THE LAST MGB AND THE MAZDA MX-5
Abingdon, south of Oxford, is said to be the oldest town in England, and its County Hall Museum has impressive displays of pre-historical and historical artefacts, including stone tools hundreds of thousands of years old. Even older are the fossils on display, such as the skeleton of an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile similar in shape to a dolphin. The view from the museum’s roof is impressive, with vistas of the old town, the Thames and the countryside beyond.
One display was much more modern, but very evocative, an MGB roadster, the last one made. MGs, (the initials stand for Morris Garages) were made in Abingdon. I have never owned an MGB, but in my youth I did have an Austin-Healey 3000. The Austin-Healey had a six-cylinder BMC C-Series engine, a similar but separate design to the MGB’s B-Series four-cylinder pushrod machine, which was much more closely related to the smaller A-Series engine used in the Morris Minor, Mini, MG Midget etc. All of the engines used the heart shaped Weslake combustion chamber.
The MGB epitomised the British sports car – front engine, rear wheel drive, inexpensive, rather unsophisticated, not very fast, but lightweight with good handling and fun to drive. Sadly, it was pretty well the last of its breed, and when production came to a halt in 1980 and there was no replacement, an opportunity was spotted by an American journalist, Bob Hall, who, inspired by the Lotus Elan as well as the MGB, suggested to Mazda that they could produce a ‘British’ sports car.
Mazda rose to the challenge and after a lengthy development the front engine, rear wheel drive MX-5, (Miata in the USA) was introduced in 1989. Now in its fourth iteration, it is still in production, and more than a million have been made.
We spend a long time away on the boat, and since a new Honda Jazz was seriously nibbled by mice in our driveway, have an aversion to buying new cars. For some time we have had only one car, a Mitsubishi pickup, which drives well but has a rather unprepossessing appearance, and we needed a car principally for my wife Sally to use. We spent a dispiriting day at car dealerships looking at recent model SUV type vehicles. The cars were expensive and uninspiring, and the attitude of the dealers’ sales staff could charitably be described as ‘nonchalant’. Eventually we decided to do something slightly radical and cheaper, and bought a rather elderly Mazda MX-5 from a local private seller. The mileage is low, and the bodywork and interior are good.
The Mazda MX-5 might have been intended as a reincarnation of the MGB, but in some ways its better. Perhaps it’s more like a miniature E-Type Jaguar? Or a Lotus Elan? Like both of those cars, the MX-5 has a ‘revvy’ twin cam engine – admittedly with only four cylinders against the Jaguar’s six - and a multi-link independent rear suspension system of bewildering complexity whose central feature is a limited slip differential firmly bolted to the body.
I used to be a car enthusiast, and owning the Mazda is a bit like returning to my youth. The low seats, the convertible top, and the sharp handling remind me of my Austin-Healey, as did driving the car up wooden ramps to wirebrush and paint the underbody – Mazda seems to have put more effort into perfecting the car’s handling than corrosion protection.
I don’t know yet whether I’d recommend buying a Mazda MX-5, but I would certainly suggest a visit to Abingdon and its County Hall Museum.
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