2012 marks the MGB’s 50th birthday, and what better way to celebrate Britain’s best-loved sports car than with an uprated and updated version for the 21st century?

Words and pictures: Adam Sloman

The words ‘legend’ and ‘icon’ are all too common these days. However, if one car deserves that tag, it’s the MGB – a car not only popular with MG loyalists, but a sports car that has come to define much of the classic car scene. 2012 sees the car celebrate its 50th birthday, and MG specialists Frontline Developments chose to mark the occasion by creating what is, in their eyes, the ultimate MGB.

Tim Fenna founded Frontline 20 years ago and recalls how the concept for LE50 began. ‘Back in February 2010 we were looking for a way to celebrate MGB 50; we’ve been designing and building cars for 20 years and it’s our anniversary as a company too, so we thought: Why don’t we build a special? Then we thought: What gives us the right? But we talked about our idea with the MG Car Club and British Motor Heritage who were both very supportive, so we decided to go for it.’

Ed Braclik takes up the story. ‘We’d thought about doing something for Midget 50, but there wasn’t really enough time to put a project together. We then thought about doing a range of 50th parts and trim, but we came up so many ideas that we thought: Why not build a complete car?

Tim continues: ‘Once we decided we wanted to go for it, it was then a question of sitting down and looking at the proposition realistically. Could we pull together 3000 products of the right quality? How do you modernise the MGB? And the biggest question of all: could we deliver it at a high enough quality to make it a genuine celebration vehicle, something we and our customers would be proud of? We decided we could.’

With the decision made, Tim and Ed began considering their options for the car. ‘I was very specific in what I wanted it to be able to do,’ says Tim. ‘It had to be comfortable to be a proper GT, it needed to offer impressive performance, but it also had to be capable of a trip to the shops.’ Ed adds: ‘It’s not hard work to drive, and that was one of the things I wanted to see from it. I wanted it to have all the practicality and creature comforts of a modern car.’

Frontline Developments can be contacted on 01235 832632, or visit www.frontlinedevelopments.com

To read more about this MG see the February 2012 issue of MG Enthusiast on sale now - available here.