My name is Adam, I’m a Web Designer and classic car fan from Bedfordshire.
In 2024, after a gap of 36 years, I decided to re-live my youth and buy an MGB Roadster.
It was the late 1980s and I was 17 when I bought FLP 377J, a 1971 model. I only had it a year or two at most, but it seemed like a long time back then. I certainly covered a lot of miles in it.
In many respects, it was the worst car I’ve ever owned. It broke down with alarming regularity, requiring a never ending cycle of repairs to keep it going. Fuel pump, prop shaft, windscreen wiper cable, horn, hood, exhaust, you name it. I have no idea how I afforded all this, but my long suffering Dad certainly helped on the practical side.
When it became obvious that using it as a daily driver was too troublesome and expensive for an impoverished teenager, I sold it and moved on to more modern cars. (Well, they were modern back then)
But the memory of that magical feeling of stepping back into a different age as I climbed into the MGB Roadster never left me.
Incidentally, if anyone knows the whereabouts of this car, I’d love to hear from you. Read more.
The car was only 16/17 years old when I had it, but it was firmly rooted in the past. This was a real British sports car, not just a Ford or Vauxhall with tasteless go faster badges, as everyone else seemed to be driving back then.
The styling, driving position, interior, and handling characteristics gave it proper vintage sports car credentials. Undeniably flawed, but so much fun.
So when the idea was planted in my mind to buy another one, this time as a summer weekend plaything rather than daily transport, I couldn’t resist.
If you want to know what happened next, start at the beginning.
Whatever happened to FLP 377J?
The white MGB in these photographs is FLP 377J, a 1971 Roadster that I owned in 1987 and 1988, when I was just 17.
I sold it in the Cambridge area nearly 40 years ago and never saw it again. But recently I discovered that the car is still on the DVLA database and currently SORN, so there’s every possibility that it still survives.
I’ve been doing a little detective work to find out what happened to it after I sold it. I’ve already discovered that somebody converted it from the RoStyle wheels you can see here to wire wheels, and that it was still being MOT’d as recently as 2017.
Read the story of FLP 377J and help me find it →
Where it all began with JOH 924E
If you want the full story, start here.
