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MG MGB Technical - Aluminum

Out of curiosity, doing a little research about vintage racing, did the factory build any other aluminum body panels besides the hood? Does anyone have any info or link about fenders, flairs, deck lid etc... Things the factory did use? It seems to me, at the time, engineers already had a good understanding about weight distribution and using lightweight components like aluminum and magnesium.

Thank you,

Kb.
Kevin B

There were a few GT bodies made of aluminum for the GTS cars. The first was an MGB GT and the rest were MGC GT. As far as I know they were not made available to the public.
Steve Simmons

Do you know what year(s)? The GTS had the full fender flairs correct? These would have been late 60's.

Thank you,

kb.
Kevin B

Kevin,

There are aluminium door skins and front valances about. I am not sure to what extent the factory used these other than on the MGC GTS.

There was an extended nose fittied to the factory MGB racers for a while in the early/mid 60s. I don't know if this was aluninium or glass fiber. These cars also had modified front wings to give lower head lamps. I don't know what they were made of either.

Do you have the book written by Peter Browning and Mike Alison about factory race cars. My copy is at home. I will look in it tonight and see if it says anything

David
David Witham

Thank you!,

What was the name of the book? I'd like to pick up a copy or any other books that have to do with the factory racing effort. (for me the more details the better!)

kb.
Kevin B

Kevin,
Durin,g 1967 and for 1968 competitions, the MG factory launched a GT LBL 591E. Had to be an alloy body car , just before MG GTS Regards .
Renou

Kevin, the best book I've found dealing with MG and racing is called "The Works MGs" by Mike Allison and Peter Browning. It covers the entire racing history of the MG Works cars from the 20's until the 60's.

The three aluminum bodies were created in 1967 by Pressed Steel Fisher. They included full flares front and rear to clear the wide wheels and tires used on the cars. The first car was built as a 2004cc MGB GT because the 6-cylinder MGC engines were not ready in time for the racing season.

In addition to the aluminum bodies, front and rear valences were also fashioned in aluminum, and the cars ran sans bumpers. Check out http://www.mgmotorsport.co.uk/ for photos of GTS Sebring replicas.
Steve Simmons

Now, if someone will just make some aluminum rimmed wire wheels.
Richard Cutright

That's the second time you've teased us you &$*#)(@(!!!

;)
Steve Simmons

Extract of magazine 'Historic Race & Rally' January 1993
The production of the six sets of lightweight body panels was the first example of Abingdon's ability to get things moving, because I would imagine Pressed Steel were none too keen to stop production and carry out the very difficult task of making our special panels off their precious standard presses.
Big Healey ace John Chatham built up the remaining four GTS, (S for 'Special') bodyshells into complete cars, but their history doesn't concern us here : there are only two genuine works-prepared and raced lightweight MGC GTSs and those are MBL 546E and RMO699F.
Syd Enever's Development Department designed and developed these bodies. The pressings were made by Pressed Steel and then assembled on production steel floorpans, using rivets – you can see them showing through her on MBL's wings – bolts and Araldite, by the Castle Bromwich body plant. For further weight saving, side windows are perspex and quarterlights frames are replicated in alloy; RMO has a unique front –hinged bonnet. "We had problems with the bonnets coming open and flapping on their safety straps because of movement of the aluminium bodies".
A report from pre-Marathon testing at Thruxton shows another drawback of the lightweight body :"Fit safety catches on doors as body distorts". Simple, sliding cupboard catches remain on both cars.
A weighbridge ticket from July 1968 show that MBL turned the scales at exactly 22cwt when weighed in Marathon trim, ready to roll, compared with a dry weight of 23.3cwt for the standard MGC GT.
The lightweight MGCs were another typical example of a promising but short lived project that died because in senior management was prepared to follow it through with a degree of commitment it deserved.
Regards.

michel

The Dec/Jan 1998/9 back-issue of MG World
magazine features the MGB/GT & MGC/GT GTS
factory racers on the cover, including an article.

The bodies on both B/GT and C/GT GTS cars
started with steel production monocoques, with
aluminum fenders, doors and bonnet attached.
The side glass were plexi (Perspex) mounted to
alloy frames.

The aluminum body parts were made at Pressed
Steel at Cowley. This company was brought into
BMC. Then, more later, this became Rover Body
and Pressings.

The stamping dyes were the same ones that were
used for making the production steel GT bodies.
These dyes were worn units and soon-to-be
discarded but were pulled and hastily modified
(quick & dirty & cheap) to:

a) form the flares to accomodate wider tires.

b) try to roughly account for the different tensile
strength, and flexibility and "rebound memory"
qualities of aluminum sheet vs steel sheet.

c) to meet the fast-approaching deadlines to build,
prep, test, and field the cars for the upcoming
racing season.

d) stay within budget.

About 20 sets of aluminum body stampings were
made before the modified dyes were rendered
unusable from the punishment that the press
inflicted on them during the manufacturing of the
bodies. The panels made from these dyes were
rather rough and needed much hand work and
fixing to fit them onto the production steel tub.
After the GTS cars were built, the remaining
panels were kept on hand as team spares.

There was a rumor of a GTS car having been
fully replicated using a set of these panels here
in the US by a private owner (...maybe in Georgia?)
but this was never fully substantiated.

There IS a person here in the US of whom I had
read about in the 1990's - who had a GTS car built
from alloy body panels that were hand-formed on
wood bucks. The article stated that he was putting
out "feelers" to test the market interest, and to seek
capitol investors for a venture to make alloy GTS
body parts for installing on new Heritage shells.
I can only assume that this idea never caught on
as I had not heard anything further about this
venture since then...but I sometimes wonder
whatever became of those bucks.
Daniel Wong

from 'Works MGs'
'65 LeMans car, DRX 255C, had lightweight alloy (aluminum, I'd think) boot lid, doors, hood.
the book doesn't say whether the droop snouts and modified fenders were aluminum or not, but I'd bet so.
there's a build sheet for MBL 547E (not to be confused with Mabel the C GTS) for the '67 Targa Florio that lists all panels as 'standard.'
Other than the CGTS cars, that's all I saw about aluminum or not, but I also found the book to be very lacking in detail of how the comp. cars were put together and their specs, especially considering they mention that all that info survives.
I think I saw somewhere that some other comp. cars, Sebring perhaps, used aluminum panels also. Just a vague memory though.
W Keene

I believe there were at least three early roadsters with aluminum panels. Two of them were present at Laguna Seca for the Historic Motor Sports Association MG Reunion in March:

"The event will also pay tribute to the Kjell Qvale's San Francisco BMCD Sebring team.  It will be 40 years ago to the day in 1964 that two MGBs from the three-car team finished 17th and 22nd overall at the 12 hours of Sebring.  Those two cars will be reunited with Qvale; Joe Huffaker, who prepared the cars; surviving drivers Ed Leslie, Jim Parkinson and Jim Adams; crew chief Frank Morrill; and other members of the original team."
Chris Attias

From what I have been able to put together from reading the MG history books is that the LeMans roadsters had aluminum hood, front wings, door skins, and trunk lid. The extended snout was also formed out of aluminum. The "long nose" roadsters had special front wings that were hand formed (if you see pictures, you will notice that the headlights are nicely faired in with covers) and then the snout was welded on.
Ron Kluwe

This thread was discussed between 31/03/2004 and 02/04/2004

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