Driven: Frontline Developments MG LE50
Yes, it's another 'modernised' classic but when it's done with such tact and delicacy who's to argue?
The LE50 is a planned production run of 50 brand new MGBs, celebrating the car's 50th anniversary in 2012 with the full approval of British Motor Heritage Limited - the license holder for the classic MG brand. But this is no mere re-creation; Frontline has completely re-engineered the car for the 21st century, working within type approval constraints in order to maintain a 1965 model year designation.
1965? Well, yes, for although the MGB began life as a roadster in 1962, the GT coupe didn't arrive until three years later. Frontline's goal is to deliver a compact 'grand tourer' that will still happily devour a track day, so as standard it has just the two seats and a rear luggage deck. The roof makes sense in this context, even before you learn there's now a 215hp 2.0-litre engine under the bonnet in place of the 95hp (at best) 1.8-litre B-Series.
Modern twist
Frontline has chosen to use a tweaked 2012 Mazda MX-5 unit. This isn't just for the irony: factory-coated forged pistons and solid lifters. Upgrades are 45mm throttle bodies, a new exhaust cam (the variable timing on the inlet cam already has 40 degrees of adjustment), a custom Omex engine management system and a carefully tuned exhaust.
The engine drives the rear wheels via the MX-5's lightweight, all-aluminium six-speed manual gearbox. Suspension is aluminium wishbones with adjustable telescopic dampers at the front and a multi-link set-up with adjustable coilovers at the rear to better control the live axle Frontline has to retain for those type approval purposes. Spring rates and anti-roll bars are all specific, too.
This hardware is attached to new British Motor Heritage bodyshells, which Frontline has seam-welded to maximise strength, correcting all the usual rust trouble spots in the process. Painting is handled by a local specialist (seven weeks per car...), while every component is CAD drawn and analysed to a very precisely controlled spec.
Old spice
Confronted with the LE50 for the first time, you're reminded just how pretty the MGB actually is, with an elegance that's almost period Aston-ish. The look is deliberately classic, with chrome bumpers and Dunlop wheels. Wires are a no-cost option, if you want to take this even further. Frontline can easily build you something lairier in appearance but you won't get that with an LE50 badge and the same level of British Motor Heritage endorsement.
I suspect you'd also be slightly missing the point. Which in this case is to deliver a car that looks to all intents and purposes like a classic MGB, yet goes like the absolute clappers.
First clue to this potential comes even before you've pressed the Bakelite starter button. The Smiths dials, made to exactly match the design of the originals but now fronting modern digital internals, feature a speedometer that reads to 170mph. These nestle in an Alcantara-swathed interior, beautifully hand-finished by Frontline's own trimmer, and enlivened by authentic Lucas switchgear. Thankfully, like the instruments, these control modern components - including air conditioning, heated seats and a heated front windscreen, if you want them.
Nervous twitch
Fire it up and somehow the needles flicker with that fabulous uncertainty I always associate with tasty classic machinery before settling, immediately warming the blood. The idle is smooth but with a lumpy pulse - a gentle reminder that the engine under the bonnet isn't exactly as the manufacturer intended. There's a simple round globe of a gearknob and the 'box snicks beautifully into first.
Despite all the modern accoutrements and 23kg of Dynamat sound deadening thorough attention to detail and some substantial weight savings in the drivetrain and elsewhere mean it's actually slightly lighter than the original. It has near-perfect weight distribution across all four wheels too, with a slight bias towards the rear. That Mazda engine is mounted low and just 12mm from the firewall, giving the LE50 a near front-mid layout.
On the road it is immediately encouraging - no fear factor, just the reassuring smack of sorted capability. There's naturally more wind noise and less torsional rigidity than a modern performance car, and the initial body movement when turning into corners is a little soft, but it is quickly apparent that the steering assistance is accurately weighted, the damping very nicely judged and the car isn't going to bite if you throw it around a little. In fact - to use the vernacular - it loves a bit of it.
