Brilliant article that captures that grease under the nail, conflicted essence of owning anything auto from England (ex Formula 1). I particularly admire the author's restraint in not describing the MGB - as so many do - as a sports car. 
The motor was unbelievably soulless for that era (and any thereafter). In any kind of fun outing, passing had to be carefully planned or it was just plain dangerous. Combine that with the hours and paychecks my friends spent at British Leyland (I was doing the same thing with a TR6 which I still love) and you were forced to concede that the MGB may have been slow, but it was also badly engineered. 
MGBs are "cute". Fiats are cute. VW Beetles are cute. Citroen 2cvs are cute. Just because they are slow, have a convertible top and break down a lot does not make them a sports car!