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Small steps and giant strides in the handling department
The suspension package on the MGBGTV8 was showing its age even when the V8 was launched in 1973 and by today's standards the handling demands skill and attention. Ken Drake (Citron 1057) from Berkshire provides this note on how he has made a series of improvements to the handling on his V8. (Dec 99)

When I acquired my MGBGTV8 in June 1987, it was suffering from a lack of use as it had been virtually laid up for seven years. So although this had preserved the bodywork wonderfully, a certain amount of recommissioning had to be done. However once this had been accomplished, much as I appreciated the straight line performance, I found the handling hairy to say the least with an alarming amount of body roll on cornering.

Fortunately, Ron Hopkinson introduced his handling kits in 1988 and I was one of his first customers. The kit I obtained consisted of a rear anti-roll bar which has to be secured to the floor of the spare wheel well together with a thicker front anti-roll bar. They were fitted by the V8 specialist, Geoff Allen at Abingdon (Editor: now retired). With the back of the car anchored to the axle, the improvement in handling was quite dramatic with body roll reduced considerably. In my opinion that kit remains good value today particularly as it is slightly cheaper (at £99.50) than it was then.

So far as driving is concerned, I have the misfortune to live in the grandly titled Royal County of Berkshire where I'll swear the roads are the most neglected in the country. With the new handling kit installed, I still experienced a rather jarring ride over the poorly surfaced and pot-holed roads which abound in the county. So in 1991, I arranged with Geoff Allen to supply and fit the Moss Dynamic Suspension System. This handling kit replaces the front lever arm dampers with top wishbones and incorporates telescopic dampers inside the replacement coil springs. Once fitted, this system made a really worthwhile improvement to ride quality and eliminated the bump-thump at low speeds. Again I felt the £400 for the kit was money well spent.

However as the local roads continued to deteriorate and the Council decided to invest its road budget in road humps or sleeping policemen, which play havoc with the car's suspension system, rather than in adequate road maintenance. Things got so bad that when speed bumps were installed in my own road, there was a risk my wig might become dislodged as the V8 lurched over them - I hasten to add this joke is for the benefit of all those rumourmongers! So when British Motor Heritage Engineering introduced their Performance Suspension Assembly in 1997, based on the front cross-member developed for the MG RV8, my interest was aroused. The assembly was a complete replacement for the original cross-member incorporating double wishbones with adjustable Koni telescopic dampers within the coil springs, maintenance free ball joints instead of kingpins and ventilated disc brakes with 4 piston callipers. All very appealing but also quite costly. So I canvassed opinions of a couple of members of the V8 Register who were fortunate to own both an original MGBGTV8 and an MG RV8, on the relative merits of the RV8 set up. Strange to relate both members were independently non-committal. On reading the magazine reports of the BMHE Performance Suspension Assembly they appeared to have been written by people who one might feel had vested interests. No demonstration cars with the conversion installed were available.
Eventually in September 1999, I decided to take the plunge and ordered the RV8-style assembly from Moss. I should mention that the MGBGTV8 requires the assembly specified for the standard rubber bumpered MGB 1800 fitted with disc wheels (part number 213015) to accommodate the raised ride height. By this time Geoff Allen was in retirement in Cheshire, so my next problem was to find a specialist able to fit the assembly as I am more proficient at wielding a chamois leather than a spanner! Scanning the MG Car Club Trade Directory I found Crown Classic Cars of Twickenham, just down the road from Moss, to whom the bulky kit could be delivered direct.

Crown Classic Cars is run by brothers Jason and Tony Payne who have exclusive hands-on experience with MGs and had already fitted a number of these RV8 assemblies. On visiting them I was reassured to find their workshop and yard full of Jaguars and TRs as well as MGs and found their workmanship to be superb and reasonably priced - a rare combination these days, usual disclaimer applies!! Fitting the kit took a day and when I collected the V8, Jason warned me to go carefully until the new brakes had bedded-in. So it was with some trepidation that I set off for home down the busy Chertsey Road in rain that soon became torrential, but the first nervous jabs on the brakes provided instant reassurance that the improvement was immediately obvious. It has only got better since.

So with the memory of the previous set-up still fresh in my mind, I wrote these impressions of the new RV8-style system. The improvement in ride quality is quite amazing with the damping, even on the softest setting, most impressive with none of the previous floating action after hitting a bump. To be fair some of that previous floating action could have been attributed to the previous dampers being exhausted after eight years of pounding on the appalling roads in Berkshire. The steering feels somewhat lighter at low speed and wonderfully responsive and positive at higher speeds thanks to 1990s technology rather than the previous set up which first saw service some 50 years ago. Before the conversion to the RV8 set up there had been some vibration transmitted through the steering wheel on all but the smoothest of roads, which I had been told was due to the tyres degrading with age, but with the new set up this has gone completely. Tight bends can now be taken in complete confidence as the steering is so compliant and responsive with none of the previous tendency to put up a bit of a fight and run wide if the surface was a bit rough or bumpy. Visually the ride height of the car is unaltered but the front track is marginally but perceptibly wider giving the car a slightly macho stance.

Was it worth it? Well the RV8 assembly costs £1,821 and the fitting time and costs will depend on whether or not the exhaust manifolds have to be removed to undo and refit the four chassis-crossmember mounting bolts. Fortunately mine did not have to be removed. So for around £2,100 my MGBGTV8 has been brilliantly transformed into a car that is more enjoyable, mote relaxing and safer to dive. Admittedly it is fairly costly, but the RV8 assembly represents excellent value for money in my opinion as it achieves improvements in so many areas without affecting the inherent character of a classic car. In fact it probably brings the MGBGTV8 even closer to the late John Thornley's vision of creating "the poor man's Aston Martin". In any case I can always console myself with the thought, in Quentin Wilson's words, that I have saved myself "shed loads of money" by not buying an RV8 in its entirety!



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