LE MGB GT V8

Many people envy my job, because being the editor of Enjoying MG is after all an almost perfect occupation for an MG fan. However, it’s not just the cars that make my working days so enjoyable but also meeting the Club members who own them. There are a great many different characters in the MG world, some are highly skilled behind the wheel and like to race or rally their MGs, while others prefer to polish and show their cars, many are keen on DIY maintenance and restoration, some are flamboyant extroverts and just a few are talented engineers. Cliff Lewis must be included among this latter group, although not formally trained he leaned much of his craft from his father who was a planning engineer. He has progressed through motorcycles to an RS 3.1 V6 Capri, a Rover SDI Vitesse, then working in conjunction with his father his first major project was a stunning high powered component car, a Jaguar V12 engined Dax AC Cobra. I had driven down to visit Cliff to look at his latest MG based project but he couldn’t resist showing me the Cobra photos. The build history of the Cobra was most impressive and when completed the car was a show winner. Although Cliff loved the performance of the Cobra it was impractical and didn’t get used enough so it was sold for a very substantial figure. What he needed was something more functional to use on a day-to-day basis, a car that’s fun to drive and easy to live with but possessing abundant low down power. With all his experience the best plan was clearly to build or modify a sports car to his own specification and Cliff clearly has a natural aptitude when it comes to putting together a well-finished car. He summed it up with the words, “I’m so grateful that when I was a boy my father gave me a Meccano set instead of a football.”

Imposing frontage, familiar yet strange

However, I had visited Cliff to see his MG and as he showed me into his purpose built garage I was immediately impressed by the almost clinical standard of working environment. The gleaming polished floor, the spotlessly clean and tidy work surfaces, the neatly arrayed tools and the wall mounted tubs of new shiny nuts and bolts, all in a dust-free environment; it was rather like entering a Formula One workshop. Although essentially a single garage the building’s very generous proportions meant that we could comfortably walk all around to admire the unmistakable lines of a chrome bumper BGT finished in LE Pewter. There was something different about this MGB GT as it appeared to be at the same time both familiar and yet also very distinctive. It had started life as an LE and retained the original specification paint finish and badges on the tailgate as well as the top edges of the rear pillars. However, the rubber bumpers had reverted to chrome and a honeycomb/chrome grille had been fitted, while the original LE silver and black alloys were replaced by 15 x 7J Minilites shod with Firestone tyres, another striking exterior change was the addition of an MG RV8 bonnet, the overall look of the classic bodywork was now clean and sharp.

LE character somehow remains despite all the radical changes

15 x 7J Minilites shod with Firestone tyres

The most drastic change for the LE was a 3.9 Rover V8 engine neatly installed beneath that bulging bonnet. I’ve seen V8 converted MGBs before but here was something that belongs in a league of its own. The quality of finish and attention to fine detail on this car was quite outstanding. The presentation of the engine and the engine bay was immaculate, just as if the whole car was brand new. This impression of a totally professional job was reinforced by the way each bracket and fitting was powder coated, while every clip and fastening was spotless, even the wiring was exceptionally neat and carefully arranged.

The installation of the V8 engine was really well executed with all the necessary modifications finished to better than production car standards. Attention to detail is particularly marked, from the fit of the hoses and brackets to the way the tubular manifolds exit through the inner wings in RV8 style. The whole underbonnet appearance is simple, ultra clean and very professional, giving the impression that the car had just been assembled by a hand-picked team from Williams or McLaren all dressed in crisp white cotton overalls.

Cliff had also introduced various cosmetic touches of his own, such as special blanking panels to seal off those useless recesses inside the front wings that merely act as inaccessible areas to trap dust and dirt. I couldn’t help thinking that if only British Leyland had been able to market an MGB GT V8 built to this standard back in 1980 maybe the company’s history could haveturned out very differently. Just looking at the LE’s build quality alone I was already profoundly impressed by the car and that was before the engine had been fired up.

