Saw this in a TTAC comment today. Man, I did not need to know about these.
The company is called Frontline Developments. I suppose you could think of them as “the Singer of MGBs” but that’s not entirely fair to either company, as Frontline appears to focus on performance and luxury improvements rather than adopting an “everything is important” approach to CNC-milled heater vents and whatnot.
Would you spend a hundred grand on an MGB with 304 horsepower? What else could you get for your money that would do the same thing? Given that we live in a world where, increasingly, people either don’t give a shit about throwing away $100k or they will never see that much disposable income during their entire lives, it probably doesn’t matter what these cars cost.
If I could borrow $100k somewhere, I’d buy a Viper. Because, like Zola said, Ima full Viper typa dude. But if I won the lottery, I’d buy MG Abingdon Editions in both roadster and GT form. Plus one for my father, who struggled heroically with the conflict between his city-boy’s sense of mechanical unconcern and his purchase of a new 1979 MG Midget back in the day. I can still remember standing with him at the side of Tremont Road in Upper Arlington, maybe ten years old at most, trying to figure out why his 4,300-mile Midget had just stopped dead for no reason. Neither one of us owned anything like a comprehensive toolbox, let alone Whitworth-gauge wrenches or something like that. In general, we’re not a mechanically-inclined family. I think I have the most dirt under my fingers of anybody to ever bear the name and I can barely change an alternator.
Yet it’s worth noting that Dad couldn’t really bring himself to hate his Midget. There’s just something about those Little British Cars. With that said, however, I assume that “waiting for the flatbed” is not part of the $100,000 MG Abingdon Edition ownership experience. That’s the kind of authenticity without which I could definitely live.
The Mazda drivetrain should fix the “let’s wait for the tow at the Chef-o-nette” problem.
I once had more than that as ‘ disposable Income ‘ (*very* briefly) but I couldn’t imagine blowing it on that sort of thing and I love LBC’s .
Yesterday I just _had_ to stop at a BHPH lot that has a 1979 Rolls Royce for $16.9 K…….
-Nate
I can think of a couple other vehicles to get for my 100K. Sixties vintage Hemi Mopar and a mid 90’s 911 for a start.
But maybe for the 100 large, you at least get a usable electrical system.
(Know why the English drink warm beer? Lucas refrigerators):)
Lucas was also known as the Prince of Darkness.
Are you the same Dirty Dingus McGee that used to hang out on rec.climbing in the Nineties? Or did the name come from elsewhere, perhaps a Robert Service poem or something like that.
Nope not me. In that time frame I was using this name as a byline in a couple of local motorcycle “gimme” magazines. Maybe someone else seen it and liked it.
As to the names origins; From a Sinatra movie*, with a spelling change in a nod to Scottish heritage on my grandmothers side.
*http://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Dingus-Magee-Frank-Sinatra/dp/B005HIBWT8?tag=duckduckgo-d-20
For a $100K I would find a replica of the silver 88 Thunderbird with a moonroof and leather interior (Sportcoupe), and would put disk brakes on the rear, a beefier transmission (a J-modded 4R70W?) or a manual, and shove a large supercharged or turbo engine under the hood. Better comp tires, and otherwise stock except for a modern sound system. Oh, and something like a 3.73 rear end, or a quick change rear for street and strip, or roading and ratracing.
And I would have enough left over for the occasional speeding ticket and insurance increases, as I roamed around baking a lot iron at stop lights, loving every minute of it.
It was a very stylish car, yet not something everyone had. And I probably would still have enough money left over for a decent used vintage Brit bike, if I did some of the work myself.
Though a bespoke Austin Healy 3000-6 would be a nice ride, too, and possibly within the price range.
Nah, take one of those Revology Mustang fastbacks with the LS3 motor. Another nice thing would be either a Corvette GS or Cobra Daytona replica. Or one of the Alfaholics concoctions…
Although, with $100K cash, I’d put the downpayment for a house with some spare land and use $10K to buy a couple of shit cars to play around. I’d bring a couple of Isuzu cars from Japan: a Gemini Irmscher R and a Piazza , some GM Saabs, an E34, W124…
I’d buy a new miata & put the rest into a down payment on a house!
I would invest half of it in low risk mutual funds and then take the other half over to my friend Asadulah who works in securities…
This makes more sense to me than the 2014 Morgan 3 Wheeler with a temporary tag on it that I saw yesterday.
Being squarely in the restomod camp for old automobile revitalization, I find these creations far more impressive than the numbers-matching sports or muscle car with the oddball option package that’s loudly touted as “1 of 1,” which simply means nobody else was silly/crazy/stupid enough to check those boxes on the order sheet. Why are hatchback Novas a rarity today? Because nobody wanted them when new.
Right now on the restomod meter, I rank Frontline’s outstanding MG creations right below the reigning champion, MAT’s 1929 Model A stealth rally transformation. And of course there are all sorts of wild and wonderful custom creations out there, a personal favorite of which is a ’54 Corvette sporting full ZR1 powertrain and Mini(!) headlight pods.
Modern PDMs are capable of near magical feats of command and control for those wishing to revitalize older automobiles with questionable wiring, and it’ll only require a universal BCM to move custom car builds up to new vehicle parity, while the included CANBUS allows for smartphone-level testing and debugging. When I saw Ford’s C-Max liftgate actuators work (servo motor in strut design) it pegged my possibilities meter. There’s some seriously cool stuff possible combining today’s gizmos with yesterday’s icons.
Alright, it seems the parser doesn’t like raw HTML input, so have a cut-and-paste link for the entry: http://www.mat.fi/projects/68
I just looked at all 200 photos. 241 horsepower in a Model A? Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo