What can one say about the MGB that has not already been said? The first sports car for the masses. Easy to work on. Reliable, economical, great fun to drive.

Bertie, as my MGB is known, is one of the very early models. 1964 to be precise. And one of the few that were assembled in Australia by Leyland. Australian ‘Bs’ were different to UK Bs. An oil cooler was standard. Seats were black vinyl with red piping and wire wheels were grey, not chrome. Bertie is totally original in all these respects.

The motor is the original 3 bearing B series which originated in the Austin Cambridge (now, there is an intensely boring British car if ever there was one – with apologies to Cambridgites) . The 3 bearing motor revs much more freely than the later 5 bearing bottom end, making Bertie a very responsive car to drive – for its year.

Once again, do not forget how old Bertie is. 1964 was a long time ago and technology was only just starting to advance from World War Two technology. The disc brakes on the front was a modern innovation at the time, but the gearbox still only had synchromesh on three of the four gears. You need to make sure the car is stopped before selecting first gear – unless you are one of those sad soles who has mastered the, once necessary, art of double declutching!

Like the other cars in the Sydney Classic Car Hire fleet, Bertie has some modern additions – well just one to be precise – inertia reel seatbelts. The rest is pure 1960s. Enjoy!