Background
Introduced in 1962 and still in production almost twenty years later, the MGB remains most people’s default idea of the classic British sports car.
The MGB is also the definitive front-engined, rear-wheel-drive roadster, offering everyday practicality alongside a genuinely sporting drive.
Simple, proven and plentiful, MGBs have lent themselves to every conceivable sort of modification, conversion and upgrade.
Needless to say, some of these fettled, tweaked and pimped iterations are better than others.
Without out any shadow of a doubt, Frontline Developments make the absolute best of them.
But don’t just take our word for that.
Famously, Top Gear’s then host Chris Evans declared the Frontline to be “…the best car we drove through the whole of the series.”
Frontline are to the MGB what Singer are to the Porsche 911 and Eagle are to the Jaguar E Type.
We think Frontline’s ‘Abingdon Edition’ cars are every bit as good as Chris Evans claims.
We’ve driven a few and know just how exceptionally well-engineered and dynamically breathtaking these machines are.
All Frontline creations are built around an original donor MG with heritage certification.
Over the course of many weeks and months the firm fully restores the body using all new panels that are hand-built in Oxfordshire by British Motor Heritage to the identical specifications of the original.
Frontline then apply their own exacting build standards to achieve levels of blemish-free symmetry, precision and perfect alignment that would have been unimaginable to workers on the original MG production line.
Under the bonnet is a 2.5-litre 4-cylinder aluminium Mazda engine with a billet crank, billet rods, forged pistons, solid lifters, variable cam timing, 50mm direct-to-head throttle bodies, Omex engine management, Mazda 6 speed aluminium manual transmission, and a 3.7:1 ratio, gear-driven limited slip differential – unless the purchaser has asked for something very different on his or her bespoke build.
The engine generates 289bhp at 6,800 rpm – enough power to reach 60mph in 3.8 seconds (yes, you read that right) on the way to a top speed of 160mph.
Keeping that power on the road and serving the handling and grip requirements of even the most talented driver is a suspension set-up consisting of LM25 aluminium front suspension uprights with tubular wishbones and adjustable dampers, model-specific 6-link rear suspension system, and fully adjustable coil-over telescopic dampers and springs.
Bringing all of it to a smoothly controlled stop as quickly as possible are billet alloy 4-piston front brake callipers with ventilated discs, and cast alloy 2-piston rear brake callipers with solid discs.
Frontline’s cars may be aligned to, and respectful of, the spirit of the MGs that left the Abingdon factory back in the day, but in terms of performance, capability, quality and finish, they’re simply light-years ahead.
