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egon
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MG Midget
08/08/08 03:58 PM
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This morning I was able to observe a mint MG Midget. Seeing as several posters here have owned one I'd be real interested to see if they could still get into one??? 
Egon
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Bird
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Re: MG Midget
[re: egon]
08/08/08 04:20 PM
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What year model was that MG Midget? My first showroom new car was a 1962 Austin Healy Sprite, which was actually the same car, just that the MG was a bit flashier; had a chrome grill instead of the stamped aluminum mine had, had more colors in the instrument panel where mine was just black and white, etc. And I suppose I COULD get into one again if I had to, but it wouldn't be easy and I wouldn't really want to try. 
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egon
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Re: MG Midget
[re: Bird]
08/08/08 07:32 PM
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No idea as to the year Bird. Its red though.
Egon
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Bird
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Re: MG Midget
[re: egon]
08/09/08 06:33 AM
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Egon, my 1962 Sprite was the first year that they got away from the bug eyed body style, but I don't even know what years they made the midget or whether they ever had a bug eyed style. Mine was black with a red interior.
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jimbrown
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Re: MG Midget
[re: Bird]
08/09/08 09:26 AM
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The first Midgets were made in 1961 . I had a 1962 which was the first year they had the 1098 cc engine. I could still get in one no problem. They supposedly made em up to 1979 but I don't think I have ever seen one that new.
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CJDave
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 I bought a new MG "Bee" in '67, and a friend bought a new MG Midget. I test drove his midget just once on the flea-way. While zooming along at sixty I looked in the mirror and all I could see was the license plate of a Kenworth that was tailgating me. I decided right then that the word "midget" as applied to cars was something I would try to avoid. 
CJDave
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Re: MG Midget
[re: CJDave]
08/09/08 10:22 AM
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Dave, the day I bought the Sprite, a dump truck changed lanes and ran me off the road (North Central Expressway in Dallas), no damage, then a 15 year old kid in a Buick took the grill and left front bumper off in San Antonio. I was working nights and parked on the street in Dallas (parallel parking) and came out two mornings to find someone had backed into the front end of it. Then at a drive-in restaurant, I was following an Oldsmobile one night, leaving the parking lot, but it turned out the Olds driver was drunk. He got the front of his car just into the street, then suddenly shifted to reverse and backed into the front of my Sprite. By that time, I'd had the car about 2 years and I went the next day and traded it in, with the smashed front end, on a new 1964 Dodge Dart convertible. Other than getting run over all the time, it was a good little car.
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CJDave
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Re: MG Midget
[re: Bird]
08/09/08 05:37 PM
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Bird, I don't know if this was true where you were living, but those AH Sprits were raced extensively on sports car courses in a certain class with a rigid set of rules, and it became almost a science to see who could build the ultimate "super cheat" Sprite.
CJDave
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Bird
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Re: MG Midget
[re: CJDave]
08/09/08 06:52 PM
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Dave, I never drove any Sprites besides my own, but there was a mechanic at the dealership who insisted that I had the fastest stock Sprite he'd seen. He was into racing and wanted me to race, too. In fact, he once offered to let me drive his car in a race if I'd then enter mine in a race (with me driving, not him). But I told him I had to depend on that car to get to and from work; couldn't take a chance putting it on a race track.
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jimbrown
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Re: MG Midget
[re: CJDave]
08/09/08 07:25 PM
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Dave I did not get mine untill 1972. I was probably the 4th or 5th owner. The guy I bought it from did not have a clue what it really was. A nifty little wore out convertible. I bought it for a slalom car. Some where along the line someone had cleared and balanced the engine and done other mods i never figured out. It was a 1098 bored 60 over with special pistons, over sized carbs and a head I never did identify. When i rebuilt it i never could find a ring set that that matched up to the pistons. It had rings above and below the wrist pins. I never found the rings for below the wrist pins and just left them off. I ran it for a couple of years all over AZ and close by states until they started disqualifying me at tech inspections for all sorts of petty stuff just to keep me out of the race. It was a really fun car to drive you could just throw it into turns and power slide the corner. I got even with the disqualifications by trading it for a Fiat X 1/9 which ran in the same class and was even faster. I cheated with the Fiat also It was a 1290 cc and I put a head off of an 1100 upping the compression to who knows what and bought a 9000 rpm cam from Italy. It ran like a two stroke moto crosser. No torque at all up to about 5000 rpm and then it just exploded.
