The MG3 could be your unlikely route into racing

We wouldn’t be proper petrolheads if we didn’t occasionally drift into a wistful daydream about motor racing. And how, y’know, it’s not our day job.

Money is the perennial barrier stopping most wannabe racers from actively giving it a go, but help could be at hand from an unlikely source. Namely the MG3.

Yep, the mostly forgotten budget hatchback from reborn MG is being turned into a racecar. See, the MG Cup has been going for 30 years, but the MG Car Club that runs it has got wise to the fact that sourcing old roadsters in good enough condition to race is increasingly hard.

Its solution? Allowing the MG3 to race by coming up with a conversion kit that can turn any MG3 race-ready for under £5,000. In racing terms we’re talking loose change, especially with used MG3s now as low as £3k.

There’s no word on what modifications are involved, but an internship team has been working on a concept MG3 racer that’ll be ready for testing in 2019, before being allowed to compete a full MG Cup season in 2020.

We’ll admit to having never normally paid the MG3 much attention, but a makeover into a cheap, fun racecar would feel far more in keeping with MG’s past history. Like the sound of it?