Photo: Frontline Cars
It's easy for American petrolheads to gloss over the true-to-form classic British sports car. There's something about their trademark diminutive form factor and less-than-enormous sized engines that don't mesh well with American car culture. But please, don't pre-judge when it comes to what Frontline Cars out of Oxfordshire, England, has managed to come up with. What they call the LE60, based on a classic MG MGB, is the pure embodiment of everything a British sports car should be, with an added layer of refinement that brings things up a couple of levels.
Depending on whether you're driving an older MGB with a plucky 1.8-liter B-series four-cylinder engine or a late-model example with a 3.5-liter Rover V8, it can be a radically different driving experience. Believe it or not, the aluminum cylinder heads of the big V8 made the whole package weigh slightly less than the four-cylinder examples.
One can only wonder how stroking said V8 to 4.8 liters throws off the whole weight analogy, but we're sure Frontline Cars thought it was a decision worth making. When you look at the results of what they came up with, we have to agree with them on this one.
Extra added-on goodies include a lightweight balanced crankshaft, forged pistons, custom exhaust and intake manifolds, and new h-beam rods for a set of internals built to handle the 375 hp and 312 lb-ft of torque this motor jets out with ease these days. For those interested, that's a power increase of almost three-fold over a stock, late-model MGB V8's power output of 137 hp.
All this power is fed through a Tremec TKO five-speed stick shift gearbox, because who in their right mind would want to drive this thing without rowing through the gears? Those who know British sports cars well know this to be true.
At the LE60's rear end sits a Quaife limited-slip differential for more controllable handling characteristics. A double-wishbone front suspension up front with a custom six-link suspension setup in the rear with coilover shocks from Frontline/Nitron at all four corners mean the LE60 rides and handles leaps and bounds better than even the most well-sorted stock MGB that ever left a Midlands factory.
Thanks to super sticky Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires and 310 mm brake rotors in the front and 265 mm rotors in the rear, you'll be happy to know it can stop just as well as it accelerates.
When you add on the stunningly beautiful brown interior, seemingly trimmed in the same leather that Spitfire and Lancaster pilots used to wear back in World War II, and you have one of the most outstanding British sports car builds we've seen in a very long time.
One can only wonder how stroking said V8 to 4.8 liters throws off the whole weight analogy, but we're sure Frontline Cars thought it was a decision worth making. When you look at the results of what they came up with, we have to agree with them on this one.
Extra added-on goodies include a lightweight balanced crankshaft, forged pistons, custom exhaust and intake manifolds, and new h-beam rods for a set of internals built to handle the 375 hp and 312 lb-ft of torque this motor jets out with ease these days. For those interested, that's a power increase of almost three-fold over a stock, late-model MGB V8's power output of 137 hp.
All this power is fed through a Tremec TKO five-speed stick shift gearbox, because who in their right mind would want to drive this thing without rowing through the gears? Those who know British sports cars well know this to be true.
At the LE60's rear end sits a Quaife limited-slip differential for more controllable handling characteristics. A double-wishbone front suspension up front with a custom six-link suspension setup in the rear with coilover shocks from Frontline/Nitron at all four corners mean the LE60 rides and handles leaps and bounds better than even the most well-sorted stock MGB that ever left a Midlands factory.
Thanks to super sticky Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires and 310 mm brake rotors in the front and 265 mm rotors in the rear, you'll be happy to know it can stop just as well as it accelerates.
When you add on the stunningly beautiful brown interior, seemingly trimmed in the same leather that Spitfire and Lancaster pilots used to wear back in World War II, and you have one of the most outstanding British sports car builds we've seen in a very long time.
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