The project began last year when Cliff bought a sound example of a 1980 LE in Pewter complete with its distinctive alloy wheels and stripes. The LEs were the last MGB and GTs built and they were marketed as a special edition model to celebrate the end of a long and illustrious production run. Cliff’s LE was in fairly good order having been restored some years before, initially he wanted to enjoy the MG and get to know its personality, so he used it as a runabout and took it on the South Downs Run. But after experiencing the power of the Cobra he was determined to create something more exciting from what he now regarded as a very sound and competent base. The BGT in standard form was undoubtedly fun to drive with its surefooted handling and torquey engine but there were several areas that Cliff felt needed improvement. He certainly wanted more performance but his Cobra experiences had taught him that drastically increasing the power output of a car makes much greater demands on the chassis and brakes in particular. So his approach was to ensure that these vital areas should be improved to cope with all the extra loads that a big increase in performance would produce. After studying several other V8 conversions Cliff decided to look for a sound Rover V8 engine and then to re-design his LE BGT around the new power plant.

The 3.9 litre donor V8 engine with R380 gearbox came from a Morgan Plus Eight whose owner had opted for the 4.9 litre engine upgrade. Cliff was visiting RPi engineering and enquiring about a Rover V8 engine when they offered him this low mileage and very well presented unit. The engine had clearly been carefully maintained in its Morgan home but Cliff wanted to get the very best from it. He had the clutch and flywheel lightened and balanced and a fast road cam fitted, while fuel was to be supplied via an Edelbrock 500 carburettor, with a Mallory distributor to provide the sparks, all in all, an effective combination that made the Rover V8 into a very smooth and tractable power plant.

Neat rear end treatment

As new interior

As more power would mean a much greater strain on the back axle and rear suspension Cliff opted for a 3.7 Quaife limited slip diff and Parabolic springs with anti-tramp bars. In addition Cliff introduced extra rigidity from a purpose built, heavy duty rear subframe to provide a much more secure mounting for the front of the springs and the anti-tramp bar mountings. Cliff had sourced a wire-wheel rear axle believing that he needed the narrow track in order to accommodate his wider alloy wheels. After finding a wire-wheel axle and refurbishing it he discovered that it would have been possible to order alloy wheels with an inset to fit the original steel wheel axle. At the front end Cliff opted for the excellent Hoyle Engineering tubular wishbones with coil over shockers and also four pot calliper disc brakes. This combination of improved front and rear suspension, plus wide alloys and Firestone tyres meant that the chassis and brakes could now cope with the considerable increase in power.

Bonnet bulge and special wheels hint at something special

Not keen on the LE’s rubber bumpers, Cliff decided that as he had so much radical work to do with the engine and suspension modifications that a bumper conversion could also be added to the specification list. A rubber to chrome bumper conversion is rather more complex than it first appears because after removing the 5mph impact bumpers you’re still left with some very substantial mounting brackets to remove plus all four wings also need rectification because rubber bumper removal will expose their missing lower sections. During this body modification work Cliff also found some corrosion in the off-side rear wing and this was rectified at the same time as the replacement sections were welded onto the front and rear wings.

Clinical engine bay

After removing and selling off the 1800 B series engine and gearbox Cliff turned his attention to the engine bay. Whilst working on the BGT’s bodyshell he had fabricated a neat jockey wheel arrangement using a wheelbarrow wheel that he bolted in place of the front cross-member, this made the rolling shell extremely manoeuvrable. The V8 engine and gearbox was lowered into the engine bay to act as a template for the mountings and centre tunnel/inner wing modifications. Here again instead of just beating out the centre tunnel, Cliff made up and fitted an additional strengthening sub frame to clear the engine and gearbox, which also served to reinforce the shell and provide extra rigidity. The doors were showing signs of corrosion along their bottom edges and the original plan was to fit new doors and a pair were obtained, however these proved to require too much work for an acceptable fit and so Cliff reverted to using his original doors and repaired them with new lower sections. Once all the fabrication work was completed satisfactorily he arranged to have the shell resprayed in the car’s signature LE Pewter. An added bonus of using the front dolly wheel was that the shell could be dispatched to the bodyshop to be sprayed still in this three-wheel form and the newly restored front cross-member wouldn’t get oversprayed.

