Mike McCarthywitnesses the...

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It doesn't reolly motter if you're tolking ofcors or whofever - the birds qnd the Bsore quite similqr. They come first in smqllpockoges ond soon blossom into full-scoleworking models, reody for q sporty future!

G has long been Australia'srvr sporting marque and neverloday. Last _year, for example,Bs were sold- her.e. The nexi bestodd for the Honda 600 and 800coupes combined.

So successful is the MGB that it recently wrotea nelv chapter on the sportster scene by bdcominethe first such car ever tb achieve sufrci-ent volumEto warrant local production by its parent manu-facturer. Pressed Metal_ gorp_oration was f ormerlyres-ponsible for assembling-MGs (the B, and th'eA.before it, not to forget the Sprite sirice 1g60j.At Pre_ssed l4e!ql, as wilh the Triirmphs assembledFV al$ in Melbourne, the sportster:s were mixedin with a variety of

'other -vehicles, sedans and

eommercials. During _tlrgpast few years, however,the demand for the MGB has gro:wn tb such anextent that it eventually became feasible for BMCto handle its assembly. To minimise the mixineof sportsters and othei vehicles, BMC buitt a nerFplant especially for the Gs aird Midgets. Theyare not, of course, manufactured here. Sale-srtrnning- to tens of thousands annually are neces-sary be_fore that becomes practical for any vehicle.Instead, they are importeh in CKD form- _ Com-pletely Knocked Down. Apart from the CKDTtiufnpn models, and the Ilotus which comes inIdt form to be put together by the distributor,

rnost popularmore so than

well over 1200total was 290-roadsters and

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Left: In th,e Hot Rundepo,rtment, th,e MGengi,ne'is operated, fora half-hour, drnlngwhich, time some 29d,i,fforent checks aremade to ensure euerA-thtng is up to stan-dard,. Unli,ke mostparts that go tnto th,eB, the engine/gear-bor/ouerd,rtue unit isi,mported, in lully as-s embl,ed, cond,r,ti,on.

Righ,t: Sportster ona spit. As chocolate-brown B sltell em,ergesfrom RotoDip rusf-proofing tr)rocess, oper-ator (on left) appliesq, f urther pt"otectiuecoatin.g to undersides,

Righ,t: When shel,l, re-turns from pa,tnt shop'it goes to tlte fi,nal, as-semblg lnne uh,ere it?osses througlu 14 as-samblg stations. Inaddi,tion to the rnanAbtns of parts along-side tlue hne, eanh caris accompani,ed alongthe first leg bE atri,ple-shelued, multr,-trayed arrangementthnt also containslnanA of the requi,red,components.

Below: Neari,ng corn-pleti,on, the B at thisstage is oi,rtu,ally agoxng concern apartfrom" seats and, bon-net, Wi,tlt, those partsfitted, the lteadli,ghtsadjusted and, frontsuspensi,on / steeringali,gned, th,e B is readyto roll, from the as-sembly Li,ne f or testi,n,g.

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