Topic: Firm's Keeper MGB

[Seafoam]

Well, finished off a bunch of little jobs on the MGB over the weekend; paint correction, mixed up some touchup paint (homebrew match) and touched up a bunch of chips, installed a new set of horns (oddly the wiring was good, the horns themselves were bad...weird), refilled one of the factory lever shocks that had leaked out, and replaced the old ugly non-retractable antenna with a nice retracting one (for ease of car-cover fit).

Also took it to a local cruise-in show, which meant taking it on the highway for the first time, and driving back in the dark. Did great on both counts, though 115km/h has it sitting over 3500RPM, so not exactly a highway cruiser, lol.

Unfortunately I don't have enough parking at my place to keep it here, so moved it to my buddy's barn about 15 minutes away...close enough to access it when I want to drive, but the likelihood of making the effort to do so is pretty limited. I will give it at least one more good run before winter storage though.

What is the axle ratio ? Sounds like gearing similar to a miata. I am presently in the process of doing a ring and pinion swap on the MSM.

[Firm]

Standard MGB rear gears at 3.9, and there isn't a lot of direct swap options available....MGC had a couple different ratio options, but MGCs are scarce so those are not easy to come by. Hence the electronic O/D transmission is a coveted option and popular swap. Some people swap to Toyota 5-speeds as well, but that's not my thing....The factory MGB gearbox is actually a pleasure to use.

At the end of the day, we're not used to spinning 3500-4000RPM on the highway, but that's what these cars and engines were designed to do, and they'll do it happily for many, many miles. It's just not terribly enjoyable, for me at least.

MGB does drive very similar to the NA Miata though - back when The Hire had his NA I drove it a fair bit and the Miata does feel like the natural evolution of the MGB.

[Seafoam]

^^ yes and the Lotus Elan. If you drive with the top down mostly you don't really notice the higher rpm. For me it is a summer car so the top is down the majority of the time. You really notice the higher rpm's with the top up.  I am going for a gear swap ,this will give me a bit better mileage on the highway.

[John Simon]

Once I worked at a workshop there I restored a 1979 MGB put N/A V8 from Toyota Landcruiser in it, Damn I still kinda miss that sound and the drive of that car