MODIFIED MGB GT

Classic
MODERN

In 1968, the MG works in Abingdon built an

MGB GT; four decades later, an MG owner a
few miles down the road turned it into a finished
product. Finished, at least, for the time being.
Words by Dale Drinnon Photography by Simon Goldsworthy

T he chilly rain was just starting to whisper

down when Ed Braclik swung back the
garage door on his B GT. It was gleaming
gently in the soft light, like a sculpture
exhibit right before the floodlights click on,
and I had an instant guilt attack at the very
thought of bringing such a spotless and pampered
automobile out into the damp cruel world. Then Ed
leaned over and sighted along the side of the car. ‘I
hope I got all the mud out of the wheelwells,’ he
mumbled, squinting. ‘Almost got stuck the other day
in a field down the road…’
Ah. So much for ‘pampered’. I’m not sure the word
is in Ed’s vocabulary, although I’m relatively sure
‘practical’ is. Ed loves classic machinery and design
and isn’t the sort to abuse it, but he does expect it to
work and to work well and he isn’t hesitant to
undertake some changes to ensure that it does exactly
that. His mandate for modifying his B was to make it
something he could drive anywhere, any time, ‘just
like a normal car’; one of the reasons he settled on a
GT was to have a convenient space for he and wife
Sarah to carry their two black Labradors.
His first thought, in fact, was an Audi TT, but he
just couldn’t force himself to go modern, and for a
while he flirted with an E-Type coupé. ‘But putting
aside the money issues of building an E-Type the way
I’d want it, from my experience with E-Types you need
a lot of room to really enjoy the car, and in this part of
Oxfordshire, most of the driving is on A and B roads
– which is exactly what an MG was made for.’
So he set out to create himself a nice enjoyable
B-road B, with the cruising legs of a Jaguar and the
convenience and dependability of a new Audi. Early in
2005, a decent-looking 1968 model came up for sale
from an estate, a typical rolling-restoration kind of car
with some new bits already done, and he bought it. ‘I
gave it a quick test and it actually drove pretty well,
except for an awful clunk from up front when I put on
the brakes. Turned out the previous owner hadn’t got
around to installing the engine mounts; that noise was
the crank pulley slamming into the steering rack.’
Not that it mattered a lot; the engine was coming

46 MGE January 2008 www.mgenthusiast.com www.mgenthusiast.com January 2008 MGE 47

 MODIFIED MGB GT
straight out anyway. What Ed had in mind was
a switch to the K-series VVC 1.8 twin-cam so
popular in Midgets and Sprites. So he went to
Frontline Spridget, who were pioneers in that
conversion and asked about doing the same
with the GT. In the meantime, the now engine-
less body went on to Nigel Neilands at Autobody
Services in Carterton, Oxfordshire for a
complete structural and cosmetic makeover.
In a way, the engine swap proved to be the
simple part. A good deal of Frontline’s existing
Spridget kit transferred over, and with some new
hardware to help with engine and exhaust
mounting, Ed was able to slide an ex-Rover 200
BRM engine with a Ford Sierra five-speed
gearbox and multipoint throttle body electronic
fuel injection into the finished shell with minimal
fuss. With adequate room allowed to ancillaries
for clearance and maintenance access and its
wiring and plumbing all routed shipshape and
Bristol-fashion, the result was so satisfactory
that Frontline now offer the conversion in both
DIY-package form and as a turn-key service in
their own shops.
The bodywork, on the other hand, could
never ever be construed as simple. Ed wanted it
constructed ‘well enough to see me out’, and I
should mention that he’s a rather young man;
seeing him out will take some seeing. No half-
measures were attempted; if it was doubtful, it
was gone. The door skins, for example, showed
some rust perforation along the bottom after the
car was bead blasted: he didn’t have them
“It certainly is a
lovely thing, even
in the rain, even
after two years of
hard driving”
48 MGE January 2008
patched, instead he sold them off and bought
new ones. Likewise, most of the panels below
the waterline were replaced outright, along with
the complete front wings and rear quarters.
Then the body was de-seamed, using only lead
as the filler, rolled valances were installed front
and rear and everything was shot in Aston
Martin Meteorite Silver.
Engine and body were united seven months
after the project had started, surely a record time
for so much work, and the finished product was
faster, slicker and more reliable than anyone at
Abingdon in ’68 could have dreamed possible
for an MGB. The problem was, Ed Braclik
didn’t consider it a finished product. He
considered it a work in progress, and after
driving it for a while, decided the next step was
to upgrade the suspension.
With virtually no miles on the freshly restored
components, the front suspension was replaced
by a Frontline telescopic damper conversion and
the rear by their coilover five-link kit.
Once installed, Tim Fenna at Frontline set
about tailoring these to the car’s now much
lighter front end, and to the driver’s priorities.
After a good deal of very patient trial and error,
he hit on a solution involving custom front
springs, 20mm shorter than the factory items,
and the rear end set to bog-standard chrome-
bumper GT ride height. The change in final
ground clearance is virtually nil, and the total
package is noticeably taller than many owners
would use on a hot-rodded MGB. ‘It looked
great when it was lowered way down,’ Ed says,
‘but it just wasn’t practical in everyday driving,
and raising it didn’t seem to hurt the real-world
handling at all.’
Also on the agenda, believe it or not, was
more oomph: the cylinder head went out for
bigger valves and a port and polish job by Dave
Andrews at DVA Power, a well-known specialist
in tuning K-series engines. Afterwards, much as
with the suspension experience, came a series of
rolling road sessions to dial in the best
combination of bhp, drivability and fuel
economy. According to Ed, the performance
increases from the rolling road were more
dramatic than those gained by the swap from
B-series engine to VVC.
In its present state, the GT has 146 pounds
foot of torque, 181 horsepower, and returns
average mileage of about 35mpg. Furthermore,
if you push the right button on the dashboard,
the Emerald Electronics engine management
computer goes into economy mode, giving over
50mpg at a steady 80 miles per hour.
And goodness, but its present state certainly is
a lovely thing, even covered in misty rain, even
after two years of hard driving. The paint is so
deep you could dive into it off an Olympic high
board and breast-stroke a few laps, and while
Ed may not pamper, he obviously doesn’t spare
the TLC either; the car is immaculate inside and
out, with absolutely no evidence of dogs or
muddy fields anywhere.
The car’s appearance is also pleasantly subtle;
www.mgenthusiast.com
Ed ‘didn’t want it to look like a race car, just a
pretty MGB with a little bit of a twist.’ There are
no aero gimmicks, no go-faster graphics, and
somewhat surprisingly, no super-wide rubber.
The tyres are the grippy but sensible Yokohama
C.drive in 185/65X15, a good size for an MGB,
and ‘with these, I can run with modern
motorway traffic in the rain, safe and secure, no
problem.’ It’s also interesting to note that no
changes have been made to the braking system
beyond a set of EBC Green front pads and
ventilated discs, and unless the car is moved on
to something like dedicated track day work, no
changes are likely to be necessary.
Inside, everything looks rather conventional
