MOT

[Green Squirrel]

Just had to congratulate the ''Green Squirrel'' for flying through the MOT In all the years she has only failed once and that was for Emissions - required a new lambda.

Not bad for a car that first arrived in our stable back in February 1996.

[Dieter K]

Congratulations, Ted !
Good to know Green Squirrel and the *old bloke* is ready for another year of happy motoring.

All the Best

Dieter
PS. mine failed TUV this year due to a worn wheel bearing. Wasn't sensitive enough myself to realise it before I joined them. Now fixed of course.

[adrianclifford]

Well done Ted, that's a lovely feeling

[jonbaker]

Just had mine too and the sea air has taken its toll. Some welding needed at the rear wheel arch cill meeting point.

[Green Squirrel]

Bad luck Jon - the Green Squirrel has the advantage of spending it's non use time in a nice dry garage many miles from the sea!

[stuart]

My F had it's mot today- sailed through- YES!!! Just an advisory that the nsf lower balljoint will need looking at which does explain a clunking noise sporadically experienced, so I duly went and got one and have just fitted it. What a faff though- whoever at Abingdon thought it a good idea to rivet a perishable item like the balljoint to the wishbone needs retrospectively shooting out of a cannon. Seemed the lesser evil though- had a good look at replacing the wishbone and that looked like a horrendous job to me.

I was quite worried about the emmissions too, but earlier in the week I put a top notch fuel treatment/cleaner in and took the car for a long blast before the mot- seemed to do the trick as the CO and HC readings were about as low as it's possible to be- well chuffed about that. The Lambda sensor reading was only 0.1 under the max limit so that'll probably have to be done.......but not till next year now!

Optimistically looking forward to a trouble free summer and wish the same for all who keep these great cars rolling!

[adrianclifford]

It's always nice when your car passes it's MoT, however I doubt the guilty party would be found in Abingdon as the cars wereall built at Longbridge

[stuart]

Fair enough Adrian- I stand corrected! Why is one of the limited edition F's called the Abingdon then and why are my wheels Abingdon alloys and not "Longbridge" alloys??

Pity there'll be nobody at Longbrige or Abingdon to shed light on that ay??

[Scarlet Fever]

Fair enough Adrian- I stand corrected! Why is one of the limited edition F's called the Abingdon then and why are my wheels Abingdon alloys and not "Longbridge" alloys??

Not sure, but as i recall, the Abingdon LE was dreamed up by the MGF's chief designer, Gerry McGovern and was the first LE/SE model to be produced. The idea behind it was to make a LE model that was more traditional in feel, so the Brooklands Green paint is a very dark, solid take on the classic BRG and the walnut leather trim was designed to hark back to traditional, fluted seats. Add in the walnut veneer and the bright work and you have an utterly modern (for it's day) mid-engined roadster with a classic edge to it.

This approach extended to the naming of the car - Abingdon LE was chosen to create a direct link to MGs of yesteryear, this is also why the paint is called Brooklands Green (named after the famous racing circuit). Incidentally, in the EU they had their own versions of the Abingdon, although they were named after GB racing circuits rather than the old MG factory. From memory the French version was called the Donnington, there was also a Belgian version. Later on in the EU they released a TF based version as well (beige hood, tan leather, & hood, walnut & brightwork) so there was mileage in the concept right up into the TF era.

The MGF and TF were built at the Longbridge plant, this is because the old Abingdon factory was closed in, erm 1980 i believe. The last MG to be made there was the MGB and the first MG to be made at Longbridge was the MG Metro. All the MGs that followed, up until the closure of MGR in 2005 were made in Longbridge (with the possible exception of the RV8, for some reason i have it in my head that it was built by British Motor Heritage & the MG Metro 6R4 was such a specialist vehicle that it wouldn't surprise me if it was built elsewhere - might be wrong here). The last of the TFs and the current MGs are built in two factories, one in China (on a large scale) and the other, Longbridge (on a much smaller scale). Anyway, if you were building a LE MGF that was based upon the concept of heritage, the name Abingdon fits much better than Longbridge.

Lastly, the alloys on the Abingdon were also found on the MGF Cup race cars - although in terms of the general public they first originated on the Abingdon LE, i know a number of early MGF owners who refer to them as Cup Alloys as their first experience of them was from watching the original one-make race series, the MGF Cup.

[jonbaker]

She's back. Great job by the MGF Centre. Both rear wheel arches done (rusty bits cut out and new sections welded in) nice to know they can be saved.