Not a whole lot of old British cars remain on the streets of Alameda. We've seen a few Morrises and a couple of Jaguars, but just a single MG up until today. I found this '73 MGB parked just a few doors down from the '68 Pontiac GTO and ran right home to get my camera, in case it was about to drive away any minute. As it turned out, this MG is a new resident, not a onetime visitor.

1973 was the last year of the small chrome bumpers for US-market MGBs, with monstrous Malaise units adding approximately five tons of ugly to the later car. The Malaise Era got an early start on the MGB's engine for '73, though, with a Yugo-like 79 horsepower on tap from the venerable BMC B engine (yes, the US-spec Yugo boasted- if that's the word- only 68 horsepower, but those extra 11 horses probably don't give the British Leyland product much of a performance advantage over the Zastava machine). Still, I used a '73 MGB-GT as a daily driver for a few years, and it felt quick, even if the reality was otherwise.


This car is in very, very nice condition, with no rust and plenty of shine, and it parks on the street every day. Did anyone ever use these luggage racks for luggage?


Aftermarket steering wheel and shift knob- right or wrong for this car?

Send an email to Murilee Martin, the author of this post, at murilee@jalopnik.com.