James, Larry, others
A recent thread on the V8 bbs list concerned this topic- that is an improved
front end. One contributor had done a good bit of investigation regarding
Mustang II front ends & found a manufacturer that could make a front end
with a width of 54", ,only a bit wider than stock MGB. Price as I recall was
$1900.00 including brakes, shocks- coilovers, etc, ready to bolt in. No
provision for engine mounts was provided.
My offhand thought was that a conversion with Sebring fenders & a Ford rear
narrowed to match the front track using the M II front end might be a
reasonable way to go.
Jim Stuart
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-mgb-v8@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-mgb-v8@autox.team.net]On
Behalf Of James J.
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 9:44 PM
To: mgb-v8@autox.team.net
Cc: Larry Embrey
Subject: Re: Tubular cross members
Larry, et al...
One side note, The BMH group does still manufacture and sell the MG
RV8 crossmember in the US through Moss and The Roadster Factory (about
$3000.00, I think). At least two commercial ventures in the US and a
few in Europe make tubular A-arm coil-over conversions for the stock
stamped-steel x-member, and they run about $1200.00. Mustang II tubular
x-members (rectangular tubing) with a full tubular coil-over suspension
favored by street rodders run in the $2000 to $4000 range. Several
places in the US make them. They also replace the annoying king-pin
with ball joints, which can be used to add anti-dive, and allow the
upper and lower a-arms to be non-parallel (when viewed from the side of
the car). One option would be to look at a way of mounting the
already-existing Mustang II kits to the MGB front sub-frame and avoid
some of the effort of having to re-invent the wheel (or a part very
close to the wheel, so to speak). By focussing on just the mounting
aspects, some of the development effort could be eliminated.
One last thought, (and this is just me, and not meant to discourage
anyone) I wouldn't bother developing a front-end if it didn't address
the B's geometry shortfalls. If the idea is to just drag-race the B,
there have to be more simple ways of reducing front-end weight, and some
anti-squat on the rear-end could help with the weight-transfer at launch.
Kudos to you for suggesting improvements to the MGB suspension, in
whatever form they finally take, since that is it's weakest link (argh,
another bad pun...) and I encourage anyone with like ideas to share
them. I just bought a stripped-down post'74 x-member, which will become
my lab-rat for some suspension experimentation. I'm going to play with
mustang II and early camero parts, since they are cheap and readily
available to all.
Cheers,
James J.
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