MG Sports Cars

Pete Mantell is currently coverting my 1980 MGB. As he has everything off now, I wanted to upgrade the front suspension. Anyone have experience with the MGOC Coilover Front suspension kit. I know that Ted Lathrop of Fast Cars makes a great front suspension, but it will not work with the 14 inch wheels I want to use.

Do you mean this one?

Quote:

Coil Over MGB Conversion: Coil-over adjustable telescopic damper suspension unit with competition quality AVO dampers. Professionally engineered tubular wishbones fully adjustable for castor and camber. (Modified crossmember available on exchange). Price: £852.70 Including VAT at 17.5%

I haven't heard of anyone using this particular kit yet. (There are also a couple other kits on the market, including I believe one from Australia or New Zealand.) Since the photo doesn't show kingpins, uprights, hubs, brakes, etc., I'm presuming MGOC is expecting you to carry over standard MGB parts. If so, I don't see how they're able to provide fully adjustable castor and camber. (Do they include shims? Where exactly do they go?)

Moss used to market a coilover kit, and some of us (myself included) bought it. It's satisfactory if your main objective is to get the two basic advantages of coilover shocks: arguably a better-than-stock dampener plus very easily micro-adjustable ride height. Unlike the FastCars suspension, there was no significant weight savings: sprung or unsprung. One downside of the Moss kit is that the shocks probably won't last forever, and when/if they die it's uneconomical to replace/rebuild them. Regular racing coilovers don't fit the old Moss kit unless specially modified. The Moss kit didn't have any provision for castor or camber adjustment, but since it used standard lower control arm sides with a custom/new spring pan the option of installing Moss's "negative camber" lower control arms was always available. (Negative camber A-arms would probably only interest a serious autocrosser.)

Since the Moss and evidently the MGOC kits don't alter the upright, the relationship of the steering rack to the spindle is unchanged. If you adjust the coilover perches to get a nice low ride height, you'll likely find that you've added a bunch of bump steer. Possible cures include modifying the the steering arms and/or installing "dropped spindles". Dropped spindles aren't cheap... but they're a lot less expensive than MGOC's suspension kit! (The good ones come from Targett Motorsport.)

I presume MGOC is using a standard spring size, so it should be easy and relatively cheap to change springs to tune the wheel rate - which would be quite appealing to a racer, except most vintage racing organizations expressly prohibit coilover front suspensions on MGB's.


Are you familiar with the upgraded/adjustable lever-arm shocks that Peter Caldwell is now making for MGB? They would give you two of the key features of the MGOC kit... I haven't written an article on them yet, but I plan to one of these days. Why not call Peter and ask for details? Here's the contact info: (please tell him we referred you)

Bill Guzman at CCE has a new front suspension coming out very shortly - he has hinted at some details in another forum.
[www.mgexperience.net]

The MGOC one looks the same as Hoyle.

I am a bit late in checking the responses.

Graham: I was in contact with Bill Guzman last year after the meet. I have his rear suspension. He did not have his front suspension kit ready and was having supplier problems. I sent him a email to see where he is at this year.

Curtis: Thanks for the thorough answer. I now have more questions to continue my research. Moss no longer markets their front suspension kit and based on phone calls a couple of months ago, it will not be back in the near future.

So, back my research - MGOC and Peter Caldwell.

MGOC Kit is definitely The Hoyle suspension. which utilizes your existing uprights and brakes.

Kevin.

Okay... then here's a detailed article about it:
Hoyle Suspension Upgrades for the MGB
by Larry Shimp, BritishV8 Newsletter, Volume XIII Issue 1, January 2005

Good job as always, Curtis!