Car of the Month

January/February 2006



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Owner: John Saunders
Make/model: MGC GT
Month/year of manufacture: 15th October 1968
Colour: British Racing Green
Engine size/type: 2912cc straight 6-cylinder
BHP: 145
Top speed: 126mph
Gearbox type: Manual 4-speed synchromesh
Area: Kennington, Oxford
Date purchased: 23rd July 2005 at Silverstone International 3 day show

History: The car left the Abingdon factory on 15th October 1968 and went to Cleveland Garages Ltd, St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands, where it spent the first six years of its life going round in circles and only doing 40 miles per hour!  The records then show that, on 24th April 1974, it was registered with the DVLA in England on the registration mark 6201 MG. It then had two owners on the South Coast followed by several owners in the London area. Then Mr. D Gibson bought it on the 4th November 1998 and, not long after this, he decided to sell what was a very desirable registration mark and re-registered it with a year-related plate.  He submitted the paper work in Abingdon in the hope of getting a local plate. It is now registered on ABW 228G, not bad, as people refer to it as the Abingdon works plate. I am surmising that some of the money he raised from the sale of the plate obviously went back in to the restoration of the car, because it has had two new front wings, new Heritage doors, inner and outer sills have been replaced, and when I set about tuning the engine, I compression tested it; it had a reading of all six cylinders producing 160 p.s.i. (factory reading is 170)! The car was resprayed approximately two years ago, British Racing Green (BLMC GN29), which is slightly lighter than the original colour. The overall condition of the car is good and I set about upgrading the interior, installing a burr walnut dashboard and door cappings, and my Christmas present to myself was a Mota Lita steering wheel! I have brought her up to a higher level of presentation and have only one label to get for the engine bay to make her as if she had just left the factory.  Having owned an MGB GT for 4 1/2 years, driving the C feels like a much more refined car,  despite the original bad review in the press when the car was launched.

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