If you like cars, it’s hard to avoid an “MGA Phase” in your life. It’s a beautiful car – there’s hardly a line you’d redraw. My phase was in my youth, my early 20s; I’d see MGAs at car shows and walk around them with a dumb grin on my face, wondering at the beauty in our mechanical world. Ah, youth. Even today, I’ll still halt at a glimpse of one. For all that, one can only own so many cars unless one is filthy rich, and I’ve thrown in my line with American stuff from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. There’s still something about a clean 1500 with disc wheels, and this one is a solid roadster from Texas. For sale on eBay, it has a $10,000 opening bid…but nobody as of yet has bothered. It doesn’t make sense.
The interior isn’t to blame; the upholstery looks newer and the carpet has no obvious blemishes. The dashboard looks fine. That big four-spoke MG steering wheel invites you to have a little fun on your nearest twisty two-lane. The four-speed shifter looks appropriately dainty, and it’s certain to click into gear just as you’d hope.
It has a “good convertible top,” and “the paint is in good condition with a couple small cracks.” It can’t be the color, a kind of light bluish gray (although the ad says it’s white…maybe I’m seeing things). Quick question for the comments: Do you prefer the early or the late taillights on the MGA? I think I prefer the early ones; the later ones are a little too blocky for a svelte little car like this one.
Information about the mechanical apparatuses is unfortunately stingy – maybe that’s why there are no bids. Nothing looks particularly awry under the hood, although it has had a Weber carburetor upgrade from the standard twin SUs, which is not terribly uncommon. If this is the original engine, it’s the 72-horsepower 1489cc four cylinder, which is so well-known that it barely needs an introduction.
Nothing looks out of place underneath, although I’ll never get used to the idea of a plywood floor.
Nope, I don’t get it. It’s not a perfect MGA; the paint looks a little dull and maybe the door is even a shade off, but $10,000 doesn’t seem like an unreasonable starting point for such a beautiful machine. Maybe people are just waiting for the last minute as they sometimes do, but if you think you’re in the beginning stages of your MGA phase, it might not be a bad time to act.
Agree with you on the lights Aaron. It was one of features on the Bugeye Sprites, Triumphs, and the MGAs that got my attention and still does. I haven’t seen any of the British cars that handled addition of turn signals well except the MGBs and Midgets. The big Healeys look like the rear end of an ambulance. Still, most of them are good cars and the drivers can’t see the taillights anyway.
Forgot.. Nice car and good write up Aaron. That single carb will make a smooth running engine but does reduce the power compared to the two SUs.
Thanks, Bob! Unfortunately, the seller has ended the auction early; it must have sold locally.
Great little car ,but I owned a 1954 100/4 Healey in 64 far better car and try buying one for anywhere near $10,000
These old 2 seaters incl the early vettes & t birds got huge steering wheels too close to the driver’s chest. & the columns are not collapsible.
What were the designers thinking.
JoeNYWF64 – there were no seat belts back then either. The world’s take on life in general was different back then. Life was just dangerous and people accepted the risks to things without thinking too much about it.
Not a ’58 and not a 1500. It’s not just the taillights, which a ’58 1500 wouldn’t have that style of anyway, but also the 1600 emblems and the 1600 parking lights. It should also have front disc brakes though we can’t tell that from the photos. Could be a ’59, ’60 or ’61 but not a ’58. I owned a ’60 1600 in the late 1960s and a 1600 Mk II in the mid-’70s.
I own a 1960 and your 100% correct
Maybe that’s why no one bid on it
I have one as well…………..2 owner no rust OP California all its life. And mine is white as well.
Some prefer the set-and-forget Weber carbs. I think bigger SU’s are better. Learning how to synchronize your carbs (and other fettling) is all a part of the MG Experience!
hat of pork. Fettling is the word of the day.
Love learning new things.
Yes, they’re a pretty body style, especially following the pre-WWII look of the TC/TD/TFs. However, they may be fun to take out on a winding road, but they’re uncomfortable for any regular use and quite primitive mechanically. I don’t recall whether my 59 had front disk brakes (I don’t think so), and there was no synchro for 1st gear. A plywood floor is almost all you need to know with side curtains and a cable to open the doors to boot. I never understood that angst about synching the carbs. I had a special tool but I never used it. A short piece of heater hose was all one needs, and your own ear, to do the job in less than a minute. $10K without wire wheels? Maybe. How many are left.
Already sold. Nice rust free ones at reasonable prices don’t last long.
1588cc, disc brakes, proper indicator lamps, oil cooler, what is not to like, the colour looks to be wrong, should be Old English white (cream) looks to be a nice car,
Those are not the taillights that I had on my ’58 “A”, which were single lens. These look like the ones on my friend’s ’61 with the 1600 powerplant. I had a factory-trained MG guy from Ireland named Jack Ryan who could center the jet needles and balance the carbs in like 5 minutes by ear. He did the tricky stuff for us. They were fun to drive, until I drove my first BMW, a ’74 2002… (mechanically light-years ahead of those MG’s)
My best friend at the time had an MG A 1600 and I had a BMW 1600. Mine was light years ahead of the A. By the late 60’s they were showing their age. Fun to take out on limestone back roads and drift it around, but it was slow even by mid-60’s standards. MG never had the funds to do a new car all at once and there were always major items that were leftover from previous cars. The A was actually the closest thing to a completely new car but it used the engine from the Magnette saloon and while it was decent in 1955, by 1960 even increasing the displacement to 1600 didn’t help much. If you want an early 60’s British roadster the big Healey is a much better car and the prices of them reflect it.
A popular upgrade to the A was to install an early MGB 3 main bearing engine. It dropped right in with no mods to the tach, transmission, etc. Kinda like replacing a 1960’s era Chevy 283 with a 327.
…..the early MGB 3 main engine was 1800cc and could easily be taken out to 2 liters.