Welcome back! It’s day two of our countdown to the 46th annual Portland All-British Field Meet, and today we’re looking at a couple of great-running cars that are nowhere near the spec they were when they left their homeland. But before we get to those, let’s finish up with yesterday’s garage ornaments:
Well, it looks like the majority of you are shopping in the Husky department. As it happens, I agree; I dig Sprites of all ages, but I think if I ever got another two-seat roadster, it would be Italian. An oddball orphan wagon, though; that does sound like fun.
The reputation that British cars have for unreliability is not entirely deserved, but it’s also impossible to shake off at this point. Everyone loves the idea of them, but most enthusiasts are scared of the potential realities. This has had two effects on the market for British cars: First, it has kept prices low, so no one really cares about originality; and second, it has created whole cottage industries dedicated to making them more reliable. Today we’re looking at two staples of the low end of the British car market – the MGB and the Jaguar XJ6. One has been messed with cosmetically, the other mechanically. But both are in drive-away condition, according to the sellers. Let’s see which altered beast is a better deal.
1976 MGB – $4,500
Engine/drivetrain: 1.8 liter overhead valve inline 4, four-speed manual, RWD
Location: Pasadena, CA
Odometer reading: 72,000 miles
Runs/drives? Great, according to the seller
All right, let’s address the obvious right off the bat. Yes, the wheels are awful. They’re horribly unsuited to an MGB both in form and function. They make it look like one of those awful cheap die-cast toys you see at the drugstore, and I guarantee you they will absolutely obliterate both the ride and the handling. They simply have to go. The good news is that they’re probably worth something to someone, to put on some lesser car, and you only have to drive on them once, to get the car home. Then you can shop for more suitable rolling stock.
So let’s just look past that unpleasantness and see what else we’re dealing with here. 1976 isn’t a particularly desirable year for MGBs; by this time the US-market cars had to make do with a single-carb, low-compression engine, and all of them had the black urethane 5 MPH bumpers. But the wonderful thing about these later cars is that all those indignities simply bolt on, meaning they can just as easily be taken off and replaced. This MGB eschews bumpers altogether, in favor of aftermarket fiberglass “Sebring” filler panels. These give it a racy look, especially combined with the early-style “waterfall” grille. Personally, I think it needs big round driving lights and maybe some white number roundels on the doors to complete the look, but that’s just me. I can’t tell you how original it is under the hood without a photo, but the seller does say the engine has been rebuilt, and runs well.
The British racing green paint isn’t great; it looks like a homebrew job, with lots of orange peel, and I don’t really understand the shaved door handles. Lose the side trim, sure, but the MGB’s push-button chrome door handles are part of its character, and why get rid of a simple mechanical linkage for a potentially troublesome electrical one? (Most of the time, cars with shaved door handles have solenoid-actuated “poppers” to unlatch the doors.) I guess what’s done is done, and the MGA never had door handles, so there’s some precedent.
Inside, things look much better. We 1968-71 MGB owners are always envious of earlier or later MGB dashboards that actually have gloveboxes; we have to make do with a stupid little map pocket in the passenger’s side footwell. The seats don’t look original, but I can’t place what car they’re from. If someone recognizes them, please let me know in the comments. The convertible top is also new, and that’s no small thing, as anyone who has ever paid for a replacement one will tell you.
1983 Jaguar XJ6 – $3,000
Engine/drivetrain: 5.0 liter overhead valve V8, four-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Harbor City, CA
Odometer reading: 91,000 miles
Runs/drives? “Very neatly,” per the seller
Jaguar’s XK-series inline six has a long and rich history, dating back to 1948 and continuing all the way into the early ’90s. It powered everything from LeMans winners to luxury sedans. Powerful, smooth, physically beautiful (at least the early versions with the polished cam covers), and durable, this marvel of engineering defined Jaguar cars for four decades. If you insist, then, on pulling it out and replacing it with something else, that “something else” had better have just as long and rich of a history, be just as known for durability and performance, and if it isn’t pretty, it had better be able to sing. Surely, no such powerplant exists, right? To that, General Motors says “hold my ice-cold watery beer.”
