1971 MG B Roadster

This car has had just three owners from new and each of them has clearly been a responsible and conscientious curator of the vehicle – it presents very well from every angle and appears to be in very good all-round condition.

In 1991/92 the car’s previous owner dug deep and spent many thousands of pounds having the car thoroughly restored.

This including fitting a new unleaded ‘B’ engine to a new Heritage shell, with most of the work carried out by MGB Hive of Wisbech. 

The car received a new hood at the same time.

Today, this chrome-bumpered ‘Vermillion’ manual roadster with a ‘Charcoal’ cloth interior comes with a rare, matching hard-top, a battery isolator switch, splendid wire wheels, and a post-restoration odometer reading of 38,745 miles.

In 2006, the reading was 34,220 miles. 

The trade vendor (who is very well-known to us) tells us that the car has had just three keepers in total.

The bodywork is pretty straight all-round and the panel gaps and shut-lines are crisp, clean and consistent.

There are no dinks, dents, scrapes, creases or folds of any real significance anywhere that we can see.

The bright ‘Vermillion’ paintwork has retained plenty of vibrancy and shine, and the car’s chrome-work is free of foxing, pitting and tarnishing.

The wire wheels look to be in first-class condition.

The car’s badging, lights, trim and other exterior fixtures and fittings are all fine, save for a dink to the chrome strip on the front edge of the bonnet and one or two shallow indentations to the chrome swage-line trim on both sides. 

The black fabric hood is a little creased but is otherwise fine.

The hard-top has a few scuffs and stone chips here are there and is a little ‘approximate’ in its fit at the sides. 

Some of the exterior rubber trim has hardened and perished.

The paintwork is rather pock-marked and rough at the base of the n/s/r wing just ahead of the wheel, and there are some signs of some previous repair/touch-up work on the n/s/f wing.

Elsewhere, you’ll find a pretty standard amount and distribution of stone chips in the usual places.

The condition of the interior is, if anything, even better than its exterior counterpart – in others words, it’s really pretty good.

The seats are comfortable, supportive and functional, and the black fabric material is free of any rips, tears or other aberrations.

The black carpets and mats are equally untroubled by use or abuse, as are the door cards.

The glove compartment contains an assortment of spare bulbs and other bits and pieces.

The lining of the soft-top is good, as is that of its hard-top counterpart, although there are a couple of cracks at each side where the roof fixes to the tops of the ‘A’ pillars.

We didn’t press every button, flick every switch or twiddle every knob, but those we did press, flick and twiddle responded in a timely, faithful and predictable fashion.

The boot is also in very good order.

The engine bay is dry, clean and tidy, and everything seems to be in its right and proper place. 

The undersides look to be possessed of plenty of structural integrity throughout.

The car comes with plenty of history detailing the attention lavished on this smart, comprehensively restored roadster. 

It has a thick file of invoices, bills, receipts, correspondence, old MoT certificates, photographs and other miscellany attesting to the fact that the car has had plenty of time and money spent on it with the right people over the years.

It has a fresh (no advisory) MoT which expires 25/04/25.

Yes, it’s an older restoration, but the car has covered very few miles since the work was carried out and, clearly, the work was done to a very high standard.

We think it’s a good, solid example, both mechanically and aesthetically. 

We are happy to offer this car for auction with an estimate in the range of £9,000 - £13,000.

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