Sing it loud
All of which is only made more invigorating by the stupendous sound of the engine - a mellow, bellowing yowl that's led by induction rather than exhaust. You'd swear the motor was greater capacity even as it screams towards the 7,200rpm peak - and the gorgeous short-throw gearbox action, which snaps through the changes so sweetly you can't help but use it far more than strictly necessary.
Judging by the way the scenery whips by the windows, the computer calculated 5.1-second 0-60mph claim feels decidedly conservative. It's the middle of December so I'm not exactly giving it full beans in first gear, but the LE50 produces superb traction and although there are no electronic driver aids there is a limited-slip diff, which stops the back end from getting too far out of hand.
With the noise trumpeting the hypnotic, charging sweep of the rev counter, the brilliant gearbox and the certain knowledge that no-one else on the road can possibly be expecting a car that looks like this to move so quickly, Frontline has already created something just incredibly joyful. That it also goes round corners in a playful manner and is set up to disdainfully deal with British tarmac frankly means I'm blatting along grinning like the proverbial pussycat in a dairy.
You know you want to
Will it keep up with a furiously driven Clio Renaultsport on a demanding B-road, or offer the outright performance of a comparatively priced Cayman? Probably not - but the LE50 has huge character, true discerning exclusivity and an enormous sense of fun on its side.
There will be only 50. Frontline already has well over 100 customer test drives booked in, and it's being sold on a first come, first served basis. Customer car number one is going to Miami. Such a well-conceived idea, built on 20 years' experience and executed with a flourish. Wonderful stuff.
FRONTLINE DEVELOPMENTS MG LE50
Engine: 1,999cc 4-cyl
Power (hp): 215@7,200rpm
Torque (lb ft): 174@3,600rpm
0-62mph: 5.1 sec
Top speed: 158mph
Weight: 941kg
MPG: N/A
CO2: N/A
Price: c. £50,000 according to individual spec
Love MG B GTs (far prettier than the MG B), and putting the "ironic" internals of a modern Mazda in there is a great idea.
If I win the lottery, I'll have mine.....in Racing Green, with deep tan leather interior. And both the wire wheels (summer) and Dunlop racing wheels (winter).
I wonder why they chose an I4, and a relatively modest one at that.
With this sort of thing, how good the original car was is somewhat immaterial because these companies re-engineer them so thoroughly that they might as well be a different car. What exactly do you suggest would have made a better starting point? Personally, I'd rather have an eagle E-type, but they're about three times the price of this.
I wonder why they chose an I4, and a relatively modest one at that.
I wonder why they chose an I4, and a relatively modest one at that.
Probably best not to get caught up in the numbers game, with all these German cars with 500, 600, 700 bhp it is easy to see 200 bhp as a pitiful amount, suspect this is a nice drive and pretty quick.
Also the rear silencer mid pipe? could do with being a bit further away from the ground.
Would also look nice if it had the cowled headlamps.
I hope it sells, good luck to them.
Probably best not to get caught up in the numbers game, with all these German cars with 500, 600, 700 bhp it is easy to see 200 bhp as a pitiful amount, suspect this is a nice drive and pretty quick.
This will buy you for instance a near concourse early seventies BMW 3.0 CSL the sort of near concourse that buys a car that has been kept in a heated dehumidified garage, only to be driven twenty miles down a sunlit English country road before being washed in Holy water, and the car rubbed dry by an eighteen year old vestal virgin using her breasts.... I might be getting carried away, but you get the picture.
Nice car oh yes!!
That nice oh no!!
Brand new shell, brand new engine, brand new running gear, brand new brakes, etc, etc; 1966 registration? Would love to know how the chrome bumpers that were removed for the US impact safety standards in 1974 qualify in the new Euro-n-cap tests for a brand new car today
As the cars are being produced by volume (albeit a limited run of fifty) they should be 61-reg shouldn't they?
Anyway, even if it was classed as a new car, why would it go through NCAP? I can't see the average buyer of a car like this caring.
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