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Re: Radical Change, but Wrong Car

To: WSpohn4 <WSpohn4@aol.com>, mgs@Autox.Team.Net
Subject: Re: Radical Change, but Wrong Car
From: Ben Ruset <bruset@home.com>
Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 14:39:17 -0400
>Well, Ben maybe we mean two different things when we use the word "wild".
>
>All but the locking glove box were already in use in the MGA coupe (remember
>it?), and the unibody construction had been pioneered in the MG by the
>Magnette, which although the body style first came out as the Wolseley 4/44
>with the old tech XPAG engine, quickly transformed into the first MG with the
>new BMC based engine.

Ahh - but if you're going to throw the Magnette in, you may as well classify
that that was not a "sports" car - locking doors and boot are common for
saloons, but a sports car was supposed to be "rugged" and "down-to-earth". The
argument was that if the B carried these "luxury" appointments, how could
it be
considered a "real" sports car.

>The B had exactly the same driveline as the MGA, with only detail changes to
>the displacement (to combat the necessarily heavier result of using unibody
>construction), and all of the suspension was essentially unchanged as well.
>The body style was the same closed type (as opposed to the old upright school
>of the T series), although it did continue development of the construction
>technique pioneered by the Magnette.

I agree that the automotive press and enthusiasts were not condemning the B
because of it's unibody construction - I was just saying that it's
construction
was different than the A. Yes, the driveline was nearly the same, but then
again, so was the fact that it had a steering wheel, seats, etc. Wildly
different in the fact that it had saloon appointments in a sports car body.

>I guess I need more than that to make me characterize the changes as
"wild" or
>as the same sort of paradigm shift that the A represented, compared to it's
>essentially pre-war predecessors but to each his own.

Agreed. I find the B very "rugged" - I was just merely restating the
opinion as
it was at that time. 

You may argue then that the B was a Magnette in the shape of a modified A.
Woah
- weird! =)



BEN RUSET - ICQ # 10364973
The MGB Haven & MG Cars Webring 

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