1960s MGC - MG's coolest sports car?!

If you're considering an MGC and want to buy parts, I do recommend the MGOC Spares team as we've used on this car throughout its restoration - https://www.mgocspares.co.uk/?srsltid=AfmBOooR5BIiHwOSES1N507giyhhQLCFvFjguaBTsh69hmhVSe7uo9IT MG MGC MG were onto a winner with their MGB brought to market in 1962 and they were keen to keep the audience enthralled with both MG and their sports car offerings, especially the overseas markets where MG was a popular, highly regarded brand. There was also the issue of finding a replacement for the Austin Healey 3000.Which makes the arrival of the MGC at Earl’s Court Motor Show in 1967 no surprise, although there was initially talk of a bit of badge engineering to create a healey fronted version of the new MGC. However, Donald Healey wasn’t keen on that, so with his rejection firmly in place, it meant the 3000 wasn’t really replaced at all. However, that didn’t mean the car would meet a disinterested audience. The car was a massive step up on the MGB with the B series engine and now offered a 2912cc straight six delivering 145bhp and top speeds of 120mph. Some critics argued this just wasn’t fast enough and the acceleration wasn’t dramatic enough to draw in the speed demons, but it was in fact one of the fastest production MGs that had been built at the time. There were also complaints about the new engine giving such a prononunced change in the weight distrubution that it made the car a chore to drive. Gone was the weighting of 52.5%/47.5% as seen in the MGB, the MGC had distribution of 55.7/44.3% - and whilst it does feel different - it certainly doesn’t make the drive feel displeasing. If you’re wondering why they chose the engine they did, a lot of it was down to how far the company would go with structural alterations to the car - you see some of them immediately like the bonnet design but others are more apparant when you open the bonnet - with the removable cross member on the B being replaced by extensions to the winner wing arcges to create a new U shaped cross member - which did add to the safety somewhat with the additional strengthening to the bodyshell. There’s also new suspension to replace the coil spring and lever arm damper set up you’d know from the MGB and various other small tweaks here and there. Gearbox wise, a new one was developed for the car and it had synchro on all forward gears - which you’ll see me promptly forget on starting the car - coupled with a higher torque capacity. There’s also the optional Laycock overdrive which works on the top two gears and is fitted to this car. Running in favour of the car, the costs were reasonable and when it came to market, the car was priced at £1,102 for the roadster and £1,249 for the GT. Sadly despite all the development and care, the car came into a climate which was totally different to the one it had started in as a concept. Now part of the British Leyland family, the Triumph TR6 once a competitior was now a stablemate and this meant one of them had to go to avoid cannibalising sales and with TR6 sales so strong and the dominant model, it meant the MGC wasn’t destined to be the star it deserved to be. Which meant that just two years after launch in 1967, the car was retired off in 1969 with less than 10,000 built in total.