Mx 5 mk1 to mgb gt

[chriswindows]

Hi, I'm considering a project of a mx5 to mgb gt shell. I would use all the underpinnings of the mx and put the shell of the mg over it, probably using fibre glass front wings and bonnet. I think a mx5 with 200+ bhp like the £60k frontline mgb gt le50 but at a fraction of the price! Any advice ideas would be great!

[tooldtocruise]

im sure there's one on ebay or might just have the engine fitted

[spoodler]

Before you go cutting anything up have a look on here at the various ramifications with regard to registering it...

http://www.the-ace.org.uk/

[wildoliver]

I don't mean this disrespectfully at all but this is a big project, much bigger than most people realise, it is not a case of drop the running gear off the MX5 offer it up in to the MGB and weld brackets to suit, there are substantial mods required to the shells structure which will throw you in to registration difficulties. The only way round this is to modify the suspension on to the original rear suspension mounts and front subframe assembly, at this point you may as well use the hoyle rear suspension and one of the various front suspension upgrades.

The engine is a reasonable fit, I'm playing with this at the moment.

Truth be told in 99% of cases you would be better off with an mx5 and an mgb both in original nice condition as a combination of the 2 can very easily end up the worst of both worlds and cost a lot of money to achieve, it's not like an MGB really has any reliability issues and they aren't slow when set up correctly (also not quick but an MX5 engine unless substantially tuned isn't going to improve that, to get an mx5 engine to 200bhp is going to require forced induction).