The jubilee was built in 1975 to celebrate 50 years of MG, although technically a year late as MG began in 1924 it was decided that the jubilee would commemorate old number one and its hill climbing victory, old number one classed as the first MG sports car.

The jubilee was only produced for the home market, chosen in GT form perhaps as a promotional tool due to the fact the GT had failed the admissions tests and was no longer exported to the USA.

Resplendent in new racing green paintwork which had been a MG colour in 1971, the jubilee had every available extra; head restraints, tinted glass, overdrive, heated rear window and for the first time in an MG full carpets. The side body chromes were for first time painted in body colour, so they didn’t clash with the large gold decals with the jubilee logo which sat all down the sides. All the brightwork was removed so the jubilee had black mirrors and windscreen wipers rather than the usual chrome. V8 wheels were used as there was a stockpile due to lack of sales of the V8 powered MG because of petrol prices being extortionate, they were painted gold and black. A V8 steering wheel in black was added with a gold MG boss. All MG badges were in gold alongside every MG produced in 1975.

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The production run was of 751 jubilees, originally 750 were to be made but whilst filming an advert  one of the jubilees was wrecked, this one was repainted in the metallic green which was the MG prototype colour and left with gold side flashes. It became a factory hack and an o series development car.

The jubilee had a dash plaque which was a copy of the side decals laurel leaf. Each car was meant to have a dash mounted numbered plaque but these were sent out separately to the dealers to have the owners name engraved on it. Very few of the jubilees retain a plaque, some never got them and some owners kept them, sadly the numbers were given randomly and have no relevance to build or chassis number and no records were kept so if a jubilee doesn’t have a dash plaque it is impossible to find out the number it was given.

As well as the 751-production run a V8 jubilee was produced for the British school of motoring and for many years it had the registration BSM1 apparently this car is now in a private collection.

A jubilee midget was also produced as a one off, in the same new racing green it had gold rostyles and doctored to fit jubilee side decals. This special car is with a man who appreciates its rarity and who has just purchased a big brother for it in the mgb GT jubilee form.

As the jubilee was for the home market, a roadster was prepared in jubilee finery for the USA. This car was the lighter Brooklands green, had the jubilee decals and wheels it also was the millionth MG made at Abingdon and bears a special plaque. The car was raffled in north America.

There is something uniquely special about a MGB GT Jubilee, perhaps because made by MG to celebrate MG, it’s also one of the first controversial rubber bumper models, these were only added to try and get round the American  import rules, sadly it didn’t work and MG lost its most lucrative export hub.

You can tell a Jubilee or a Limited Edition by the chassis number, at the MGB GT Jubilee & L.E owners club we have registers for these Limited Edition cars as we have the build records we have to marry them up with registration numbers so if you have, have had, know of, own any Limited Edition MG please let us know so we can check it’s on our registers…….. mgbjubilee.com or michelle.sandford603@btinternet.com.