Chevrolet’s small-block V8 isn’t quite as old as the Jag six, hitting the market in 1955, but its production totals exceed the XK’s many times over, and it has had its share of competiton glory. The vehicles in which it was installed may not have been as classy (think IROC Camaro vs E-Type), but millions of hot rodders can’t be wrong – the SBC is a legend. Installing a Chevy engine in a Jaguar is a controversial move, but what’s done is done, and in this case, it appears to have at least been done well. The center-bolt valve covers tell me that this car’s 305 V8 is a redesigned 1987 or newer small-block, which would originally have had throttle-body fuel injection. It now receives its fuel/air mixture from an Edelbrock four-barrel carb, and transmits power to the Jag’s independent rear end through a 700R4 overdrive automatic.
Apart from the V8 engine, the rest of this car is standard-issue old Jag, meaning wood and leather inside, and chrome and rust outside. Not much rust, but it is originally a Midwestern car, so a thorough check is in order. Close up, you can tell the paint isn’t in great condition, but it’s also a forty-year-old car now. As long as it looks good from ten feet away, though, and is structurally sound, who cares?
Plenty of purists will scoff (or worse) at a car like this, but personally, I’m fine with it. It’s a very pretty car, comfortable and pleasant to drive, and now it makes cool V8 noises too. Would I suggest that someone remove a good-running XK engine and replace it with a 305 out of (probably) a Chevy truck? Of course not. Would I happliy drive an XJ6 already so equipped, in this condition, for three grand? Hell yes.
Hacking up British cars to make them look different or go faster is a time-honored tradition here in America. I do sometimes wonder what they think of our creations. Which do you suppose is a greater sacrilege: a stylistic mishmash of an MGB, or a carefully-done V8 heart transplant in a classic Jaguar? But more to the point, which one do you prefer?
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
An XJ6 with a SBC is common enough to be pretty much normal, a 305 wouldn’t be my choice, but ok as a driveable placeholder. That would be an easy pick for me. The MGB is a conglomeration of mess covered by crap paint job.
As hideous as those wheels are, I’d buy the MG if forced to choose between that and the XJ6.
I might one-day implement shaved door handles on my Triumph GT6 EV, in the name of aero drag reduction.
You managed to show me an MGB that I don’t like. Any engine swap is questionable in my book. Somehow I managed to overlook the 20 foot visible orange peel and the wheels and the seats and voted for it. Feeling ill just thinking about it.
From where I’m sitting, those wheels make the MG look like a good chunk of those hyper expensive restomods that pay no mind to the character/design of the car they’re based on. perfect.
Also, my brother has an X350 XJR (had? seems his current use for it is testing if Jag developed aluminum that can rot. its been sitting for years, sadly.)
Several things. Primarily, the smell of leather in that car could immediately raise anyone’s tax bracket. Second, his has some special one-year only brembos (only one company still makes replacement brakes for it), factory multi-piece wheels, and the most stunning green paint I have ever seen. It’s not the regular BRG, but a pearl version of it, and holyyy. Don’t even look up pictures of it, doesn’t matter. Doesn’t come close to showing what it looks like in person. Unfortunately, typical jag issues, hard to find and expensive parts, drunks hitting it in the parking lot at his work, and him losing his paycheck during covid did it in. Hopefully one day we can bring it back to life because it’s a stunning and deeply comfortable car.
Anywho, make mine the MG. It would be much more enjoyable to work on, and more fun to drive in the end. Also if I want a small block chevy, I’m not dealing with a Jag. …And I’ve got enough Jag sized problems if I desired them.
Even instaselling the wheels on the MGB, that Jag just calls to me. Start it up and people are like wait..whut?
It always bugs me to see SBC swaps in XJ6s…I feel like the ubiquitous SBC flies in the face of the gentleman’s nature of the Jaaaaag. It’s reliable, yes, but unrefined. The Jaguar inline 6 is its foil, smooth, steady, classy. The interior of the Jaguar smells of library with a hint of cigar smoke, while the Chevy smells like Skoal spit and stale Budweiser.
