When you’ve been involved in the classic car scene for a number of decades, certain events tend to stick in your memory as stand-out moments. For me, one of those was the announcement by British Motor Heritage (BMH) that it was to commence production of complete MGB bodyshells, with the first customer example being built in 1988. It would be another 13 years, however, before Mini owners would similarly benefit from the availability of new shells.
It’s all too easy to take for granted the fact that brand new bodyshells for some of the UK’s most popular classics can now be bought. But back in 1988, just eight years on from the MGB ceasing production and MG’s historic Abingdon plant closing, this was revolutionary stuff. We’d obviously been used to iconic BMC and BL favourites like the Morris Minor, most MGs and our beloved Mini having excellent parts availability, with panels from a variety of different sources being available off the shelf. But BMH’s move of ’88 was different; for the first time in the history of British classic motoring, brand new bodyshells could
