The Rover Group marketing department were pleased with the initial sales of the MGF but three years down the line they needed a boost. That came in the form of the first of numerous special and limited editions.
The MGF did take design cues from the MGB including the headlights and grilles and this first limited edition, as the name suggests, delved further into that tradition.
The car came in one colour only – Brooklands Green with door handles, front grille and side air intakes in chrome trim and a beige soft-top. The interior featured a walnut steering wheel and beige leather interior with wood trim.
The wheels were 16 inch alloys with 215/40ZR low profile tyres and both versions came with EPAS although ABS could also be optioned for the 1.8i.
350 1.8i and 150 VVCs were intended for the UK however 514 Abingdon’s were delivered to home shores, built between 20/10/1997 and 19/06/1998, of these 500 came to Great Britain with 3 delivered to Guernsey, 5 to Ireland, 1 to the Isle of Man, and 5 to Jersey. 158 were 118bhp mpi’s and 356 143bhp vvc’s. There is no external identification or badging.
All other cars are in fact Brooklands SE models. 1637 were delivered between 22/10/1997 and 03/09/1998 around the world but, interestingly the 501 that went to Japan and the 75 that went to Australia all had 15” vvc 5 spoke alloys although they were all mpi’s. ALL Brooklands are 118 bhp mpi’s.
75 to Australia, 15 to Austria, 120 to Belgium, 5 to Denmark, 352 to France, 403 to Germany, 501 to Japan, 46 to the Netherlands and 120 to Switzerland
Paint code is HYF – Trim code is unique AAA Walnut leather