RV8 GT Prototype MGV 856

It was the dream of David Bloomfield, to have an MG RV8 GT.

What do you do if you are the Managing Director of British Motor Heritage and want a car not produced by the Rover Group? You commission one yourself!

At Bloomfield’s direction, BMH sourced a 1975 rubber bumper MGB GT V8 and stripped it of its parts. BMH also set aside a new BMH rubber bumper GT body shell and sourced a donor black Japanese-spec RV8 development car from Rover Group Cowley from which it could harvest RV8 mechanical components and running gear. The GT shell was painted by a local body shop routinely used by BMH for painting its production body shells and BMH engineers fitted the running gear and parts.

Mr. Bloomfield left BMH and the project ground to a halt. New management arrived and wanted to focus on manufacturing, the unfinished RV8 GT project had to be sold. It was initially sold to MGB Hive, a BMH-approved dealer in Wisbech, Cambs. MGB Hive soon sold the car to a former Rover engineer in 1999 who commissioned Abingdon Restorations to complete the car. The completed car was registered in 2002 and kept by its first UK owner until June 2010. He sold it to a German MG enthusiast in Stuttgart. The car was then sold to a UK MG enthusiast and repatriated in 2020.