The MG B engine turned out to be a remarkably peppy and durable little motor. That’s in spite of the modern-day rap of mid-century British sports cars for being unreliable rust buckets. It turns out that not everything people say on the Internet is gospel.
That said, the equivalent Volvo engine from around the same time as the 1969 MG MGB was in a class of its own. It was known for driving a million miles (1.6-million kilometers) without breaking a sweat. As a fitting ambassador for Swedish efficiency and reliability, the Volvo B18 engine from the P1800 does a fitting job.
That’s why when the owner of this MGB decided to merge the two paradigms, it was a stroke of genius. It’s for sale via eBay out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and without prior warning that the engine wasn’t stock, we’d be none the wiser. Power is fed to a Ford Type 9 five-speed manual gearbox present in the Ford Sierra in Europe and the Merkur XR4Ti in the States.
It’s as eclectic a collection of parts in a single build as we’ve seen in a long time. This MGB still sports the same Primrose Yellow paint it left the factory over 50 years ago, wearing. Its current owner purchased it sometime in the mid-2010s with every intention of completing a full exterior restoration on top of the extensive drivetrain upgrade. Sadly, the owner’s advancing age meant they decided to let someone younger and with more vigor than they themselves had.
This build is by no means perfect, with rust patches on the paint and underneath. We can see such a unique car and engine combo being a nice all-around restoration project with solid foundations. With minor problems to be fixed in the interior, under the hood, and underneath the car, a build like this is bound to be a crash course in all the finer points of classic car restoration.