The History of the Jubilee MGB GT

In 1974 British Leyland decided that  they should celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the MG marque the following year. Many would say they missed the boat as the first MG car was made in 1924. Be that as it may, a special edition of the MGB GT as produced for sale in 1975.

They had a special British Racing Green paint, Gold stripes and detailing and several extras like overdrive carpeted interiors and tinted windows.

Each of the MGB GTs was given a unique identifying number with an engraved brass plate on the glove compartment. In all 751 MGB GTs, one MGB roadster, one Midget and an MGB GT V8 were made. There are now thought to be less than a third of them left. The following is an extract from a recent article I have written about them.

The  MGB GT 'Jubilee' Special Edition

British Leyland announced  in late 1974 that the 50^th anniversary of MG cars was to be celebrated by the production of a limited edition of 750 ‘Jubillee’ models. Many would argue that the first real MG had been produced in 1924 but they had missed that milestone and stuck to their story. Unfortunately, 1975 was not a good year for British Leyland. Petrol shortages had caused sales of the V8 model to falter particularly in the US and they had introduced major revisions to all of the MG sports cars to comply with the proposed American legislation on protection from low speed impact. Body shell strengthening and the famous rubber bumpers alter the look of the car dramatically and increased its weight by over 10%.  The increased ride height that brought the bumpers up to the specified level also contributed to poor handling. The cars were not selling well, not an auspicious start for a special edition.

 In order to make the car stand out they used a colour scheme of British Racing Green (a slightly darker pre-war version of this colour) with gold stripes incorporating the Jubilee logo.  Other badges on the car were gold rather than silver, and the wheels had gold detailing. The story goes that as the V8 model was not selling very well they had a surplus of V8 alloy wheels in the factory and it was decided that they could use 750 sets of these on the special model! Internally the car had carpets instead of rubber mats, black cloth seats with headrests and tinted glass. At the time these were optional extras although they became standard in later versions of the GT. The steering wheel is the larger three spoke V8 type, allegedly because the wider V8 wheels on a heavier car were almost impossible to turn while parking with a standard steering wheel.

Another feature internally not seen on any other MGB GT is the presence of a brass plate on the glove compartment door detailing the number of the car out of the 750 and in many cases the name of the original owner.  Not all ‘Jubilees’ have this as some purchasers did not wish it, or the plate never made it to the dealer. No record seems to have been kept of the chassis numbers to which car numbers were allocated. Only about a quarter of those left have a known number.

Mechanically the car was identical to the standard offering of the time with the 1798cc engine. The gearbox was fitted with overdrive, again an optional extra that was to become standard later on. The original idea it was to make 750 cars but one was severely damaged while making an advertisement, so a replacement was produced. There was one Jubilee roadster produced, the 1,000,000th car produced at the Abingdon works.  This was given away as a prize in a rally in the United States and it still exists in a collection. A midget and a V8 engined GT were also produced by the works as one off specials and are now in collections. Two years later a further Jubilee car was produced to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Queens coronation, a blue MGB GT with silver markings which is still privately owned in the UK.

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The story of KSR12P   Current condition

History of the Jubilee MGB GTs