The MGA With An Attitude
WORKS COMPETITION CARS - VT-104_EX182/39
302 LBL Replica of LBL 302
On Nov 10, 2023, Mark Matthews in Warwickshire, Rowington, UK wrote:
"I visited the opening day of the UK's biggest Classic car show. Over the 8 halls there ware only 3 MGA's ... this green one that was a replica of a Le Mans EX182 that was on the Maguiares stand".
On Nov 10, 2023, John Halton in Bolton, UK wrote:
"The screen on that replica is the one I bought from Ted Lund back in the '70s. It may have been on car 64 which he drove at Le Mans in '55. So it's a genuine original part. -- I lent it to someone to be copied and never got it back. It ended up with Bob West who passed it on to the current user. I only found out recently after a chat with Bob who was unaware of it's history".
The builder went to extraordinary lengths to make this car an exact replica of the original, even tracking down original manifolds etc. Absolute credit to him.
From the story board on the stand at the car show:
Owner Name; Mark Tossed
Location: North Devon
Being a huge MG fan and owning another MGA for 20 years, Mark's dream for many years has been to own an ex-works MGA, but realized he could never afford one. A few years ago, he then thought that maybe he could build a tool room copy of the stunning MGA EX182s that raced at the Le Mans in 1955. EX182 being the name given to the four prototype cars that competed in the '55 Le Mans to showcase MG's new sports cars, 302 LBL is a tool room copy of LBL 302 using many original parts from the original EX182 cars, including the super rare Weslake twin-port cylinder head and balancer pipe that was any ever made for the four EX102s, Fully hand built alloy body. Built from the original MG Abingdon factory build sheets, drawings and photos plus the most valuable advice from Jim Cox who built the original four engines and help build the tour cars before driving LBL 302 to Le Mans in 55 where he was one of the MO works mechanics. All parts used are genuine NOS are made to original spec. None of the four cars have survived in there original 1055 Le Mans state which made this a very hard build to recreate with every detail.
How often is the car used: On dry weekends only.
What's the best thing about owning the car? Owning my dream! Love looking at it and driving it!
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