The LE500 MGTF marked a turbulent time in MG’s history. With the collapse of MG Rover, in April 2005, the marque’s ownership changed to China’s Nanjing Automobile Corp. after administrators accepted a bid for the brand. The LE500 run was limited to 500 cars but there were a few extra prototypes assembled at Longbridge, including this Graphite Grey example. Once the dust settled and NAC had been absorbed by Chinese state-owned SAIC, TF production resumed at Longbridge in August 2008.
NAC’s ownership of the Octagon heralded many changes as tooling was shipped over to China but, as this car shows, the MG Rover parts bin wasn’t quite empty.
We caught up with David Koskela, the owner of this LE500 prototype. He is well known to regulars as the proprietor of Church Square Autos. “This car was part of the press launch. As far as I’ve been told, it is the 14th out of 62 cars made
