New MG roadster, how might the MGB look today

The MGB is the car that you want to see return more than any other, but what would a new MG roadster look like?

Wind back the clock half a century, and you’d find yourself amid the heyday of British engineering and design. The likes of Jaguar,MG, Triumph, Aston Martin and countless others were coming up with new and daring sports cars by the dozen – some which go for record fees at auction today. 

Given the fondness for the era, it’s no surprise that when Auto Express ran a poll asking our readers which legendary car they’d most want to see resurrected, the MGB emerged as the clear favourite.

The original MGB remains one of the great icons of early British sports cars and a pillar of the nation’s automotive history. The roadster first saw daylight in 1962, powered by a raspy 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, good for 94bhp and 145Nm of torque.

As with its Midget, MG chose to build the MGB around a monocoque structure, instead of the more traditional body-on-frame design, making the car lighter and more rigid – this resulted in excellent steering and handling.

As sales began to grow, more models appeared. A fixed-roof MGB GT penned by Pininfarina joined the ranks in 1965 with a sloping roof structure, while the MGC saw a straight-six cylinder engine replacing the in-line four in the late sixties. A MGB GT V8, with an eight-cylinder engine from Rover, hit the roads during the early seventies, too.

The front-engined sports car was also ideal for motorsport. MGBs have graced the special stages, competed at the Targa Florio in Sicily and survived endurance stints at Germany’s fearsome Nurburgring.

For 18 years, the MGB came off the line at the Abingdon plant in Oxfordshire, with over half a million models finding new homes. The MGB remains MG’s best selling car to date.

It’s now over 30 years since the last MGB rolled off the line and with the brand now making a comeback in the UK with the MG3 and MG6, we wondered what an MGB might look like if it was reimagined for the modern era. To find out, Auto Express joined the UK MG Car Club and laid down the challenge to the next crop of design talent at Staffordshire University’s Transport Design course.