Even still, the Jaguar has potential (and now uses regular 87 octane gas!) and it’s always a Jag. The MGB, well, those have never done much for me – it probably doesn’t help that I’m 6’2″ and have the shoulders of a linebacker.
All the “class” in the world is useless when the engine won’t start, run, or drive. Perhaps that “class” was an illusion all along?
But imagine how nice it’ll look in your driveway. Even the HOA won’t complain. Some people might even mistake you for Old Money!
HOA hahaha HOA! That’s funny right there.
Maybe not Old Money, but Money nonetheless. After buying my ’82 SB Chaguar for the princely sum of $2300, polishing it up, and driving around a bunch, I ran into a contractor I worked with. He was amazed I could afford “such a car”. He said he assumed it belonged to one of the folks “out South of town” (where the golf course is). I just laughed and pointed out I had less into than he had charged me to replace the rotten wood trim around my house the year before.
Either are good deals for the price, but I prefer the MGB. The wheels are objectively an abomination, but it otherwise looks nice. I actually like the shaved door handles and deleted bumpers. While I generally think shaved door handles are a bad idea, this is not a car I would drive with the top up. Even without the poppers, it is easy enough to reach over the window sill to open the doors from the inside. Overall, this looks like a fun car for the money.
If I’m going to make the effort to deal with a Jag, it might as well be a V12. So it’s the MGB for me.
Jag.
Although it pains and confuses me that a person would put in the effort to do a swap and then use a 305…
You can sell the MGB’s stupid wheels to some Altima driver who wasn’t going to be making their payment this month anyways. The money from that should cover a more appropriate set of wheels and tires, leaving you with a functional little roadster that you can keep as is or work on undoing the mods whenever you have spare time. I’ll take it over a Jag with the cheapest V8 a previous owner could find.
Both are Frankenstein cars by now. And neither is something the Col wants or wants to wrench on. And asking too much cash. YMMV.
Jaaag, please!
** The XJ6 price in the CL ad is now $2500, which is nice **
SBC swaps are fairly common for the XJ6, so I’m not too worried about that, and according to the pics it was done by a shop (and not by some rando). Yes, there is some rust, but the MGB has terrible paint that could be hiding rust and/or shoddy bodywork.
I used to have a ’78 MGB, and today’s option has had all of the character wrung out of it. 🙁 We don’t get to see it with the bonnet up or the doors open, so we cannot evaluate how well the color swap was (or wasn’t) done. It has a new top – which is not installed properly – but Moss Motors has new tops starting at around $600 so that’s not really a big deal. The door handles are part of the look, so those will need to be reinstalled (or the doors swapped). No, thank you.
The XJ6 OTOH – get the front seats reupholstered and you’ve got your grace, space, and pace.
My ’72 B was red, I was 19.
At 66, I’m still feeling it. A+ for the B.
Tucker, you make a good case for buying the B … but I’ll take the nicest ’79 Caprice Classic ever.
One day I am going to put an XK engine into a first generation Corvette. I actually think it might work out rather nicely.
Please write about it and post it here. I’d read that. Can I suggest a 65 or 66 vet though? The C1s had inline 6s to begin with, and if you’re going to troll the jorts crowd, do it with gusto!
You’ve reminded me that when I did my own Chevy V8 into Jag swap about 15 years ago (1993 5.7 with 4L60E transmission from a Caprice into an ’87 XJ6), when it came time to dispose of the donor Caprice and the Jag’s old and worn-out drivetrain, I just used my engine hoist to roughly stuff the Jag engine + trans into the Chevy (not bolted in or anything, just sitting on the mounts and rattling around), chained the hood shut (some minor front-end damage prevented the hood from closing fully, plus the Jag engine was about an inch too tall), and called the local wrecking yard to come pick it up. The tow truck driver glanced at it and said “does it still have the engine in it?” I chose my words carefully. “It has both an engine and transmission in it, but neither one works great anymore.” Good enough for him. He gave me a $100 check for a complete car (would have been $50 otherwise), and hauled it away.
