There’s an extended hairline crack in Shed’s tea mug. It’s been there for so long as he can keep in mind, and he can really feel it on his backside lip on every occasion he has a brew. He is aware of complete smartly that in the future, certain as eggs is eggs, it’s going to burst like a miniature pottery model of the Mohne dam and drench his frontal space with scalding-hot Tetleys. 

He realises that he will have to merely substitute the mug, however he is as tight because the proverbial duck’s backside and he additionally relatively likes the uncertainty. Because the postmistress will verify, the possibility of finishing up with steaming Y-fronts at all times brings a frisson of pleasure to Shed’s in a different way humdrum life.

You could say that the MGF’s Ok Collection engine is the an identical of Shed’s crack. Blighted from beginning via a thermostat that was once put within the mistaken position and a head gasket that was once comprised of the mistaken stuff, its cylinder head may blow at any second: you simply didn’t know when. This was once all an enormous disgrace as a result of, most sensible finish woes aside, the 1.8 perched excitingly in the back of your nut and riding the rear wheels was once a really perfect little unit, particularly in variably valve-timed 143hp VVC structure.

There is something particular in regards to the explicit F you are looking at right here. It’s an Abingdon, which was once the primary particular version F. Shed hasn’t been ready to determine precisely how restricted this version was once. Some (typically house owners) say there have been most effective 150 made with the VVC motor and some other 350 with the non-VVC 1.8. Others and not using a pores and skin within the recreation say do not consider that outdated nonsense, and that there have been about 1,500 made altogether. Regardless of the reality may well be, VVC Abingdons are rarer than non-VVCs. Proper automobiles will have to have the ones 3 letters emblazoned at the valve covers. We shouldn’t have a pic of the engine, however we do of the tacho and the 7,250rpm positioning of the crimson zone is correct for the VVC.

In different places within the cabin we’ve got picket, or a Picket-U-Like substance anyway, and plumptious piped seats upholstered in biscuit leather-based, the easiest accompaniment to Shed’s tea if most effective they’d been fabricated from biscuits and now not cowskin. The moo prolonged to the steerage wheel, gearlever and handbrake gaiters and door panels. Windbreaks and chromey bootlid baggage racks have been fashionable Abingdon add-ons.

The 16-inch alloy wheels have been Abingdon-bespoke and the paint was once a lustrous Brooklands Inexperienced, with an non-compulsory hardtop to be had in the similar color. Brooklands Inexperienced wasn’t an Abingdon-exclusive color, resulting in Abingdon standing being naughtily claimed for non-Abingdon automobiles. Shed feels fairly assured about this automotive despite the fact that. It has a black comfortable most sensible quite than the unique biscuity one, however for the reason that it is been round for 25 years he reckons it is not anything extra sinister than a alternative merchandise.

Within the strategy of his analysis Shed discovered some other 1998 Abingdon up on the market. In line with the advert that 42,000-miler got here with ‘never-ending’ provider stamps documented ‘neetly’ (hmm) inside a big ‘binder folder’, and there was once additionally a mysterious ‘field of authentic portions’. Shed prefers the unique portions to be suited for the auto quite than sitting in a field, however alternatively he’s a grumpy outdated sod. Anyway, a few years in the past that Abingdon won new Hydragas spheres, a suspension machine that MG binned in favour of standard metal springs for the overall 2002-on TF. There was once not anything within the advert in regards to the state of the cylinder head. With this kind of low mileage, may it if truth be told nonetheless have its authentic most sensible finish? Who is aware of. What we do know is that its MOT expired closing November (’23) and that the fee for it was once £5,995. 

For 4 grand lower than that, you’ll be able to have Shed’s 89,000-mile instance and not using a obtrusive problems and a blank MOT working as much as Would possibly. A lot of consumables were ate up over its lifetime, telling basically a tale of wonky chassis geometry – some other not unusual F factor – that no one has thus far troubled to kind out. There aren’t any mentions within the MOT historical past of rust or the rest of a wallet-disturbing nature, however there’s a private reg quantity that can certainly attraction to an actor, a butcher, or in all probability an actor who butchers their strains. That subsequent proprietor will wish to make sure that the cambelt is in just right order. If it snaps, a minimum of part of the valves shall be bent and a minimum of part the valve guides shall be broken. The water pump must be in just right fettle too.

We’re now not instructed what number of house owners it is had, however the treacle-slow accumulation of miles in recent years – simply 9,000 within the closing 14 years – means that a minimum of a type of house owners stored it off the roads within the hopes of a few form of jackpot bobbing up from its restricted edition-ness. Even supposing Shed has spotted some proof of F values creeping up of past due, that thunderclap of marketplace reputation has now not but took place. As an alternative, this Abingdon has ended up right here in Shed’s gloomy purview at a disappointingly inglorious worth of £1,995, a a ways cry from the £23k that MG was once asking for brand spanking new ones in 1998. A discount then! Perhaps.