NG TF: the best-selling NG kit car

The NG TF was a two-seater kit car from NG Cars of Milford on Sea, Hampshire, styled after the MG TF of the early 1950s. More than 1,200 were built, making it the most successful model in the company’s short history, and it could be put together with MGB, Morris Marina or Ford Sierra parts.

NG TF at a glance

There is no English Wikipedia article on NG Cars; this page is based on the German article on the company (based on one source).

History of the NG TF

From Aston Martin shapes to MG roadsters

NG Cars was founded in 1979 by Nick Green at Milford on Sea in Hampshire. Green had run the Speedwell Motor Company in the 1970s, selling among other things the Arkley, a conversion kit for the MG Midget, and the success of that kit led him to produce kit cars under his own initials. The first NG models were inspired by Aston Martin sports cars of the 1930s; the later imitations of early 1950s MG roadsters became the company’s most successful cars and were built in four-figure numbers.

The TF and its donor cars

The TF was the pick of those MG-inspired models, a two-seater in the manner of the MG TF. Its mechanical parts could come from an MGB, a Morris Marina or a Ford Sierra, which gave builders a wide choice of cheap donors. That flexibility mattered: early NG cars had used MGB mechanics, but when MGB prices rose sharply in the middle of the 1980s the company switched to Morris and Ford components because using an MGB purely as a donor car no longer made economic sense.

V8 and the end of NG

The TF could also be fitted with Rover’s V8, and in that form it competed with the Morgan Plus 8. NG advertised its kits as complete and of high quality, claiming that a car could be finished in ten hours. In 1987 Green sold the rights to his existing models to the customer Peter Fellowes, whose TA Motor Car Company and later Pastiche Cars continued to offer them; Pastiche failed in 1991 and GTM took over the rights. Green himself had developed a closed sports car in MG TF style from 1988, intended for sale as a finished car from 1989, but series production never happened for economic reasons. NG stopped building cars in 1989. From 2002 the NG name was used by Findhorn Cars, a company with no connection to the original firm, which was dissolved in 2012.

Design and features

• MG TF styling: the pre-war-looking roadster shape that made the model NG’s biggest seller.
• Choice of donors: MGB, Morris Marina or Ford Sierra mechanicals, depending on what the builder could find.
• Rover V8 option: a version quick enough to be compared with the Morgan Plus 8.
• Complete kits: NG sold its kits as comprehensive and claimed a build time of ten hours.

NG TF versions

• NG TF, four-cylinder: the standard car on MGB, Morris Marina or Ford Sierra parts.
• NG TF with Rover V8: the eight-cylinder version aimed at Morgan Plus 8 buyers.
• Pastiche-built cars: TF-type models continued by Peter Fellowes’ companies after 1987.
• Findhorn cars: a similarly conceived car sold under the NG name from 2002, unrelated to the original company.

The TF was the bigger-selling stablemate of the NG TC; more of the marque is in the NG collection.

Video: NG TF ROADSTER 1.8L 05-69 BLACK CABRIO

Video by TargetCars on YouTube.

Sources

• NG Cars, German Wikipedia: company history, models, production numbers