The MG Midget and its sibling Austin Healey Sprite had once been popular low-end sports cars in the second half of the great sports car boom era (1949-1969), but by 1976, the Midget was really showing its age. Starting from the outside, where its ugly black rubber protrusion of a front bumper marred its once cute visual appeal. And it seemed to be getting smaller as folks were starting to get bigger. And emission controls did it no favor, although borrowing the Triumph Spitfire’s 1.5L engine did help, a bit.
But apparently there was still some driving pleasure to be had, if one could get comfortable behind the wheel, something that had rather eluded me in my one or two attempts.
For a look at the Midget in its better days, here’s my CC on one.
The 1969 chrome-bumper version of this car was the first stick shift I can recall driving on a street – something I was allowed to do (with an adult along) before I had a license. I had, of course, nothing to compare it to but I found it to be quite fun.
I looked at one of these in person recently – my Miata is huge in comparison.
Thanks for posting this. I had an infatuation with Midgets back in my early driving days, though I never actually got to try one out. I’d still love to take one for a spin sometime, even if it is about as sophisticated as a lawn tractor.
But your lawn mower is less fun!
Very true. More cupholders, though. 🙂
217 feet for a 1775 lb car to stop from 60! Good thing it’s top speed was only 83. 0-60 of 15 seconds not too bad for the times, but there’s a reason these cars have been history for quite a while. Don’t even think about any kind of a collision in one of these.
Miata is a high performance rolling bank vault compared the Midget. $4219 in 2018 is $18685 today. $25295 is base today for Miata, so it was a lot cheaper to buy, but durable is not often associated with BL quality back then.
Even so, I’ll bet this street legal go cart is a blast to drive on a twisty mountain road, especially going downhill.
That braking performance really was terrible. What would cause that on such a small, light car?
I remember reading back in 1971-1972 how all the little British sports cars were doomed when the 5 mph bumper laws took effect. Car magazines were sure that cars like the Midget and Spitfire could not possibly be engineered to met the regs, just as emissions laws had stopped importation of the original Mini and the Austin-Healey 3000 back in early 1968. I almost believed those stories and considered trading my Vega for what I thought would be 1 of the last sports cars ever….a 1972 Triumph TR6. Still should have done it but I was way upside down on my Vega. Hard to believe but I could have had a new TR6 for under $4,500.
As for these Midgets and the chrome bumper models that preceded them: I love the car but don’t really fit behind the wheel all that well.
I remember one of the other car mags around this time reviewing the Midget, writing about how antiquated it was, mentioning the need to go under the engine hood to turn cabin heat on and asking why anyone would buy one when Fiat’s vastly superior X1/9 was available?
“… ugly black rubber protrusion of a front bumper …”
My car buddy in 8th grade, back then, said “I love those new fronts”. He was one of the “cool kids”, too. I thought were all right, so … what-evah.
I like the rubber fron more than the chrome. it blends in better and protects more.
The guy pictured looks like he’s driving and wearing this car. My cousin totalled a Midget back in the early 70’s and sustained life threatening injuries. He’d been drinking and hit a curb.
In the early 70s, my dad was still in the military, when I just started grade school. Very near our home were several small garages military members could use for storage. One guy owned a Midget which he kept there, and dropped by regularly to drive it. I thought he, and his car, looked pretty cool. So, my friends and I would sing the song ‘Joe Cool’ whenever he drove by. ‘Joe Cool’ was one of Snoopy’s most popular personas at the time.
FWIW, I loved mine, having owned 2 in the early 80’s. The chrome bumper ’74 with the smaller dual-carbed engine had much better pickup than the ’75 I owned with the Spitfire engine and single carb. They were quite literally like go-carts with some small degree of refinement. Manual chokes, a valve under the hood (as mentioned above) to send coolant through the heater core or not depending on season, a tiny steel trap door at each side of the center stack that driver or passenger could open or close to allow fresh or heated air into the footwells. Primitive stuff.
The older car was a better driver, and looked more “right” with the chrome bumpers, but in ’74 they were saddled with HUGE black rubber coated over riders that looked like they belonged on a Grumman bus. I considered removing mine, but at the time the car was 10 years old and oxidation had set in on the bolts holding them on, so they wouldn’t come off easily and would have left unsightly marks, so they stayed. The black rubber bumper covers on the ’75’s and newer, aside from being a acquired taste, started to break down after years of sun exposure, so rubbing against them left black marks on skin, clothes, or whatever.
In spite of BL’s reputation both of mine were just as reliable as any other 8-10 year old 70’s era car might have been, and I had a hell of a lot more fun in them than I could have in anything else from that era aside from maybe a Porsche. They were easy to work on, easy to find parts for, there was tons of aftermarket support in the form of Moss Motors, etc., and I drove mine year-round in Northern NJ and found the to be great in the snow and wet (despite the tops, which even when replaced with brand new factory-spec covers were about as waterproof as a sieve).
