MGF/TF – The forgotten British sports car

Ask the petrolhead community to name some open-top sports cars and chances are you will receive answers like the Mazda MX-5 (Miata if you are American or Roadster if you are Japanese), Toyota MR-2, Honda S2000, Porsche Boxster, BMW Z4 or a Lotus Elise. Heck, even the Fiat Barchetta and the Alfa Romeo Spider would get a mention each.

We need more British contenders; I hear you say?

We actually do, in the form of MG. Unfortunately, mention MG to anyone and probably you might hear stories about the As, Bs, Cs, Midgets or probably the 50s T-type body on frame cars. But, what if I told you that back in the mid-90s to the late naughties, that MG actually made a sports car alongside their jumped up Rovers?
Surprised?

Enter the MGF, a mid-engined, two-seater, open top sports car to rival the likes of the Mazda MX-5 and one of the last in line of MG sports cars before the company went bust and promptly revived by the Chinese to make econo-boxes.

To start off, I am not here to wax lyricals about the MGF/TF because I own one, I am writing this piece as a counterpoint to the many unfair criticisms skeptics levelled against it for many years; which I would like to shed some light on since I own one. As a matter of fact, when I was in the market for a little sports car, I found myself wanting an NA MX-5. However, by the time I was trying to hunt for one, it is April and people are starting to buy them in droves; the pool for cheap and mint-conditioned NA MX-5s was drying up fast.

That left me with two options: Go with an NB or buy something else.

I chose the latter and found myself looking at the Toyota MR-2 Spyder and the MGF. At this point of time, many people would have put money on the Japanese car and drive off very much trouble-free and enjoying their summer. But, because of the complex and irrational way my mind works sometimes, I have decided I didn’t want reliability and good build quality, my mind was somehow set on the one made in Longbridge.

When the MGF was first launched in 1995, it pretty much received mixed reviews. Some critics liked it, while the others (i.e. Tiff Needell) didn’t. In this case, Tiff Needell mentioned that the F had numb steering, high driving position and soft handling (due to the Hydragas suspension), meanwhile, he found the TF to be a major improvement to the F but inadequate to swing him away from the comparable MR-2.

It was that moment that I was determined to find out if the MG offering is that bad – by buying one.

So here I am, an owner of a 52-reg, TF 135 in silver with 61 000 miles on the clock. And here are some of the myths associated with it:

It is based on an Austin Metro – Somewhat true

Now, there is no denying that the F/TF have Austin Metro subframes and Lucas electrics (Fs to TFs of 2002 model year only). Even the test mule for the MGF is in fact an Austin Metro van. But then again, the Fiat Barchetta is basically a Fiat Punto in a party dress and the Toyota MR-2 is essentially a Corolla driven backwards; nobody complained about them.

So why are we slating the MG on the basis of its foundations?

Build quality and reliability are terrible – Partially true

While I will concede that the build quality is left much to be desired, its reliability is actually not as bad as some people would make it out to be.

In the course of owning the car, I had the check engine light on twice – turns out to be a crankshaft position sensor fault. Two to three sprays of contact cleaner later, problem solved.

Meanwhile, the non-functioning heater fan was a result of a burnt-out resistor pack. All that was needed is a heater fan clean-up and a £10 replacement part. Another problem I had to face was when my clutch pedal went soft after leaving it parked uphill for nearly a week. I just simply bled the system of air and all is well again.

Apart from those issues, the car has never let me down at all. I’m pretty sure the Fiat Barchetta spends more time falling apart than my car….

The Rover K-series engines go through head gaskets like a drunkard would with alcohol. – Unfair

To start off, the K series engine may have been famous for head gasket failures, but this is very much down to how sensitive its design is to sudden change in heat cycles. Which is why when the common folks treat the engine like they would with any other engines, the head gasket gives way due to the unequal expansion rates between the top and the bottom of the block; thus causing the head gasket to distort.

Hence, if anything, one should always wait for the engine to warm up before setting off or even thrashing it; K-series or not.

However, that is not to say that the K engine’s design is perfect, Land Rover engineers have come up with a multi-layer gasket and a strengthened oil rail design to help combat the engine’s supposed susceptibility to blowing head gaskets. Other specialists and enthusiasts have pinpointed the thermostat and subsequently come up with products like the Pressure-Relieving Thermostat (PRT) or even a complete repositioning of the thermostat itself.

The MG does not drive as well as the Toyota or the Mazda. – I haven’t driven the two cars to be able to judge yet.

Toyota and Mazda aside, I think the MG drives pretty well. The electric power steering is one of the better systems I have sampled in terms of feel and feedback. The ride may be very choppy on the larger 16 inch wheels; but as a trade-off, the car is actually a hoot to drive in the twisties. Sure, it won’t hang its back end out on a bone dry road but it wouldn’t understeer like a pig either.

Because of the heavier rear (due to the mid-engine, rear drive layout) and skinnier front tires, I feel that the car would appreciate it if one would trail brake (or just carry the brake pedal) into the corner entry before gunning it mid-apex.

My only complaints would be the brakes and the gear change. While the F Trophy and the TF160 gets a meaty set of 4-pot AP Racing calipers and 304 mm discs up front, the rest of the range has to make do with 1 pot calipers and puny 240 mm discs all round. While the standard brakes will stop just fine in normal use, it is just not good enough when one drives it like a sports car. The throw of the shifter on the MG is a little too “long” for my liking and because of the its age, the action is starting to get sloppy. While I am sure that some adjustments on the shifter cables and replacing some bushes or washers will help tighten up the shifts, the long throw will be something I have to live with.

Fortunately, one can now buy the AP racing items and put it on the lesser models, but doing so will mean upgrading the wheels from 15 inches to a set of 16s.

Nevertheless, whether or not it drives as well as its Japanese counterparts will always be a subjective matter. I’ve had people who would tell me that they prefer the MX-5 and on the other hand, I’ve got the car’s previous owner telling me she preferred her (former) TF over the Mazda. But, at the end of the day, I believe all skeptics should drive one before slating it (if they could even slate it for the way it drives in the first place).

I am sensing a gathering for all three cars for a comparison test, no?

While it is pretty sad that the MGF/TF have been largely forgotten and sometimes maligned by the general petrolhead community, it is even more disappointing to note that many classic British sports car community people (I’m talking about the MGAs, Bs, Midgets, Austin Healy Sprite) would snub the F/TF. For us F/TF owners, we are just like the Ferrari Mondials and Porsche 924s in the world of British sports cars – often tolerated but never truly accepted.

Like food, one cannot truly judge it until he/she gives it a try. And with the F/TF, it isn’t until you drive one that you realise how much fun they are to drive. Before buying the MG, I had my doubts and I thought I would at one point of time, trade it for an MX-5.

But, four month into owning it, that idea just went right out of the window. While there is always a time and place for a Miata, it is definitely not at the expense of trading the MG off.