Dave Houser <mgs4dave@warwick.net> wrote:
<<<Subject: Re: The MG Story on Speedvision
To All,
Ken brings up the one item that tweaked my ears, too. Where are those 6
MGB's with the "O" Series engines? Anyone have any info on them.
Hopefully, there may be one more "Great Barn Find"?
cheers,
Dave Houser>>>
I tried to find the full story on this yesterday but only came up with part
of it. From David Knowle's research published in MG: the Untold Story and
his recent MGB book:
There were at least 11 O-series MGB development cars, six of which were (all
fuel-injected versions) road tested in the US. There were also twin
carburetted European spec versions in some of the cars. None was ever
released from Abingdon with an O-series in place. One of the car bodies used
is still known to exist - former MG Chief Engineer Don Hayter used one of the
O-series development bodies to build the V8 he still ownes today.
The part I could not find - I seem to remember that the O-series development
project came to a very sudden end with urgent orders from Longbridge to pack
up all the engines and ship them to Triumph and that was the last that was
seen or heard of them. At least that is what I think I read somewhere but I
can't find that specific statement anywhere at the moment
David did come up with a couple photos of the O-series mounted in a B. He was
told for some time that, despite the references to the project in the ADO
register, there were no photographs of the engine in a B. Eventually he did
come up with two - one of the carburetted version and one of the
fuel-injected version intended for North America.
The comparative figures were very promising - Top speed of 106mph in US spec
and 107 in UK spec versus the B-series of the time at 93mph US /104mph UK.
Zero to 60 was 12.0 US/11.1 UK versus the B-series at 17.0 US/ 13.3 UK. The
other comment cited is that British Leyland's US resident liaison engineer
said that the O-series B was the best B ever for cooling efficiency in high
ambient temperatures.
So from the documentation, it's unlikely one will ever pull one of these cars
out of an English barn. But then there is always the story of the Pininfarina
MGB GT development car that Chief Engineer Roy Brocklehurst said he saw cut
up by the tax collector that actually still exists today to provide hope and
inspiration...
Kim Tonry
Downers Grove, Illinois, USA
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