MG F | Shed of the Week
A one-owner, mid-engined sports car for less than £2k has to be worth a look - doesn't it?
Here's a right blast from the past in the mid-engined shape of, incredibly, just the second MG MGF to drop into Shed of the Week (for the last fourteen years, at least). The only other one was a 1998 Abingdon special edition that appeared here in January 2024.
When it was launched in 1995 the MGF was touted as a British MX-5, which was ironic when you remembered that the Mazda had been touted as Japan's answer to British sports cars from firms like MG. The F had plenty going for it: neat styling, a mid-engined design and a very good engine in the K-Series 16-valve naturally aspirated four. This was a compact and, at 104kg, very lightweight engine that ended up being used in a raft of other cars including the Lotus Elise. It lent itself well to old school tuning, i.e. not just chips or reflashes or any of that geeky stuff but the kind of oily, hands-on twiddling most modern young techies won't have a clue about. Long-forgotten twiddling techniques like head-polishing, an activity enthusiastically practiced by the postmistress every Tuesday evening once the other students have left Shed's Do Your Own Servicing Because I Don't Want To workshop.
Although she is well versed in the world of hands-on oiliness and certainly knows her way around a tool, the postmistress is not so experienced when it comes to fettling cars, so she would welcome a chance to tinker with this MG F's mechanicals. They're simple enough. Our Shed doesn't have either of the VC versions of the 1.8 producing 157hp or 143hp. Nor does it have the higher-powered (133hp) non-VVC engine. Instead it's running the most basic, softly cammed, 116hp/118lb ft 1.8, an easygoing and torquey unit that pushed the 1,075kg F through the 0-60 run in eight and a bit seconds. Fuel consumption was quoted at 37mpg and because it was registered before 1 March 2001 today's annual VED bill is based on engine size and will therefore be £375.
The MOT history on this car is spectacular, with just six consumable advisories across 19 tests online and none at all over the last ten years. A mileage discrepancy of 27,000 miles did occur sometime between the 2016 and 2017 tests, suggesting that the car has actually done 96,000 rather than the 69,000 miles mentioned in the ad. That's not necessarily a problem. Speedo failure was a known issue on Fs.
Five of those six advisories were suspension-related. The Hydragas system used on the F and replaced on the TF successor has been described as MG Rover's equivalent of Mercedes' Airmatic, i.e. rubbish, but in fairness to Hydragas it would have worked brilliantly if the pipework had been connected front to rear as inventor Alex Moulton intended. Cost-cutting generally reduced the F to somewhere it shouldn't have been. Now, even the most ardent F fan will admit that these cars are not all that easy or pleasant to work on.
Shed has himself had to reach for the thesaurus on more than one occasion. The good thing about them is that parts prices are low and there are plenty of mugs, sorry, ardent fans about to help you with advice. On the safe presumption that the K's original and infamously fragile parts will have been put right yonks ago, this low-stressed motor should serve its next (and by the looks of it only its second) owner well if they choose to put the same level of care into it as the first one seems to have done.
These Fs are getting rare. Over 77,000 were sold in the UK, but the website that tells you how many are left, cleverly entitled howmanyleft.co.uk, says that there are now only 1,500 or so MG Fs still running on British roads, and that the number of those road-registered cars is dropping at the rate of around 300 cars a year. Admittedly it also says there are over 5,000 Fs off the road, but with even the youngest F being nearly a quarter of a century old and the oldest tripping past the 30-year mark you do wonder what sort of nick most of those hidden-away Fs will be in now.
Interestingly the Abingdon F featured here two and a half years ago is still rolling around at 89,000 miles. Fs might be old, but if you get a good 'un and hang on to it it might turn out to be gold.
I’ve got a soft spot for the MGF. It was launched not long after I joined Rover Group, and I was involved in some of the early development work on ‘PR3’ as it was known internally. It was one of the first cars to have electric power steering (Honda NSX was the first car to market I think) and we were doing some calibration work on the system. We’d imported a blue Eunos before the MX5 was on sale and spent a day driving that and a heavily camoed PR3 round various tracks at Gaydon.
Drove a lot of them over the years. Handling was really good, and the VVC engined car was pretty quick. The development budget was tiny, but the car itself was pretty good.
Actually, I don t care Hated them when they were new and my stance towards them hasn t softened with time.
As has already been stated, buy an MX5.
I had an MX5 (NC mk 3.75) a few years ago and it honestly one of the most disappointing cars I ve owned. Only kept it about six months.
I ve no desire for an MGF but in the day it did pretty well. I’ve driven them with the hard top fitted and it was horrible - made an awful booming sound as the roof flexed at speed.
I ve got a soft spot for the MGF. Cheap fun. Nice engine, tidy handling. I think the early ones like this look nice too. Those suggesting MX5 s instead. Try finding one at this money that isn t now 30% bran flakes. Same I think with MR2 s.
Did the 1.8 have the head gasket issues, I know the original 1.4 did?. I had a 1.4 in a Rover 400, nice engine and the HG didn't fail whilst I had it.
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