CLASSIC REVIVAL

Fancy an MGB without the welding and SUs? The much modernised RV8 should fit the bill.

- Iain Wakefield

After the MGB was put out to pasture in 1980, the famous octagonal badge had been kept alive with a series of hot hatches and saloons for most of the decade and fans of the breed had almost written off any chance of a corporate-owned MG ever building another sports car with a folding roof.

The seeds for a new sports car had been sewn when British Motor Heritage started to remanufacture MGB bodyshells. A bold idea by Heritage’s managing director, David Bishop, to look into the possibility of producing an updated version of the MGB was thought too complex for the company’s limited resources and the project was eventually handed over to the Rover Group, BMH’s then parent.

Rover’s Special Products division had been created in 1990 to look at projects like this and the team modified a Heritage bodyshell to accommodate a fuel-injected 3.9-litre V8.

Although the RV8’s basic body style was the same as the MGB, the shell featured redesigned front and rear wings, a restyled bonnet and moulded plastic bumpers.

Extended wheel arches could now accommodate 15-inch wheels shod with 205/65 profile tyres, while modern telescopic dampers replaced the standard B’s antiquated lever arm shock absorbers. A discreet bonnet bulge provided extra headroom to accommodate the Lucas injection on the 3946cc V8, which when provoked could muster 190bhp at 4750rpm and go on to 136mph.

Although the reprofiled wings and bonnet line gave the RV8 a far more purposeful stance than the standard MGB V8, the suspension set up, steering and braking system hadn’t been that drastically altered, so the layout would be very familiar to anyone who’d previously worked on a MGB. Power was delivered to the rear wheels though a five-speed gearbox mated to a live rear axle fitted with a limited-slip differential.