Hi

[Britny]

I am Britny and I live in frozen north of Scotland. I passed my driving test almost 3 years ago and bought a Rover. Last year I decided to buy an MGF as I had always had a liking for them. Sadly I only had her 8 weeks when she was written off due to a numpty going into my back end. last week i finally took the plunge and bought a new f so now have a nice bright yellow Trophy 160. I am told that this is the place where I may be able to find out a bit more about her (ie what number she is).

Britny

[talkingcars]

Hi and welcome, I've only been here a few weeks and picked up our F yesterday, they seem to be a friendly bunch.

[Keith Williams]

Welcome to the F Register forum

If you contact our Registrar Andy on archive@mgfregister.org he may be able to help you out with information on your car

[colintf]

Hi up there and welcome

[adrianclifford]

Send me your registration and or vin number (SARR etc) on an e mail or PM (personal message) via the forum and I'll send it to you. There were 1,430 Trophy's produced with 796 being registered in the UK. Yellow being the most popular by far.

Adrian

[Britny]

Thanks Adrian PM sent.

Think mine is the only Trophy yellow F I have ever seen up here. Plenty of ZR's but majority of F's I have seen up here are blue of British Racing Green!

[adrianclifford]

Hi Britny, as you know the Trophy's (unlike MGF 75LE's, MGTF 80LE's and MGTF LE500's) were not individually numbered. Therefore your car is only numbered by the amount of cars that came down the production line, they came in four colours Trophy Yellow, Trophy Blue, Solar Red and Anthracite and they are sequenced by vin number not registration or year of, the car in front of yours carries a 51 plate, the car after carries a Y plate so you can see there is no visible sequence and you are number 477. Some cars even carry an 02 or 03 plate although UK Trophy's are all 2001 or 2002 build but that was when they were first registered (there are three Trophy's in Holland still un-registered today).

Your car was a 2001 build by the way, the 10th figure on the vin tells you this, the only visible evidence (in reality) of a car being a genuine Trophy is the letter Z on the vin (body mods, interior change and, if necessary, a respray can make any F look like a Trophy.

I have not had the time to establish how many of each colour yet as there are cars that are no longer registered but from what I have done, yellow is the dominant colour especially on the earlier cars.

[Britny]

Thanks Adrian so did I read correctly somewhere that the first 500 had the head gaskets skimmed at factory? Her head gasket must have majorly gone at 77k (or the garage decided to rip previous lady owner off) as they dead a full engine/clutch change due to HGF at that point.

[adrianclifford]

Britny, I don't know about the first 500 cars and I would be surprised if a complete engine change came from a failed head gasket. The cylinder head maybe if it boiled dry and warped the head, maybe the block was damaged, they are all possibilities,

Have you checked the current engine number and compared it with the number on your V5 ? If what you say is correct, then it will be different. I hope they have (if it has been done) replaced it with a Trophy 160 unit not a 143 vvc (which look the same).

[Britny]

Adrian how will I know if the new engine is trophy or not then?

[Keith Williams]

Engine type can be found from engine number using Dieter's web page http://www.mgfcar.de/vin/emgf_vin.htm#code info near the bottom of the page just before the paint codes. The engine number is on the side of the engine.

If I am reading it right, a VVC Trophy engine should be either 18K4FP25 or 18K4FP26 if car has aircon.
18 indicates 1800cc, K indicates K series, 4 indicates 4 valves & F injection with cat. The actual engine number then is added onto the end.

[adrianclifford]

Exactly as Keith says, your engine, if it is a replacement, may not have a number stamped on it. You can always drop Dieter a line germany@mgfregister.org and give him the details, he will be happy to help you if he can, his knowledge and data is vast.

Another clue, although slightly costly would be to have the car rolling roaded, it should produce at least 158bhp, anything less and you may not have a Trophy 160 engine I'm afraid.

[Britny]

Well the plot thickens the original factory supplied engine number does not match anything on Dieter's page, finally got under my car today to get the new engine number and that doesn't match anything on Dieter's page either!

Have sent him an email with both numbers in the hope that he can enlighten me!

[adrianclifford]

It does indeed, let us know how you get on, Dieter will reply when he has the time I know.

[Britny]

Haven't remembered to pop on for a bit. Dieter replied very promptly and although he doesn't have numbers going as far as mine is pretty sure I have a TF 160 engine in her so happy days.