As the story goes, following the explosive success of the Miata in the late ’80s and early ’90s, MG—now the property of Rover Group—realized that anything Mazda could do, it could do better (or at least just as well).
What MG created was this, the RV8. Based on slightly updated MGB architecture, the roadster made use of a 3.9-liter V8 …
A friend owns one of these and they are a very nice car that remedies many of the glaring faults of the original MGB.
The early MGB was a very decent sports car and a popular one - they sold more cars than any other sports car did until the Miata. When the emissions and safety regs hit everyone in the early 1970s, it absolutely gutted the MGB, though. Lost a third of the power it had and to meet new bumper height rules without a major (and expensive) redesign, the factory just jacked the cars up, so that the handling was also ruined.
Many people own the rubber bumper single carb era MGBs and enjoy them, but the best advice to them is to never drive an earlier MGB as they will realize how far the mighty have fallen.
The RV8 was a latter day attempt to produce a decent sports car using the old patterns (they had already produced the MGB GT V8 back in the 70s using the 137 bhp V8 version - actually lower rated than the straight 6 MGC engine).
We've had several people buy these cars out of Japan - we were able to get them into Canada legally before you could do that in the US.
I have to say that the painted front end of these cars looks (to e at least) way better than the black nosed rubber bumper MGBs - too bad they didn't go one colour with them.
In reply to wspohn :
I'd have to agree with you on the bumpers, I know they were necessary, but all that black rubber didn't do much for the aesthetic.
And when it comes to the RV8, maybe it's better to look at it as the "ultimate" version of the MGB. All things considered, I'd buy one if I was in the market.
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