>About this bizness of the Healey motor going into the MGC... Isn't it
>L. Porter's book that ways that many people think they used the old
>3000, but in fact they didnt, that the MGC 3000 was a fresh design?
Well, it was and it wasn't.
When it became apparent that the Big Healey would be unable
to meet upcoming US smog and safety requirements, BMC began
looking into a replacement for their 3-liter, 6-cylinder cars.
The six used in Austin-Healeys was due for a revision to be
used in a number of saloons and commercial vehicles about
that time, so BMC management decided to convince Abingdon,
where both MGs and Healeys were built, that they could put
this new engine in the MGB chassis. The idea was that as
long as the Sprite and Midget were clones, the Big Healey
and the Big MG could be cloned, too.
Abingdon engineers under the direction of Syd Enever set to
work with the dimensions of the engine as it was envisioned
by Austin engineers. Longbridge promised that the engine
would be lighter, more compact, and more powerful as well (to
deal with the proposed US smog requirements). Given these
dimensions, Enever came up with a revised front and rear
suspension for the MGB. The rear was simple: he added a leaf
to the springs to compensate for the stiffer springs required
by the added weight in front.
The front suspension was interesting and sophisticated for
its day. To keep the weight low, Enever went to torsion
bars connected to the lower A-arm. In spite of BMC's
insistence on changing nothing that customers couldn't
see, Enever also upgraded to modern tubular dampers at
the front end. As a further upgrade, he specified wider
15" wheels to replace the MGB's 14" rims. They had high
hopes for the car's handling based on these improvements.
Reality slapped them in the face when the engine arrived,
late, overweight, and larger than spec. To make matters
worse, it was down on power compared to the last Healey
engine, a situation that would only be worsened by the
expected modifications required for US smog laws. There
was some concern over whether the engine would be able to
make enough power to compensate, in the MGB's chassis, for
its extra weight.
The problems intensified when it was installed. Hood
clearance required the fitting of a bulge; while the
teardrop required to clear the carburettors was traditional
and interesting, clearance for the front of the engine
required a flat section be added to the center of the
bonnet, with a rounded nose. For no apparent reason,
there's also a chrome strip across the middle of this
section, breaking up the attempt at making the bonnet look
unified. Oh, yes -- it was also longer than had been
envisioned, because the engine had been built with
seven main bearings.
The added weight required a hasty revision of spring and
damper rates, which still resulted in Detroit-like understeer
in combination with the overweight engine. At least ride
improved due to the increased sprung weight, but performance
fears were nearly justified. 0-60 acceleration on the MGB
at that time was a tick over eleven seconds; the MGC in stock
form could hit the same mark in about ten and a half. A
contemporary road test of the MGC denounced the engine as
the apparent product of "a disgruntled agricultural engineer
who had been transferred against his will to the marine
diesel division." Power was rated at 135 bhp, but the
delivery was deliberate and without willingness to rev.
Offsetting this was the car's top speed, over 120 mph which
compared favorably with the MGB's 105 mph. In addition,
the lazy six combined beautifully with the electric overdrive
to make a wonderful touring car, capable of US highway
speeds (then 70 mph in most states) with ease. The torsion
bars, uprated dampers, and extra weight combined to make it
a comfortable long-distance cruiser -- think of the difference
between the ZX and the original Z and you'll have some of
the idea, down to the availability of an automatic transmission.
The MGC was, however, neither a good MG nor a good Healey, at
least as judged by the owners of the day. It lacked the MG's
crisp steering response and superb balance, and it lacked the
Healey's hairy-chested power and the BJ8's walnut-dashed elegance.
It looked too much like an MGB for those who wanted a Healey,
and it never really caught on with either camp. It was
discontinued in 1969, its second full year of production.
Another contemporary report said that "somewhere in the
corporation, it lost the Abingdon touch."
Today, MGC owners are, in some ways, the British-car owners
of British-car owners. Just as MG and TR owners are used to
scorn from owners of ubiquuitous econoboxes, MGC owners take
a sort of perverse pride in the fact that they have an
unloved -- or to them, unappreciated -- vehicle. They can
point proudly to John Chatham's successes in the lightened,
200+ bhp MGC racers with which he attacked the Targa Florio
and other races of the day. However, while the relative
scarcity of MGCs has kept them slightly more expensive than
MGBs, they have not taken flight as the Big Healeys have.
In the GT form, with the body's natural weight bias toward
the rear balancing the extra mass of the engine, the handling
improves, and besides, the comfort and quiet of the GT
matches the six-cylinder's smoothness well. And unless
you can manage to snag an imported MGB-V8, the MGC is
the easiest way to get a 120-mph MG.
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