MG Midget 1500 | Shed of the Week
If good things really do come in small packages, you're in for a treat this week...
This week, Shed appears to be risking not only the wrath of the forum but also his continued employment on PH as he serves up his second no-MOT car on the bounce. The excuse he’s given us this time is that no MOT is needed for cars over 40 years old. The MG Midget you’re looking at here easily qualifies on that score. It’s coming up to its half-century, and yet it’s said to run and drive and to have a genuine mileage of 13,000.
That claim will probably provoke a degree of scoffing. Shed won’t comment other than to say that the one MOT test you’ll find online shows an indicated mileage of just 10,484 in August 2008. One of the two advisories on there was for corroded brake pipes, hardly unusual on just about any vehicle. The other was for slight play in the kingpins, again entirely normal on a Midget. Most old vehicles used kingpins in their steering systems. With the exception of a few big trucks these have all been replaced nowadays by cheaper, easier to maintain but not quite as durable ball joints.
When the ‘modern’ Mk 1 Midget first came out in 1961 you could flex your badge preference muscles (and save a few quid) by opting for the Mk 2 Austin Healey Sprite instead. It was basically the same car but a bit less posh inside and a bit plainer outside. Fifteen or so years ago, J Clarkson entered a 1969 Sprite in the Majorca Classic Car Rally. That car also had rusty brake pipes and wobbly kingpins, as well as slight corrosion to the lower body area. Its clutch blew on the rally, meaning it had to be driven most of the way in just one of its four Morris Marina gears. The brakes ended up as hot as the deliberately jammed-on heater, but despite being weighed down by Mr C and his angry local co-driver the dogged little Sprite did make it to the finish.
Clarkson paid £3,600 at auction for his ’69 Sprite. Our ’77 Midget is up for £2,000. The production line was shut down two years after this one was registered, 74,000 cars having been built over the 18-year run, representing an annual average of about 4,000 cars. Mainstream car models are now banged out at around fifty times that speed, which tells you something about a) automation in 2020s car plants and b) the consumption of butties and fags in '60s-era car plants.
The total number of 1500s now knocking around in this country has risen from a low point of 5,000 or so in the late 2010s to a current estimate of more than 6,000, an increase fuelled by the greasy efforts of nostalgia-prone old boys like Shed who think it’s easy to fix old British motors. In fairness they’re not wrong, although the gen-four’s 1,493cc engine was a little less straightforward – and less reliable – than the stubborn but increasingly emissions-strangled A-series engines that had powered the previous three Midget generations. Based on a Standard unit dating back to the early '50s, the 1500’s twin-SU carbed Triumph Spitfire lump was more torquey than the A-series, with a mighty 82lb ft at 3,000rpm to go with its 71hp at 5,500rpm. Not big numbers to be sure, but then again the MG’s weight was also pleasingly Midget-like at 740kg, unburdened as it was by much in the way of crash protection.
As a later 1500 this car doesn’t have the 1971-74 round wheel arches that most fans preferred, but on the plus side nor does it have the standard US market-required plastic bumpers that were so loudly complained about at the time. The gangly exhaust that’s exposed by the lack of bumperage does look factory, as do the Rostyle wheels. Lending further faint whiffs of credibility to the unlikely sounding mileage claim is the standard (sic) underbonnet view and the grubby but also standard-looking cabin.
A tapping noise from the engine is mentioned, but on the possibly dangerous assumption that it’s just the tappets that need adjustment, your long-term Midget running costs should be refreshingly low. Assuming they’re not driving it every day, even young owners should be able to snaffle good value classic insurance on a limited miles policy. Cars over 40 years old are exempt from VED as well as MOT tests, though you are still required by law to keep them in a roadworthy condition. Putting this MG through an MOT test will be the cheapest way to identify any important faults.
If you fancy the idea of a slow-burn restoration, outfits like Moss Motors/Rimmer Bros are ready to ping you most if not all of the bits you might need, up to and including a full bodyshell at over £14k. Most regular parts on the website are very accessibly priced. The ones that aren’t immediately available can usually be back-ordered.
Clearly this MG is not rust-free. The question is, how rusty might it be? Shed has a hunch that it won’t need a new shell, but he would very much advise you to check under the carpet before gaily leaping in. Shed certainly wouldn’t let his missis anywhere near it without a) carrying out a full structural stress test first and b) making sure there’s a powerful hoist nearby.
Great little shed, loads of fun to be had with it.
It was fun and dead easy to get the roof up and down. Things I remember.....
- it was fun! Small, but fun.
- Getting 3 of us in it (1 across the shelf behind the seats) and it still shifting pretty well.
- feeling like I was going to scrape my bum across the road because the seating position was so low. You practically sat on the floor.
- lethal windscreen wipers. Seriously, you see how shallow that windscreen is? Now image the tiny wipers to fit it.
- the rust. But only really the boot floor, behind the rear wheels.
- keeping a heavy toolkit in the boot to tame it's tail happy nature.
- the fun!
This one may be a little rough but the low price is proof that this era car is sadly losing its followers with today’s classic car enthusiasts favouring 80s, 90s cars.
For £2k and less than 800kg it’d be a whole heap of fun!
Our car is a nice one with a 1098 A series. Very slow but it doesn’t matter. Perfect for bumbling along the sea front into Brighton where the diminutive size means that you can always find somewhere to park.
40 years ago(!!) when we were both in our late teens my wife had a yellow 1500 Midget and I had an X19. At that age I hated the midget but love them now.
ks like this.Good shed though but tapping engine no thanks, maybe sheds budget needs an uplift again.
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