at first glance; in reality, it’s a blend of discreet
luxury, hard-headed practicality, and modern
upgrades. The headlining is rich black suede, as
is the dash cap; below that is a simple wrinkle-
finish dash face done at home with an aerosol
can and a hair dryer, and the red leather seats
and matching trim are recycled from the
previous owner’s efforts. The passenger’s
footwell holds a robust kit-car heater box with a
three-speed blower (an improvement more
precious than 50 extra horses, if you really use
the car), and the original equipment rev counter
has been refitted with a memory-recall tach and
upshift-light, while still retaining that same
familiar classic Smiths face.
Maybe the best link with tradition though,
and definitely the most surprising, is that when I
fire up the engine, the tickover sounds exactly
TOP RIGHT: MG V8 radiator
lined up perfectly with K-
series plumbing demands,
and never overheats.
CENTRE RIGHT: Modern CD
player blends in well with
wrinkle-finish dash. Ford
Type 9 gearbox is a good
substitute for the wonderful
feel of the original.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Rubbing
strips and chrome bar help
to keep luggage in place.
www.mgenthusiast.com January 2008 MGE 49
 MODIFIED MGB GT
like a plain old stout-hearted B-series – except for
the blessed absence of top-end rattle. That was by
design, too; the mild-steel exhaust was chosen
specifically for its traditional mellow MG voice
and on anything short of about 4000rpm, it is
quite effective.
In fact, moving out on a light throttle, the car
comes over very standard-MGB-ish in every
fashion; it’s just an extremely solid, totally new-
feeling B. The steering is a touch heavy at car
park speeds with the bigger tyres, but it weighs
up nicely at anything over 10mph, and setting off
down the lane at a get-accustomed pace, this
could very well be an all-original GT restored to
the highest possible standards.
One of the primary benefits of the VVC’s
variable cam timing and electronic fuel injection
is flexibility, having the right fuel map solution
under all circumstances, and this car demonstrates
the principle admirably. It does things no
carburetted 1.8 litre with this amount of peak
output could accomplish: you can potter along
on low revs and a high gear with no complaints,
and the instant you stab the throttle, it simply
accelerates smoothly away. It is a perfectly well-
mannered machine in which any BGT veteran
would be totally at home right from the start. I
know that I am.
After several miles of pleasant fourth gear
ambling, though, Ed picks a lull in our car-chat to
quietly point out: ‘You know, you really haven’t
got anywhere near the real power yet.’ So I slow
down on a deserted stretch of open straightaway
to a gentle first-gear roll, and plant my right foot
hard. A few second later, I am lifting off in third,
and beginning to breathe again.
‘You could have used another thousand rpms
on your upshifts if you wanted,’ Ed says, smiling.
50 MGE January 2008
Ed first tried the
GT without the
beltline chrome,
but it ‘looked
like a whale’.
‘Maybe,’ I reply, ‘but I was too scared to look
down at the rev counter.’
Yes, it is fast, sweaty-hands fast, and Ed says
one of the best things about the car now is
watching the lads in rally-rep Subarus squinting
to figure out exactly what it is that’s nonchalantly
leaving them for dead. But the best thing as far as
I’m concerned is that this isn’t merely a rough-
edged garden-shed special, it’s a fully sorted,
TECH SPEC
complete automobile that goes, stops, turns, 1968 MGB GT VVC
looks great and can genuinely be used as Engine
comfortable, long distance, high speed 1796cc 16 valve dohc in-line four
transportation for two. It’s what the GT was
intended to be all along. Power
Of course, Ed Braclik doesn’t see it as complete. 181bhp@6800rpm
Ed, I think, has a lot of racer in him; he’s always Torque
finding things that could be improved, and now 146 lb ft@3600rpm
that the weather’s gone chilly, he’s been plugged
into the engine computer every morning with his Transmission
laptop, playing with the cold-start programming. 5-speed manual
‘The secret is in the continuing development of Weight
the car,’ he says, ‘always a little bit better by
1800lbs (est)
degrees; you can’t just bolt on parts and let it go.’
Next, maybe, will come a limited slip diff, and Fuel Economy
the exhaust sound is nice, but he’s not real happy 35mpg
about rust, so maybe a stainless replacement Performance
would be a good idea after all…
0-60 in 5.5 seconds, top speed 140mph (est)
But those things might have to wait until the
house move is done. Ed and Sarah, you see, are
rebuilding a 13th century thatch; on the outside it
will be completely traditional, on the inside the
CONTACTS
heating, the lighting, the plumbing, the Autobody Services Ltd Carterton, Oxfordshire,
furnishings, the electronics – everything will be 01993 844 407
modern, efficient, state of the art. Frontline Spridget Bath 
Ed says it will be a ‘contemporary classic’ sort (www.mgcars.org.uk/frontline/), 01225 852 777
of approach and I can’t wait to see it. Having seen
DVA Power Milton Keynes 
his car, I have the feeling he will carry off the idea (www.dvapower.com), 01908 322 652
rather well.
www.mgenthusiast.com