To my mind, few cars are more emblematic of the "Malaise Era" than the 1975-1980 MG MGB, like this example in Dark British Racing Green.
The poor little roadster was hit by a one-two punch of EPA emissions regs and NHTSA safety requirements.
Emissions regulations inserted a catalytic converter in the exhaust and caused compression to be reduced to 8.0:1. Breathing through a single Zenith-Stromburg 1-bbl carburetor, the undersquare (3.16" bore to 3.5" stroke) little 1.8L four cylinder could only wheeze out 62.5 SAE net horsepower, what with the platinum potato stuffed in the tailpipe. By comparison, a catalytic convertor-less '76 model on the other side of the Atlantic still had an 8.8:1 compression ratio and a brace of SU carbs and put out 83 horses. Still not a lot, but every pony makes a big difference on a car this tiny.
The safety regs had caused the cars graceful chrome bumpers to be replaced with rubber-coated monstrosities that could pass the 5 mph impact tests. They also bumped the curb weight up to 2300 pounds. Further, the headlights were too low to pass US safety standards so, rather than redo all the sheet metal on the front of the car, BMC just jacked the ride height up by an inch, giving the car a weird "on stilts" look and wrecking the handling.
Still, by 1976 it was one of the only convertibles you could buy in the U.S. and went for under five grand, about the same price as a '76 Mustang II Mach 1, which only let you pine for the sky while staring through a glass moon roof.
The photos were snapped with an Olympus E-5 & Panasonic Leica 14-150mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens.
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