Junkyard Find: 1971 MG MGB-GT

The last model year for MG in the United States was 1980, but that doesn't mean that Morris Garage vehicles have become impossible to find in our car graveyards right now. Far from it! Examples of the Midget and the MGB continue to show up at Ewe Pullets throughout the land, but the Pininfarina-styled MGB-GT hatchback has been a lot harder to find than its convertible sibling. Here's one of those cars, found at a family-owned yard just south of Denver.

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Rare Rides: The 2004 MG XPower SV-R, an Italian-British-American Amalgam

Recently we featured the MG RV8, which was an old MG B with a V8 engine from Rover. Today we cover a similar V8-powered MG idea, with some additional crazy sprinkled in for good measure.

Presenting the 2005 MG XPower SV-R. It’s all over the place.

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Rare Rides: The 1994 MG RV8 – Small Roadster, Big Engine

Today’s Rare Ride combines a traditional roadster design from the Sixties with updates from the Nineties, and uses an engine from somewhere in between.

Let’s learn more about a hodgepodge which is the very limited production MG RV8.

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Rare Rides: The Obscure 1984 Frazer Tickford Metro, Aston Martin's Hatchback

Ever wonder what would happen if a division of Aston Martin decided to create a luxury sports hatchback for a select few wealthy customers? Wonder no more — it’s Tickford Metro time.

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Rare Rides: A Vanden Plas Princess 4 Litre R - Overwhelming Britishness From 1966

Vanden Plas. It rolls off the tongue the same way as other luxury words, like Ferrero Rocher. And right now you’re thinking of chocolate, a Jaguar, and walnut tray tables.

But today’s Rare Ride has only one of those characteristics. Presenting the 1966 Vanden Plas Princess 4 Litre R.

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Rare Rides: The 1985 MG Metro 6R4, a BL Rally Car Experiment

Ever wanted a rally car from 1985 which is brand new and pieced together from an old hatchback? Well now’s your chance. Let’s take a look at the MG Metro 6R4.

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From Durham to Delhi: 2020 MG Hector, Featuring Benedict Cumberbatch

Foreign-market cars are always an interesting case study on these digital pages. The latest craft to catch our eye? The MG Hector, India’s newest family SUV.

When we said that brand, you may have thought we were going to say Britain’s newest family SUV. For that, you are easily forgiven. After all, the Morris Garages name is as quintessentially British as a kidney pie on a foggy morning. The brand was bought ages ago by Chinese interests, of course, and is now making inroads into the Indian market following a tough year of sales in its home country.

To amp things up, they’ve signed the devilishly debonair Benedict Cumberbatch to huck the Hector. About the length of the 2020 Ford Escape, this MG is packed with voice-activated and internet-connected technologies and priced at the equivalent of just $17,600.

Remind me again why cars like this won’t sell on our side of the pond?

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Rare Rides: This Midas Gold From 1998 Is Grey

Every once in a while, a car surfaces from the vast internet that truly deserves the title of “obscure.” It happened previously with a beautiful Gordon Keeble, and now Rare Rides is proud to present another very obscure British two-door.

It’s a Midas Gold, obviously.

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Junkyard Find: 1979 MG Midget

BMC and then British Leyland churned out MG Midgets and near-identical Austin-Healey Sprites for 20 years, with the final example coming off the Abingdon line in 1980. Because project-grade Midgets still clutter garages, driveways, yards, and fields throughout the land and they’re not worth much, the clock runs out for many of them every year.

The next stop, usually, is among the Sephias and Jettas of the IMPORTS section at a self-service wrecking yard. Here’s a forlorn ’79 I spotted last week in California.

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Rare Rides: South of the Border Waits an MG TF From 2003

MG marked a return to its roadster roots after a long slumber with its 1990s F model. Wanting more, they developed it into today’s Rare Ride, a TF from 2003.

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Junkyard Find: 1976 MG MGB

In all of my decades of visiting junkyards, one thing has remained constant: I’ll see a handful of Fiat 124 Sport Spider s and MG MGB s every year, about the same number in 2018 as I saw each year in 2001 or 1987. Here’s the latest: a red ’76 convertible in a self-service wrecking yard in California’s Central Valley.

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Junkyard Find: 1976 MG MGB

During my 35 years of poking around in car graveyards, one thing has remained constant: MGB s keep showing up. Not in large numbers, but the rate at which these lovable-but-not-particularly-valuable British sports cars get discarded has remained about the same during that period. Here’s a purple model, from the darkest days of the British Leyland era, that I shot last week in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service yard.

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QOTD: What Dead Model Would You Resurrect?

Despite the scores of new cars available to North American drivers, not every niche is filled. Entire segments of the new car market have all but been abandoned in the almighty search for profitability — or in the case of some OEMs, mere solvency.

Whither the personal luxury coupe? How about the almighty two-door, full size SUV? Buyers would certainly snap up tens of these every year.

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Across The Block: Carlisle Auctions, Lakeland, Florida

Well, that didn’t go as planned. Though, working from a baseball analogy, batting .250 isn’t too bad. More on last week’s picks later — on to the new stuff in sunny Florida!

For years, Carlisle has been shorthand for a series of massive swap meets in a central Pennsylvania town. I’ve not had the pleasure of a Carlisle event yet, but I’m imagining a million-acre orgy of rusty cars and parts. In other words, heaven.

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Foreign Affairs: MG6, United Kingdom

As wonderful as the American marketplace is, there’s an entire world — literally — of cars out there that we just can’t get our hands on. In TTAC’s new series, “Foreign Affairs,” we look at forbidden fruit that you can buy brand new around the world.

As a not-so-closeted Anglophile, I’ve waited for the day that I could walk into an American showroom and drive home a new MG. The iconic octagonal badge reminds me of the MGBs that I restored with my father, and the possibility of a new car with that badge is another link to the man who made me a car enthusiast.

Of course, any time you buy an MG, there are three more letters that will come to mind: AAA. Buy the top-of-the-line package, with unlimited tows. Trust me.

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