All car enthusiasts have a bucket list of cars we must either own or drive before we die. This is not news to anyone reading this, and I suspect most readers of this website have a far more eclectic bucket list than your average enthusiast. The MG Midget had, at one point, been on my bucket list. Growing up, a neighbor’s father owned a clean 1976 or 1977 example. It was green with a white meatball on the side. I thought it was just the coolest little car. This changed when I was in high school, as I and three others worked to pull my brother out of one. He hadn’t crashed it; he just did not fit. My auto shop teacher owned several MGBs, but never a Midget, both because they were too cramped and because they were not particularly good.
To paraphrase Robert Hoover, the MG Midget has a long tradition of existing. The MG Midget was a rebadged Austin Healey Sprite and had the distinction of outlasting the car it was based on. First introduced in 1961, it distinguished itself from the Austin Healey with additional chrome and nothing else. It received periodic updates and improvements until about 1974, when it received the 1500 inline four from the Triumph, at which point it would receive periodic power decreases until it finally died in 1980. For 1973, the Midgets still had the 1275 BMC A-Series engine, making approximately 55 horsepower. It was hooked to a four-speed manual transmission, which had synchros on the top three gears. The Midget offered surprising performance. In a comparison of nine SCCA Showroom Stock Sports Cars, Road and Track was caught off-guard by its “mushy front and the general feeling of cramped obsolescence.” Despite the comparison being unranked, the Midget lost. It was not a great car when new, and the fact that they are no longer seen on the roads is a testament to that.
Despite having stricken the Midget from my bucket list, I came to own one in March 2024. It was the start of the local yard sale season. My wife had seen an estate sale advertised in the paper, and she insisted that we attend. It was a slow Friday at the office, so I took off early for lunch and took her to the estate sale. As we pulled up, L noticed a shiny little orange car in the driveway. We looked it over, and then, in the span of about 30 seconds, we owned it. I did not even try to haggle.
What I had just bought, entirely on impulse, was a non-running 1973 MG Midget that had not been registered since 1986. I was warned by the seller, the trustee for the probate-avoidance trust that owned the Midget, that it would be a project. While I confirmed with the seller that I understood that the car needed work, it did not register with me what that actually meant. The brakes and clutch did not work, probably because the brake fluid had been drained out of the system. The coolant had also been drained out of the car. Obviously this was deliberate, and the seller did not know anything about the Midget other than that it had not moved in a long time.
However, after nearly two years of ownership, I am no closer to finding a reason why the car was put into storage. While it was clearly well-used, nothing was actually wrong with it that could not be explained by the fact that it had not run in 38 years. The fuel tank was rusty, and it clogged up after running for a few minutes. The clutch slave cylinder had failed, but that was to be expected after nearly 40 years of sitting with no fluid. It had been crashed at one point, but the paint overspray on the front suspension indicates it had been repaired and driven for some time after the crash. I can only assume that the deceased owner had gotten sick of squeezing in and out of the damn thing.
Road and Track were right, although age has been quite kind to the Midget. While amongst its peers, the Midget had vague, mushy steering, it stands head and shoulders above any electric power steering I have ever felt. It’s still an awful car, but I prefer it to most new cars. Where it shines is in ease of maintenance. It’s a lot of fun to work on. Getting it started was easy. It had spark, which meant it needed fuel. I replaced the fuel pump, and it fired up. Then a new fuel tank went in, as the fuel was full of rust. The brakes just needed fluid. The clutch? New slave cylinder and new fluid. Once it ran long enough to get hot, the radiator leaked, and so in went a new radiator. After the radiator went in, I learned that the car would not start when it was too wet. This meant a new distributor cap would be needed. At the same time, I installed a Pertronix “Flame Thrower” ignition and new spark plug wires. Then I learned the heater core leaked, and so I replaced that as well. After this, I replaced the bushings in the rear suspension, followed by the front suspension. Then, just because I felt like it, I redid the carpets. Next will be to fix the bent frame. To that end, I bought an Austin Healey Sprite and a welder. The plan is to cut the front subframe off the Sprite (which has no title and cannot be registered) and weld it onto the Midget. To ensure the rest of the car is straight, I’ve sent it to a local body shop to have it pulled straight. Which is where it has sat for the last 8 months, waiting for the frame machine to be re-installed. Which brings me to my point.
The Midget is addictive. I never intended to keep the Midget very long. My half-baked plan was to get it driving, and then sell it for a little more than I had bought it for. But then I got it driving, and I decided to change the plan so that I could do a little more work on it. The plan, currently, is to rebuild the engine after the frame gets fixed and then I will sell it. I have no faith in this plan. The problem is that the Midget overheats on hot days, and it is always hot in New Mexico. So it probably needs an intercooler. And maybe an aluminum radiator. I fear the plan will change again, until I have completely restored it. However, my wife wants a Mustang now, and the Midget stands in the way of that. Hopefully, she will see reason and the Midget will sell after the engine rebuild. And maybe a paint job. And a new top.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1976 MG Midget – Always Simple, And Surprisingly Durable
1976 MG Midget: Is This Freshly Painted MG Still The Best Value In Sports Cars?
1972 MG Midget MKIII – Small Pleasures
MG Midget — Have Three; They’re Small!
