MGB Roadster shell for sale, one careful owner, slight nearside rear damage. Offers…

There I was minding my own business lounging nonchalantly on the tyre wall, like many aspiring motor racers have done before me at the bottom of Paddock Hill bend. When it all started to unfold before my eyes.

In my defence I feel I must mention that this was the first time I had ever visited the gravel in testing, qualifying or racing in my short racing career. However, it was to be a hard lesson.

Mitigating circumstances dispatched I’ll continue. On the third lap of the race a fellow competitor in a pristine MG RV8 prototype fell off the dry line in the same place and fought and then slid his way unceremoniously into the back of my car at not some inconsiderable speed.

“Oh dear!”, I thought as my wallet flashed before me.

I had time to consider all the implications as the marshals loaded my car onto the back of the recovery vehicle and then chauffeured me back to the paddock.

My first task was to enlist the support of my friend and mechanic, Craig Harrison, who had only one year previously performed an immaculate Heritage rebuild on my road car.

“What are you up to you next week?”
Was my opening remark.
“Rebuilding your car?”

With Craig’s positive attitude and his considerable experience on my side, then anything was possible.

The likely realities of the situation were already coming to the fore and memories of an MGB Hive advert in the pages of the MGOC magazine slowly came into focus.

Once the car was unloaded we were able to assess the damage a little more extensively. The situation didn’t improve with time.

The biggest problem, was that of time available, as I was due to be racing in an MGOC championship race in one week’s time at Snetterton. Most people, even with all the best will in the world, would say a that a ‘Heritage’ shell rebuild in 8 weeks is pushing it. One week is impossible.

Considering the state of my car, needing both rear wings, boot, boot floor, rear bulkhead, petrol tank renewing. The floor twisted and one sill lifting away, not to mention the fact the that the rear end was facing Mecca, whilst the front faced Moscow; a complete new shell was the only feasible option.

Besides which the racing gauntlet had been thrown to the floor.

I scoured the paddock for someone who would have a home telephone number for Nigel Petch of the MGB Hive. Having drawn a deep breath, I made the call.

“I need that bare MGB shell you have advertised. You do still have it don’t you? Oh, and I want a killer, beat all price. Oh, and could I pick it up when it’s convenient to me, on Easter Monday, your day off. Oh, and I need a few other parts as well so could you open the shop, just for me!”

Needless to say, the MGB Hive excelled themselves in the quality of their service, attitude and advice.

Chris Pollard, one of my competitors in the Owners Club series came to the rescue with my next problem. Where to work? Anyone who has undertaken a re-shell would understand that there was no chance of achieving this task in the allotted time without space to have both shells side by side, where we had light and power and could work late! One phone call later and a visit to a local farming friend and we were very generously offered a 20 feet square concrete floored area in one of his barns.

The next task was to spend the day stripping down the old car. Chris donated his Easter Sunday to the cause, as keen as myself to prove everyone wrong. On a car nearly 30 years old, it is not quite as simple as theory would suggest. It would be essential to have most of the work complete with all the relevant parts, nuts, bolts and fixings labelled by the end of the day so that I could make a list of parts for my gathering mission the next day. Having found a shell and a place to work, the next priority was to manage the project. Discovering we were short of bits on Friday evening would have spelt disaster.

Easter Monday was a parts gathering day and I set off at ‘sparrows’ to take in my garage in Rickmansworth for spares, before heading off to MGB Hive to be spoiled with sympathy and hospitality. By late afternoon I was back in Folkestone preparing for a week of scuffing knuckles and expanding the Oxford English dictionary.

The single most important tool to start a heritage rebuild is a tap set. All the captive nuts need running through and this is a time consuming, mind numbingly boring and frustrating job.

The second most important task is to run all the services through before the shell is cluttered with ancillaries. So fuel, brake lines and loom should all be run in. If we had had more time, I would have made up a special loom. On a race car the wiring needed is very limited and a lot of the standard specification loom is redundant, so the less clutter the better.

However time was short, so the special loom will have to wait for a later date.

Being the eternal optimist had led me not to cancel a pre-race test day booked at Snetterton for the day before the race. So on Saturday morning Craig and I headed off to the track in Norfolk with a few items still outstanding. We worked through the afternoon and on the last session of the day I made my way out onto the track to complete four laps, misfiring as I went. Although this was a much needed boost to moral, there was still a lot to do.

The Saturday night before the race was spent in a garage at Snetterton with help from Huw Taylor, Sean Valentine and Peter St.Barbe and my mechanic Craig Harrison. With tool kits all over the place and nuts and bolts being begged or borrowed and frantic phone calls to find a new hydraulic clutch pipe, whilst a standby that paid homage to the engineering skills of Mr. Heath-Robinson was fabricated. Late on Saturday night/Sunday morning we left the circuit.

The scrutineering process, a nerve-wracking process at the best of times, is where the stewards from the Motor Sport Association check the safety of your race car against a very long list of pre-determined criteria. In effect, a pre-race MOT. Whilst their decision is non-negotiable, competitors have the right the rectify the problem and attend another pulse raising session before qualifying. We failed at the first attempt. ‘Quel surprise?’ The next hour was a race to the finish with Ray Downes, Craig and myself madly attempting to tick off all the points on the scruiteneers list.

Five minutes before qualifying session the scruiteneer reappeared and passed the car. So, off I headed to the assembly area with no rev counter, no clutch and no back bumper and in ‘Al Fresco’ mode. But as Janet from the MGOC reported I was met by a cheer, probably mostly of surprise from my co-competitors. I didn’t hear it as I was being pushed back into position by the assembly area marshals.

  However, I managed to complete a full qualifying session with no clutch and did not finish on the back of the grid.

The next few hours up to the race was equally frantic as we borrowed a clutch slave cylinder from Roy Clarkson and then added the luxuries of rev counter, shift light and ballast weight to compensate for the lack of hard top, rear bumper, etc.

In the end I raced with a car that was totally unbalanced, handled appallingly and misfied badly over the last 4 laps, and I unfortunately got pipped at the line out as I powered up the start/finish straight.

But we did it. We finished and not quite last.

David Amphlett