I’ve built one MGB V8 Roadster and restored another. I would have liked a V8 but the prices are too strong at the moment.
I've been looking at V8 Roadsters quite seriously - obviously as they're all individually specified/built there's a vast difference in quality and specification. The asking prices may be strong but my observation, over the last few months, is that very few are selling. The trick is obviously to find a good one at a sensible price.
When I did the first one (nearly 30 years ago now - eek) parts were available and fairly easy to buy, MGC back axle, Princess front Callipers, LT77 gearbox, SD1 Vitesse engine, Edlebrok inlet, and block hugger exhaust manifolds. I got the lot for under £1500. The bulkhead, steering rack, propshaft, instruments, wheels and suspension needed modifying and that cost about the same. The car itself cost £3500 and was very nice, I managed to sell the parts I didn’t want for about £1300. So I built the car for a tad over £5000. Sold it 10 years later for £9500, today it would be around £25k.
Best one we did was with a pal who couldn’t wield a spanner. He found a totally rotten genuine GT V8 and already had a very nice roadster. He gave just £300 for the horrible V8 and 4 of us put all the parts into his roadster, amazingly the mechanicals were all perfect. 6 years later I bought that car off him and it needed some restoration including a gearbox rebuild. It was a lovely car but I didn’t bond with it as well as the first one I built so I didn’t keep it that long.