Vintage Review: Road & Track April 1973 – Testing 9 Showroom Stock Sports Cars As SCCA Racers
Great story! I’ve always had a soft spot for the Midget, though I prefer the MGB (and particularly the GT.) When Dad was looking for a car right around 1980 I remember Midgets on the lot, though he only test drove a B. Presumably the Midget was too small for his 6’2″ (though he ended up with a Le Car, which wasn’t exactly sized for him either.) He had had an MG 1100 and Austin America, and the Le Car was (for him) a more appropriate family-car follow-on. I think he just tested the B, and a TR-7 and Jeep, for fun (his and mine.)
Does it have to be a new Mustang? Just wondering.
No, she wants a 60s coupe. Got to have a V8, and has to be a coupe. She’s very particular.
The Midget was a tightish fit for me in 1982 and I’m only 5’8″ and 157 lbs [ then and now]!
When they fitted a steering lock to the UK version the ignition key was pointed ominously at your right knee.
Yes, way too small for me. But a neighbor, who is suitably sized, putts around in his Midget that he’s had practically forever.
So it probably needs an intercooler Intercoolers are used in turbocharged engines to reduce the temperature of the intake air. You just need a new radiator, preferably one with a higher capacity. Or a bigger fan, or an electric second fan.
I hope your plan works out, as it seems like you’re going to be spending quite a bit of money on it before you sell it.
I think I must have gotten distracted or something. I meant an oil cooler. Moss Motors sells a kit.
When I was a teenager, I went through a phase where I lusted after anything MG. This was a a time when all my buddies wanted a Smokey and the Bandit Trans-am. I did have a job and looked at several MGBs and MG Midget. Any one I could possibly afford was a rust bucket. The decent ones were far beyond my budget. I also could not fit in a Midget well.
I had a Mk2 Sprite for a few years. It had 1/4 elliptic rear springs and a 1075cc engine with a 40DCOE side draft Weber. Ran poorly until I fixed the jetting. Put on a header, redid the dash, new top and added side curtains. There were no external door handles.
I’m 6’ and never had trouble fitting in it. I also thought it handled well and was a lot of fun to drive. It was certainly crude compared to the Italian cars I was used to, but endearing nonetheless.
In the end I traded it and a Formula V race car I was building for a Lancia Beta Zagato. Was a great deal for me – but I did miss the Sprite.
Great story! I impulse-bought a non-running MGB when I was 14 – using money I was saving to buy a (running) car, in the delusional hopes that I would get it running. That never happened, and I sheepishly sold it a few years later after I realized that I didn’t have either the skills or funds to restore a car. In that car’s case, it had belonged to a young man who parked it in his parents’ garage after it started running poorly, and then life got in the way, and he never got back to it. I sat there for over a decade – he was about 40 when I bought it, and both he and his parents were glad to see it go.
The MG for midgets! Enough said. Unless you are 5’5” or under, don’t even think about one of these cars unless you are a contortionist.
A Midget! My husband had one of these as his first (and last) classic car, before I met him. He liked having a convertible, but he’s 5’8″ and found it just too small and difficult to get into and out of, so he didn’t have it long. 20 years later it’s still around though, most recently appearing for sale in April this year, and going by the pic below, it’s clearly loved by its current owner.
The mighty “Spridget” =8-) .
If you’re okay with a very powerful go – kart these are for you ! .
The 1275C.C. Austin “A” series engine is wildly rev happy, that’s why / how it scoots so well .
Everything older British is a chance, either you like it or you don’t .
Don’t ever expect to make any money reselling one of these even if you get it for free .
The water jacket is likely full of rust flakes, sometimes the water pump impeller rusts away to nothing .
Look into “Citric Acid Radiator Cleaning”, that’ll clean the crap out of anything including alloy Japanese radiators .
-Nate
Friend of mine owned one somewhere in the 80’s. I am 6’1” with long legs and simply don’t fit. Always liked the look of them however, and cars like those are so fun to work on.
Aah, my cousin’s 69 Midget was the first stick shift car I ever drove, probably around 1974, which was before I even had a license. I am averagely sized, a bit under 6 feet, and I remember it as being a tight fit, but OK once I was behind the wheel. And because I had nothing to compare it to, it was pure delight. Until it was time to climb out, which required some thought and effort.
And you describe my own obsessions with improvements to an old car – something that I have struggled to overcome.
I was in high school when my friend bought a ’63 Austin Healey Sprite. His parents put a roll bar in it and off we went. For some reason British Leyland put the engine choke knob right in front of the passenger. So, when I was the passenger, I’d pull out the choke occasionally to make it sputter and tease my friend and push it back in just before the engine died. Fun times!