From 1968 through 1974 a whole swath of new federal requirements were applied to new automobiles sold in the United States intended to increase vehicles' safety and lessen their harmful tailpipe emissions. In addition, the fuel crisis of 1973 made consumers extremely sensitive to fuel economy and soaring insurance rates punished performance-oriented automobiles.
The MG MGB that came out the other side of this period was quite different to the model that had gone into it in 1967.
The most obvious difference was the large bumpers fitted to both ends of the car. Prominent, heavy, and clad with black rubber no matter wha color the car to which they were bolted was painted, these earned the late MGB the epithet "Rubber Baby Buggy Bumper Cars".
Side marker lights had been added back in '68, as well as a padded dash and other safety features, but new federal requirements dictating headlight and bumper height caused MG to raise the Rubber Baby Buggy Bumper Car on its suspension, making handling wobblier.
The onset of emissions reductions had done no favors to the car's performance either.
Under the hood, where once a pair of SU carburetors had been bolted to the intake, there now lived only a single Zenith-Stromberg. With an output of 62.9 SAE net horsepower at 5,000 rpm, that resulted in a 19% haircut from the previous peak power. Car and Driver's 1975 test car took all of 13.7 seconds to reach sixty and dawdled through the standing quarter mile in nineteen flat at 70.7 through the traps on the way to an observed ninety mile per hour top speed. Stopping from seventy took a whopping 207 feet. Fuel economy was about 22mpg.
Price as tested, with only an AM/FM radio and chrome beauty rings on the wheels for options, was $4,620 in 1975 dollars, or $28,778 in current money.
The car in the photos was snapped in August of 2025 using a Canon EOS R and an RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS zoom lens.
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