Is This Custom MG A Topless Station Wagon Or Topless Truck?

I know I spend an unhealthy amount of time contemplating the taxonomy of cars. I’ve been told this by doctors, as they point to strange blobs on X-rays, saying things like “see this? That’s a mass of unhealthy cells in your brain’s stop-wasting-time gland. That gland, by the way, is effectively dead.”

Then they explain that my constant wondering about what is the difference between a two-door sedan and a coupé or how to define a wagon is what’s causing all this, and I deserve whatever happens. Well, fine. In that case, let’s just go all in and ask ourselves the really difficult questions.

Questions like this one: is this a convertible station wagon? Or is it, as the license plate suggests, a truck? Or something else entirely?

Morning ???????? pic.twitter.com/JGMBO9kiEa

— Lord Haydock (@MarkHaydock5) March 31, 2025

This is a harder question than it may seem upon first glance. Let’s just break down what we’re dealing with here, first: this seems to have started life as an MGB GT, according to our in-house MG maven, Mark Tucker, who suspects this started life as a 1970 model, as that was the only year of that split rear bumper, though he noted the all-red taillight lenses are a ’62-’67 trait.

The windshield surround is what clues us in to the fact this started as an MGB GT, as the roadster had a chrome windshield that was shorter and sort of bolted-on to the body, as you can see here, with the MGB GT on the right:   

Okay, so whoever built this started with an MGB GT, and then removed the roof entirely, then removed the MGB GT’s vestigial back seats and lined the cargo area with wood, making a rather nice well for luggage.

Here’s a quick sketch of this custom MGB from the side:

It doesn’t look that different from the roadster like this, but it is, I promise you. At least, a little:

The builder seems to have shaved off the exterior door handles, which is a bit odd. Anyway, let’s get back to the big question: is this a small convertible/roofless truck, or is it a small, convertible wagon/shooting brake?

Here’s what it would have looked like as truck with a roof:

…and here’s what it would be with a wagon/shooting brake roof:

I mean, it sort of works with either. And maybe the owner has one or even both of these as some sort of hard top that can be installed on the car? I have no idea.

But which is it? In my gut, I feel like it’s really a shooting brake, minus the roof. Here’s my argument for it being a wagon/shooting brake:

Now, it’s possible that is a working tailgate, but based on the placement of those bumper guards and no visible handles or hinges, I’m pretty skeptical.

Mostly, this thing feels more like a shooting brake minus the roof to me. It’s an MG, which already has much more shooting brakeitude than truckity, and that cargo area seems to be finished like something intended to be inside the car, not always exposed to the elements.

Is that box there fixed in place? If so, I’m not really sure how that would affect things.

Okay, but let’s give equal time to roofless truck identity, too:

That sort-of bulkhead does make it a bit more truck-like, though I think a two-seat shooting brake could have that, too. And the open cargo area is inherently more truck-like, even though the lack of a roof is something that affects the passenger/cab area too.

Finally, the custom license plate does say MGB TRK, which suggests that at least whoever owns this thing at least considers it as a truck, which is significant.

I’m sort of stumped on this one, to be honest, so I’m hoping we can hash this out in the comments here. Are we looking at a topless wagon or topless truck? Is this question answerable? Is any question? Help!

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