This MGA Restomod Is A 290bhp Track Car Wearing Tweed

Look at an MGA, like the one in these pictures, and you probably have a certain image in your head. It’s village fetes, stringback driving gloves, and pints of brown ale down the Swan and Gooseberry with the local chapter of the MG Owners’ Club.

This, though, isn’t a normal MGA. It’s a Frontline MGA Factory Edition restomod, and though it looks largely standard on the outside, it packs a mechanical spec that’s more akin to several Jägerbombs than a pint of Gruntley’s Best Bitter.

Oxfordshire-based Frontline has made a name for itself already for its MGB restomods, but it’s now turned its attention to that car’s 1950s predecessor. Gone is the old BMC B-Series engine, replaced by a choice of two naturally aspirated Ford Duratec four-pots: a 2.0-litre making 225bhp, or a 2.5 with 290bhp.

Both engines get individual throttle bodies, a modern ECU and new camshafts, so they should sound suitably raspy as they breathe through a custom stainless steel exhaust. They continue to send power to the back wheels, now through Frontline’s five-speed manual gearbox and a limited-slip diff.

It’s the chassis where Frontline might have done the most work, though. There’s a completely new five-link rear suspension setup developed by Nitron, plus telescopic dampers on the front. The original MGA Twin-Cam was rather ahead of its time in featuring four-wheel disc brakes, and that’s naturally carried across here with modern braking tech, now with four-pot callipers at the front.

The whole lot weighs 815kg dry, which, combined with that sizeable chunk of power, should make the Factory Edition capable of bothering plenty of modern sports cars.

Despite that, though, Frontline’s thankfully avoided going down the ever-more common restomod route of massively altering the looks. Only the new LED headlights and the Frontline badge replacing the MG one on the bonnet are signs that something’s changed. Well, that and the fact that you’ve just surprised a Porsche Cayman at the lights.

Pricing hasn’t been announced, partly because it’s likely to vary massively from car to car as Frontline’s offering the near-endless personalisation options that are part and parcel of the modern restomod experience. However much it does cost, though, the Factory Edition is available to order now in right- or left-hand drive, and as a roadster or a coupe. Customer deliveries are set to begin in the summer of next year, just in time for you to cause a stir at your local classic car show.