Factory body colours for MGBGTV8s, V8 Register, MG Car Club

© Geoff Allen (V8 Historian & Archivist)

The top five colours were Glacier White (513 or 19.7%), Damask Red (471 or 18.2%), Citron (265 or 10.3%), Teal Blue (244 or 9.4%) and Harvest Gold (183 or 7.0%) which together accounted for almost two thirds (64.6%) of the production. For many people the surprise is there were 100 MGBGTV8s in Aconite. By the standards of today, the colours used at Abingdon in the mid-1970s were little short of extraordinary - very vivid or striking colours, some of which might seem dreadful now but on a mid-1970s MGBGTV8 they seem perfectly normal. Equally surprising is the reaction members have to those colours today - the more conventional colours like Teal Blue, Damask Red and Glacier White are often very popular but there are some people who simply cannot stand Teal Blue for example and prefer Aconite or even Citron! Now Citron has always been a colour which has caused clear views and comment, and of course it's frequently referred to as "puke green" by the insensitive! Members either love it or hate it - there are very few floating voters. Harvest Gold is also very much a mid-1970s colour which was seen on many Allegros, 1300s and other BL cars of the period and often the very few cars in Limeflower can be confused with Harvest Gold - until you see the two colours alongside each other when the greenish hue in the beige of the Limeflower is so noticeable. A similar confusion often arises over Aconite and Black Tulip but again once you have seen the two colours alongside each other, the difference is very clear. The orange colours are also easily confused - Blaze, Bracken and Bronze Yellow until you seem them. A rare MGBGTV8 is the single vehicle finished in the Jubilee colours - Jubilee BRG 2605, a car with a colourful history too! Another colour scheme seen on a few Black Jubilee MGBGTV8s supplied by University Motors, a leading MG Dealer back in the 1970s, which had the gold Jubilee side flashes on the sides on black cars. So to help enthusiasts less familar with the MGBGTV8 colours, we have a photo gallery with examples of the colours!

How many MGBGTV8s were produced?
Geoff Allen has produced an interesting note on exactly how many V8s were produced.
Summary note and V8NOTE300 and V8NOTE313