I wished I could see the expression of the first person at the junkyard who came along to salvage some engine parts off that Caprice!
Not fond of most SBC conversions I’ve seen, and this one doesn’t change my mind.
The B is salvageable. Unbolt the wheels, find junked B, acquire the stock bits — with chrome bumpers and door handles, please — and you’re good to go (maybe).
The B is also a relatively easy car to work on, which is important. And it can be an enjoyable runabout.
The shaved trim and door handles give me pause on the MG. Mostly because I don’t know how they are shaved…seems like a lot of the time what people mean by “shaved” is “slathered with body filler,” and while a lower quality paint job isn’t always a deal killer, it is for me when it’s covering previous owner “improvements.”
As for the Jag, it’s probably more reliable with the V8 than it ever was before.
*puts flame suit on*
*puts another one on over the first*
*goes to a deserted island in the middle of the ocean*
*whispers*
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I don’t hate the wheels on the MG.
You.
Out.
It’s a frosty morning in my neck of the woods, so thanks for being considerate and dropping a take hot enough to keep me warm out there.
Between the wheels and the lounge-looking seats, I think the seller was going for a 60s Cadillac, But Shrunk in the Wash look. Which…isn’t the worst thing you can do to a relatively common old car?
And to be fair, I’d way rather buy from a seller who has clearly spent a lot of money on both upkeep and executing a strange aesthetic, rather than from a seller who has spent time and money on neither.
To be clear, you’re still not right. But you’re not that wrong.
This is really what I shoot for with most of my comments.
May you remain in exile for all time.
There’s no island remote enough to escape the consequences of that comment.
I often find your comments interesting and I agree with a lot of things you say. This is not one of those times. It is okay to be wrong once in a while, though.
I’m pretty sure this a crime. You’re sentenced to three months of hard commuting via used Nissan Leaf. May God have mercy on your soul.
I will not stand idly by while you insult the honor of the Nissan Leaf. My daily driver is a used Leaf and it is the perfect vehicle for a short to moderate length commutes. It is quiet. It is comfortable. Best of all, it is dirt cheap. You cannot find a better vehicle for the task at hand. I am sorry a philistine like yourself is unable to understand the brilliance of such a vehicle.
While I pity you, I will show no mercy for your slight. I challenge you to a duel.
I knew I’d take some heat for my comment, but a Leaf getting a more eloquent defense than I have so far is really a humiliating blow.
May that be a lesson, then.
The style of the wheels you could argue (but you’d still be wrong), but the effect they’ll have on the ride and handling is inexcusable. MGBs are designed for tall skinny tires that act as part of the suspension and allow for a nice gradual breakaway when they lose traction. Wide, low-profile tires will rattle the poor car (and driver) apart, and stick like glue to the road until a bump upsets it and all hell breaks loose. Plus, unless they back-spaced them very carefully, I’m certain that they rub on the inside edges of the wheel wells during hard cornering.
Plenty of vehicular aesthetic modifications hurt outright performance; to me, the specifics of that tradeoff are a matter of personal priorities, not a catechism.
Sir, I respect your respectful defense of the Leaf. But even I, a follower of Nissan take pity on the humble used Leaf. Thus I accept your duel. Meet me in Temecula.
It is set. We shall duel in Temecula at dawn… (*checks google maps and realizes Temecula is a 2500-mile drive*) …sometime around the 1st of October. I fear you may have exploited the one weakness of my otherwise wonderful vehicle.
It’s okay not to hate them, just as long as you don’t like them…
Otherwise it’s a curse of a thousand plagues for you sir.
Next you are going to tell us that:
-Automatics really are better than manuals sometimes.
-Not old enough to have had New Coke. From what I’ve read, it was more like Pepsi though, which means I probably would have liked it less than Old Coke. In any case, I like the conspiracy (?) theory that New Coke was released to hide the switch to HFCS over sugar, which had just happened a year previously and was not going well.
