodyshell, a Range Rover 3.9 EFi V8 engine and the ubiquitous LT77 manual gearbox, fed through a traditional rear-wheel-drive layout.

It’s fair to say, then, that it was somewhat antiquated when it first appeared, built upon a 31-year old bodyshell with an engine that could trace its roots back to the 1950s fins ‘n’ chrome era of American V8s.

Yet as a prelude to the thoroughly modern MGF, the RV8 had a lot going for it. New, softer and more rounded styling that was still noticeably a ‘B’, that thumping V8 engineered to fit, rather than the rest of the car engineered to fit around it. This in turn led to a wider track, lower ride height and more stable handling than the nose-heavy V8s of the original GT V8 and Costello conversions.