Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Modern Classic Cars Frontline Abingdon Edition

Heinz, I don't really know what the car cost. I know I paid $20,000AUD being $10,000 deposit towards parts for starting the project and $10,000 for the car. So I will use the receipt for $10,000 for the transfer and pay taxes based on that. Based on what I looked at $10,000 is very cheap for the condition and I don't recognisable this car as being advertised on any of the usual places. So either the restoration company has a lot of contacts who know people wanting to get rid of cars, is very good at negotiating or probably both. I expect he did pay over $10,000 but hopes to make it up by having a nice straight body with no rust to fix will save him some money.

Not an actual contract signed in the old fashioned way but he sent me specs and I agreed via e-mail - which I guess is signing in these days. I do like your idea of driving it as is for a while and enjoying the experience, if it breaks down and is unreliable then go ahead earlier but if is it nice and reliable drive it for longer. That was my initial thoughts however he is trying to do the car now as a win win situation for me, his other two current customers and himself. He has run out of engines for 2.5L conversions which is what two cars he is currently working on but has a 2.0Litre engine in stock which I am happy with, the next two customers on his waiting list also want the 2.5L engines. Due to the Coronavirus OMEX like a lot of places in the UK (including Morgan) are not shipping or manufacturing stuff so the 2.5L engines that were supposed to arrive two months ago have not been shipped yet. Rather than finishing off those cars and charging the progress payments as planned then letting them sit waiting for the engines he would work on them slower while doing my car.

So basically
A win for those two current customers as they have not paid say 60% or 80% to have the cars sit in his workshop waiting for engines to arrive before being finished.
A win for him as his 6 staff can keep working full time on my car and a bit on those two other cars.
A win for me as I jump what would have been a 9 month wait.

The other win for me is to keep "She who Must Be Obeyed" happy is after he did up the price list he said he would throw in both air-conditioning and heated seats for her as he has the parts from a car that didn't go ahead and he could tell she really wanted both. I think that is a pretty good deal sweetener as the air-conditioning was $7,000 and seeing where I live goes from very cold winters to very hot summers those two things that will allow the car to be used a lot more often.

That sounds a reasonably accurate price - $10000 is about £5250 and you can get a reasonable MGB here for £3500 up to about £25,000 for one with a full nut and bolt restoration.

You can buy runners in need of resto from £1000 upwards. (I was considering a GT for a daily driver, but the sub 30mpg is putting me off)

How much for a new wife?

PRICES FROM: £88,475.00

http://www.frontlinedevelopments.com/vehicle/mg-abingdon-edition/

Yeah - LOT of money for an MGB!

These Frontline Abingbon threads - have come up before...I just cannot see the justification of a £88K MGB.

If they were £29K that would still be plenty, however, I think that can be rationalised that.

A colleague has a fully restored TR6 with a BMW M3 engine in it (321 bhp), he has completed all the work him self (body off chassis) strengthened the whole thing, it is on bespoke suspension and has an integrated roll bar, the fit and finish is way beyond what Triumph originally churned out. The six cylinder howl is also massively appealing...

It is totally docile yet weighs approx. 60% of the original M3 (which was not a slow car) - the build cost was circa £55k.

And you can get a half decent +8 for £24,000

Morgan +8

TBM - agreed - that looks cheap - stacked up against the MGB - people will actually recognise the Morgan (especially being a V8) as "being something special". The MGB...is at the end of the day...another MGB

All I would say is drive one and then let me hear your comments !!!

I have driven the MGBGT version with the same Mazda MZR as my Supersports and it flies,sounds great and handles really well..and in the GT version has that classic design that has aged well in my opinion.

I suppose the crux of it is 'it's an MGB'. If I wanted to go stupidly fast, I wouldn't want it to be in an MGB. If I wanted a sports car to bimble round in, and turn a few heads it wouldn't be in an MGB. If I had £80K to spend on a classic, it wouldn't be on an MGB.

That's not to say I don't like them. I do, and did consider one to do the daily commute to work, but as I said earlier, the mpg isn't enough. At £3 to £5K, they're not a bad option for a good old British classic.

They do seem to get rave reviews, a lot of money, but then so are $400,000 Singer 964 Porsches. The Restomod industry seems to be booming, even if we cannot afford them they do keep craftsmen employed. (And dreamers dreaming)