MG Motorsports Forum

I saw this on eBay and thought someone might have some interest in it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MG-MGB-race-MGB-vintage-race-car-SCCA-barn-find-with-spares-road-race-VARGA-low-reserve-/281389784762?forcerrptr=true&hash=item4184235eba&item=281389784762&pt=US_Cars_Trucks#ht_82wt_1362

What kind of gearboxes are those?

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1973 MG BGT - Harvest Gold / Black interior

1974 MG BGT - Bracken / Autumn Leaf interior - http://forum.britishv8.org/read.php?13,11702

They look like GM T5's to me.

Don't think so- the transmission doesn't have the shiftter 'spine' (the tube the shift bar runs down) that is typical of T5'e. I do not recognize it as an Lt77 either. Maybe some Japanese or German gearbox?

Yeah, this came up on the MG forum yesterday, and you know the old saying about the cat, and curiosity I bet I spent a good hour on Google search images, plugging in every search combo I could think of, and never found a gearbox that looked exactly like this, some were close, like T56 (that would be interesting, and highly illegal tranny choice for any race MGB ) , but not the same. I have good mind to ask him on the Ebay ad what trans those are, seems like he would have mentioned that in the ad, but I get the feeling the seller is somewhat not that familiar with the car, based on the ad description given.

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Hap Waldrop
Acme Speed Shop
864-370-3000
Website: www.acmespeedshop.com
hapwaldrop@acmespeedshop.com

Hap, those are BW T-50 transmissions. They were used in the late 70's H-body Monza's, Skyhawks, Vega's, etc. Some showed up in Olds Apollo's and Chevy Nova's too. Toyota Corollas and first gen celicas also used them but with a different bell bolt pattern.

I used one in my 68 SOHC 4.1 Firebird back in 79. Shifted nicely; good ratios, but didn't have a rep for being very strong. A V8 would kill it fast.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014-07-25 07:05 AM by Mustangsix.

Almost forgot, it also has a goofy shift pattern with first down and left under reverse. Firtst was a granny gear (don't know the ratio) but it worked well with the 3.07 rear in my Firebird.

Oh, OK, that one slipped my mind. Yeah they made a closer ratio unit for the Monza V8. I had Monza V8 for a very short time, a drunk ran head-on into me the second day I had it, while sitting at a red light, and totaled it. I remember the shift action of it being way more herky-jerky, more so than I remember foreign gearboxes of that era.

Here I found this on the net listing the two offering of ratios

"the gear ratios for the two sets is 3.41, 2.08,1.40, 1.00, 0.8
for reverse. The other set is 3.10, 1.89, 1.27, 1.00, 0.84"

I can't say any of that looks that attractive for a race MGB, when compared to the MGB sc/cr ratios of 1st 2.45, 2nd 1.62, 3rd 1.27,and 4th 1.0, and even less attractive than the Quaife dog box with a "somewhat" useable first gear for really slow corners, the Quaife Rocket is not the best ratios for first, but it is still the best current offering, but not so much so I want to buy one I don't see it as being any great advantage over the SC/CR. Maybe one of these days we can get a better gearbox choice that is not overly exotic for the race MGBs.

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Hap Waldrop
Acme Speed Shop
864-370-3000
Website: www.acmespeedshop.com
hapwaldrop@acmespeedshop.com

How about something as mundane as a Muncie M21 close ratio box? 2:20 first, 1.64 second, 1.28 third, 1:00 fourth

Hap:

Any comments on the offset rear springs? I've only ever seen that on the Huffaker Bs (and on Spridgets).

Rick

Rick... I noticed the gull wing springs as well, it looks like there are several Huffaker pieces on the car including the header collector and the some of the rear suspension pieces. But then there are very few good detail shots of the car.

# 9 didn't have them, I've seen them in picture like you guys, thats about it, maybe that was early pre flare deal

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Hap Waldrop
Acme Speed Shop
864-370-3000
Website: www.acmespeedshop.com
hapwaldrop@acmespeedshop.com

The first time I saw gull-wing springs was on a black pre-flare B that Terry Visgar drove in the early 70's. The car looked like the B that Tom Tuttle had. The other detail I noticed was that the rear was tubbed. The inner wheel well wall was squared off and inset into the frame rail slightly. The top curve was a clean arch,,, looked just like a pro stock drag car, but on a much smaller scale

Yeah the rules when the flares and cantilever tire first came about then let them widen the track of the cars, and that probably made the offset spring a non issue at that point.

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Hap Waldrop
Acme Speed Shop
864-370-3000
Website: www.acmespeedshop.com
hapwaldrop@acmespeedshop.com

I am the buyer of the mgb race car. I'll be posting a lot more of the car once I clear up a couple of other projects. In the meantime I thought I would post some pics of the trans.