Ross MacPherson wrote:
> Corey et al,
>
> I bought a brand new B roadster in `1976. On one occasion I took it to a
> dealer in a diffent part of town for one of it's regular scheduled warranty
> service checks. While kicking around waiting to pick it up I wandered
> through the show room. There, under some dramatic lighting was a Jubilee
> edition, brand new. It was a BRG roadster with gold trim, badges and, If I
> remeber correctly a different steering wheel. I can't remeber the wheels at
> all but I'm pretty sure they weren't regular rostyles.
>
> Like you said they are (or were) around but not many, I don't think I've
> ever seen another one.
Some info from Clausager's "Original MGB":
"It was decided that 1975 would be the right year to celebrate MG's
50th anniversary, although strictly speaking this was a year or two
late. But it was the 50th anniversary of 'Old Number One', the first
real MG sports car. A special limited edition of the MGB GT was brought
out, called the 'Jubilee" (or sometimes 'Anniversary') model. The
intention was to make 750 of these cars, but when one was destroyed in a
TV advertising stunt a replacement was built, bringing the total to
751. The cars were built between April and June 1975 and carried car
numbers from G-HD5/374858-G TO G-HD5/379588-G."
"The 'Jubilee' model was painted Racing Green (BLVC 25), a standard MGB
colour during the 1971 model year and also known as New Racing Green,
and had a gold tape decoration scheme on each flank, incorporating the
MG badge surrounded by a laurel wreath and the legend '1925-1975'.
Special equipment included V8-style cast alloy wheels painted gold and
black, and overdrive, headrests and tinted glass were all standard. A
black-spoked steering wheel and matt black door mirrors were unique to
the model. The trim color was black and these cars had full carpeting,
which was not yet offered on ordinary MGBs or V8 models. The front and
rear badges, and the steering wheel badge, were all of the 'gold' type
commonly found on 1975 calendar year MG cars."
"Each of the 'Jubliee' cars was shipped from the factory with a
numbered plaque. The idea was that the selling dealer should arrange to
have the name of the first owner engraved on the plaque, which could
then be fitted on the facia. But most plaques were probably never
fitted to the cars at all, and often became separated from the cars when
they changed hands. Unfortunately the 'limited edition' numnbers were
found only on the plaques and were not recorded by the factory. Replica
plaques are now available but the correct number in most often not
known."
There is a photo of one of these in the book. The gold stripe is taller
that others you might see, going from just above the trim strips (body
color, not chrome) to just below the mirrors. The door handle is just
about centered in that height. If anyone on the list doesn't have access
to the book, and would like a copy of the photo, let me know. I can
scan it and e-mail it to you.
Cheers -
--
Wayne Kube wkube@iadfw.net
'79B
Plano, TX http://web2.airmail.net/wkube
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