LE V8 interior gives off a lovely aroma of leather and new trim

The refit was conducted to Cliff’s exacting standards and every component was cleaned or renewed while every bracket and fitting was blasted and powder coated so that the whole car took on the appearance of being brand new. For the interior it was a case of new carpets, new black trim panels and a pair of superbly supportive leather seats.

On the Road
After looking at this mouth watering BGT in detail at last it was time to experience it first hand on the road. The engine fired up instantly into the familiar Rover V8 beat and quickly settled down to a very civilized idle. Cliff had decided on a two into one exhaust system with a balance pipe and just a single rear silencer, again a very similar pattern to the RV8 set up. The result is an exhaust note that is quite subdued when the engine is at idle or cruising at normal running speeds but which can emit a much more aggressive note when pressed hard.

Cliff with his son David and the ultimate LE V8

Cliff had to repair the lower sections of the original doors

LE MGB GT V8

Climbing into the LE V8 was exactly like getting into a brand new BGT in a dealer’s showroom back in 1980 as the interior even ‘smelt’ new. Except of course that the seats were well shaped and covered in leather while the rest of the trim was perfect, no rumpled edges and no glue smeared across the headlining. The cockpit was perfumed with leather, polish and new trim, so evocative of a freshly built car.

The ride was typical of a well-sorted BGT, firm but comfortable with only an occassional thump from very worst of the pot-holes and ridges in the road. Smooth is not a description that’s usually applied to the MGB GT but Cliff’s LE was very smooth indeed. Once we were clear of the village we were able to pick up the pace considerably and the impression of ultra silky power delivery became stronger. I am a great fan of the factory BGT V8, I’ve even enjoyed a stint behind the wheel of a Costello BGT V8 and I was really impressed by the prototype RV8 that I drove but all these V8 powered MG manifestations could learn a great deal from this particular creation. At the first opportunity Cliff floored the throttle and the car rushed forward, the pick-up was fantastic and the instant acceleration was accompanied by a wonderful unmistakable V8 growl. Which brought to mind that evocative sound made by Steve McQueen’s Mustang on the soundtrack of ‘Bullitt’. We rapidly came up on a slower car and although the winding country road gave only a brief window of overtaking opportunity, after a deft application of the throttle we just swept by with consummate ease. This LE is a very smooth operator indeed and its acceleration from low speeds is breathtaking, the scenery on either side suddenly became blurred as we swept forward. Cliff wanted to build a car with instant power and he has certainly achieved that; as he says, “I like the squirt of the car, top speed down the motorway doesn’t interest me so much as quick performance between roundabouts and corners”. The lightened and balanced flywheel and clutch assembly give the V8 an instant snap response as it will spin eagerly to provide immediate pick-up. Cliff explained that after he had built the car a visit to a rolling road revealed that it was running quite a weak mixture and that re-jetting the carb and getting the right ignition settings ensured that the fuel delivery was spot on which brought about a great improvement, much smoother power delivery, increased peak performance and improved fuel consumption. The V8 had been running well enough before being set up properly but afterwards Cliff explained that the improvement was a revelation and in his opinion visiting a rolling road is essential and certainly well worth the extra expense.

The best way to describe Cliff’s car is an ultra smooth performer, with classic and very understated good looks, there are no V8 badges and just a single silencer protrudes beneath the rear valence and it’s only the V8 burble of the engine that gives away its hidden power. This BGT LE V8 retains a good deal of its original LE personality but it loses some of the 1980s brashness by dispensing with the stripes and spoilers, while gaining a myriad of subtle surface changes which conceal the radical modifications and structural improvements beneath. There is nothing ostentatious or overdone about this LE V8, it’s simply a thoroughly well engineered car that has clean classic lines, which look absolutely right and it performs quite brilliantly. That Meccano set that Cliff’s dad bought him certainly proved to have been a very good investment.

Cliff would like to thank the Chris and Leigh of Armstrong’s Bodyshop, David and Rose of Foremost Coatings for all the powder coating, and nearby Sussex Car Parts who were very helpful with the supply of parts and advice.