I had the ’74 until 1994, IIRC, when I sold it for $3500 in pristinely restored condition. Since then I’ve considered picking up another one several times, but the pricing has gotten insane in recent years. They were fun cars, and I’d love to have one as a toy, but $7-10,000 for a well sorted rust-free Midget is insane to me when I recall having paid $500 for the ’75 and $1000 for the (much preferred) ’74.
I’m, also 6’3 and was about 180lbs back in those days. Today I’ve only got an additional 10lbs going against me, but although I fit comfortably behind the wheel I question whether I could contort myself into one in my 50’s. I do recall that elbow room was at a premium, and the interior door handles positioned at the top rear corners of the doors made for an interesting series of movements to get out if the car was fully closed, especially if wearing a winter coat. The heat in those things was very effective, incidentally. Running at half-choke for the first 1/2 mile or so on a cold winter day warmed the engine up quickly with no sputtering or bogging, and by the time I’d covered a mile or so that nice toasty air with a faint scent of motor oil would start wafting in, creating a pretty toasty environment, as long as no cross winds blew in around the side windows.
BTW, the only experience I had with either that I could chalk up to Lucas electrics was on a cold, rainy night with headlights, wipers heater fan and radio all on. My friend in the passenger seat pushed in the cigarette lighter and it proved a step too far, shutting down the headlights at 45 MPH on a dark road. Pulling over, shutting the engine down and re-starting with all accessories off resolved the issue with no after affects, but from that night forward the lighter was off-limits.
Useless trivia: To get a case of bottled beer into the trunk of a Midget it needed to be broken down into 4 six packs, with one placed at each corner of the trunk. The full case wouldn’t allow the trunk lid to close unless the spare was jettisoned.
Had a ’64 Sprite (side-curtain windows), then, a ’67 Midget in the 1970’s.
The most fun of any cars I’ve ever-EVER had.
Rubber bumpers surely were the downfall.
Yet the Triumph Spitfire managed the new bumper regs much better.
Cramped is not the word.
I can’t imagine driving one of these next to a 1960s or 70s American car in traffic was anything other than terrifying.
Quite small enough for the UK, thanks. Passengers knee and gearlever are often confused in my experience.
It was named Midget for a good reason:-)
My Minx is huge compared to a Midget and its hardly roomy, fun little cars you can explore its limits without risking speeding tickets if you fit in I doubt I would.
I worked on many as a foriegn auto mechanic in the late 1960’s. I worked on many Spridgets and Spitfires. I didn’t fit in a Midget and didn’t like pulling an engine to do a clutch.
My wife wanted a Midget. I got a good deal on a blue 1970. A friend of mine also wanted it The second week my wife had it; on her way home from work the clutch imploded. She knew what it was and was very good with stick shift. I went to pick her up.
She asked who was towing it and when I could fix it. I replied that I didn’t know and it wouldn’t be me. I had called the would be buyer and had sold it.
Fun to read. My first car was an MG Midget, a little older than this, a 1970 model. It was British Racing Green trimmed in Iowa rust. The car was great fun, and it at least felt like it could take any corner in town at about 50.
My MG was in poor shape when I got it, and I learned a lot about working on cars with it. It was a simple car and actually very reliable once I had gone through it. It was probably only marginally safe on the highway, and not much better around other cars in town (almost everything on the road was or seemed much larger). I always thought it was a little optimistic that MG’s slogan once was “Safety Fast!”.
The advertising for the later MG Midgets emphasized fun in some interesting ways, this was the cover of a sales brochure…
Back in the 1960’s my friend had a AH Sprite mk1. Fun car! Now I own a
1990 Miata. No way would I go back to these.
HORRIBLE!!! Much worse to do anything on these with the Triumph engine.
Triumph engine had been decontented. We had a pile of warranty engines out back of the dealer.
Tended to run hot; BL fix was to replace temp gauge with one recalibrated + without numbers. This was a capillary tube gauge that required dash disassembly & careful installation, to not damage the tube. Warranty didn’t pay much labor for anything.
Another recall was to put in another coolant catch tank on the original catch tank.
Installing most radios in the hole provided meant planishing the bulkhead to make room.
There’s a lot more. I’ll finish by saying that we had to stop what we were doing & go push the BL products off the trucks & into the storage lot. It made me wonder what it took to get them onto the trucks.
CC effect – I just saw one this morning. It was nice and shiny and being driven by an older guy. First one I had seen in motion outside a car show in several years.
I actually owned one briefly in the mid 90s. My neighbor had moved up to an RX-7 and sold me his non-running Midget for $300. I never got it running (no time due to my work schedule) but about a year later I mentioned it to my Ford dealer and he gave me $700 for it. One of the few times I made a profit.