-The Phantom Menace was bad even without Jar Jar.
I have takes much hotter than this relatively tame MG wheel style one. Someday I’ll bust some of them out.
Can confirm, I had always preferred Pepsi, and New Coke was the first Coke product I ever liked. However, either of them were only to be consumed if Dr Pepper was unavailable.
If it was a 350 or better yet, an LS I would have gone Jag, but I despise the 305, and I also do not appreciate when people take newer, more efficient (usually) fuel injection systems and replace them with carburetors, so that’s two strikes against the Jag. Yes I know the 305 has potential, but I just don’t care. All noise with no power to back it up, I am eagerly going MGB, selling the wheels, and lowering the thing to a non truck like ride height to fund replacement doors to get handles back.
The 305 GM was not a good choice here. Makes me wonder about the owner’s choice and what else is half assed on this ride.
Exactly. This feels like one of those projects where they just grabbed whatever they had laying around and threw it together.
I have to hand it to Mark, cheap drugstore die cast wheels are the perfect description.
I’m voting for the Jag for my Edward Woodward Equalizer cosplay.
Sheesh, people! Wheels are one of the easiest things to replace on a car, right after wiper blades! The MGB has soooo much more potential for fun than a Jag with a wheezy mid-80s Chevy 305 that probably has less power than the original Jag I6. I mean, really! The Jag owner couldn’t spend an extra $500 for a 350?!? What else did he cheap-out on? A budget Jag will drain your bank account, even with a ‘Muricun V8.
On the other hand, the atrocities committed to the MG are easily rectified for not tooo much money, and a weekend in the garage.
This guy gets it.
At that price, I’ll take the MG, but only after checking for rust. If it’s a true CA car, then rust might not be a issue. It’ll be easy to fix the atrocious mods done to it. Almost every part can be sourced new or used and prices aren’t too bad
The Jag chassis is so good that pairing it with reliable V8 power is a match made in heaven. And surprisingly, the swap keeps the same weight balance. Sometimes you can just read a car and know what you have. That MG has so many questionable mods that you will be forever fixing the POs bad decisions.
When I did my own swap (1993 5.7L w/ 4L60E into 1987 XJ6), the front end became about 100 lbs lighter, necessitating a quick trip to an alignment shop. That postwar I6 is one heavy boat anchor.
I helped my friend pull the engine and transmission out of his Mk2 saloon. That mass of iron could be a boat anchor on the Titanic!
At the moment I am the lone MGB vote. I did so because of Mark’s suggestion to sell off those wheels. Take that money, clean up the paint a little bit, and have a great time in a droptop MG.
Here’s the problem: a person who thought “Oh yeah. That’s the stuff.” when they put those wheels on that car is probably the kind of person who would add a can of creamed corn to the oil because they read online it’ll fix oil leaks.
This is true, but you could make the same argument of the Jag as well. “Someone with the poor judgement to put a 305 in a Jaguar instead of a 350 or 383 is probably the kind of person who’d also install a CVT.” Neither of these cars is a slam dunk, both require a through inspection, so why not end up with a fun little convertible.
Also, now I’m hungry for creamed corn.
Now I want to see an XJ6 with a CVT.
I can’t believe I’m having to say this twice in one article, but…
You.
Out.
Does it make matters better or worse that I’m not thinking of a modern CVT but something more along the lines of a DAF Variomatic?
I’m going to allow this only because it allows you to drive in reverse just as fast as forward. I have read that besides gearing and bravery, the main limiting factor in driving in reverse at speed is back pressure on the exhaust. Might have to address that.
So far (3 votes!), we all agree those wheels are SO BAD, the Jaaaaaaag is the way to go.
Perhaps we are all dreaming of a Roadkill style Draguar?
That’s exactly what I had in mind when I voted for the Jag.
I like the MGB, but it’s $1500 more and I’d still have to find wheels and tires for it. Pass…