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MountainBoy
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Never much of a fan of the Midget...I had a 59 MGA I wish I still had though... 
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Bird
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Yep, the MGA was quite a nice care. Of course, I bought my Sprite from Overseas Motors in Dallas and at the time time they sold the Austin Healey. MG, Jaguar, Bentley, Rolls Royce, and Mercedes. I never drove one, but I still think the Jaguar XKE was one of the finest looking cars ever built, but was way out of my price range. I later got acquainted with a guy who had one and he said it was a fine lookiing car, awkward to get in and out of, hard shifting and steering, and rode like a lumber wagon, but like me, he liked the looks.
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NSbound
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Not sure what year this is, but that's my Dad in I think an MG-A at Wasaga Beach Ontario - likely around 1949, before I existed!
Ian M.
Transferred to Nova Scotia, making plans to retire as soon as the economy lets me!
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Re: MG Midget
[re: NSbound]
11/13/08 08:35 PM
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Nice car! Not sure but it looks like a MG TC to me...
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Pat
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Roger that! TC, TD, TF, and then the A. My A was a 1500 cc 1959 in bright red.
The MG midget was identical to the Sprite except for trim, stuff like the contrasting piping on the seat material. Oh, and of course the MG had the octagon emblem and a narrow chrome piece down the side that the Sprite didn't have.
I sold our 1959 MG-A to another USAF dude after I bought a new Sunbeam Tiger. The MG didn't like to start (at midnight in Minot, North Dakota during the winter) so very good after being parked out in the street for 8-9 hours. Also there was no heater and no defroster. It had sliding side curtains (removable) instead of roll up windows in the doors. They flapped a bit in the breeze so that was a cold ride between my wife's job and the air base between midnight and one AM.
I'd love to have an MG-A or older if in good shape.
Egon said, "Seeing as several posters here have owned one I'd be real interested to see if they could still get into one??? "
I never actually so much got into a Midget or a Sprite as much as I "put it on" sort of like wearing a car suit.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Edited by Pat (11/15/08 09:21 PM)
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Re: MG Midget
[re: Pat]
11/16/08 06:42 AM
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In reply to:
The MG midget was identical to the Sprite except for trim, stuff like the contrasting piping on the seat material. Oh, and of course the MG had the octagon emblem and a narrow chrome piece down the side that the Sprite didn't have.
And in 1962, at least, the MG had a chrome grill while the Sprite had stamped aluminum. The MG had some pretty contrasting colors in the instrument panel while the Sprite was just black and white.
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Pat
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Re: MG Midget
[re: Bird]
11/16/08 03:15 PM
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Right, Bird, the MG was a Sprite with a little "lipstick and eye shadow" to justify the added expense, at least the post Bugeye models. There was no MG analog to the Bugeyed Sprite so far as I know. I personally liked the bugeye way more. A simple mod and you could make the hood open at the back and pivot at the front of the car giving terrific acces to the engine compartment. You could sit on a front tire to work under the hood. I had a competitioin orange bugeye with a Schneider racing cam, 4 inch diameter chrome roll bar, nerf bars fore and aft.
When I was in jr high school, TV adds showed Sprites for about $2K or a tad less and a little station wagon for very little more. I recommended to my mom and dad that they get one of each but instead they "blew" $4k on a 1959 Buick with the variable ratio tranny with no shifts. The chrome headlight trim continued down the side of the car and on to the EXTENSIVE tail fins. As it was black and had tail fins starting at the headlights it got nicknamed "The Batmobile."
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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Re: MG Midget
[re: Pat]
11/16/08 03:49 PM
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Pat, of course, my 1962 Sprite was (I think) the first post bugeyed model. I liked the looks of it much better than the bugeyed ones, but I recall the Triumph (was it a TR3?) that had the hood that was hinged at the front so it opened from the rear so you could sit on the front tire while working under the hood. I've never had that kind of vehicle, but always thought that was a great design.
And my dad had no use for "compact" automobiles. He preferred Buick or Oldsmobile. They had a 1953 Buick Super (first year for the V-8 I believe), then a 1959 Olds 88, then a 1966 Buick, and next a 1969 Olds 98.
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egon
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Re: MG Midget
[re: Bird]
11/16/08 07:13 PM
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Fellows, I well recall the 59 Buick, the 59 olds and the 66 Buick.
For me there was a slight debate between a Tr4-A and a 66 Chrysler 300. The Chrysler won out and was followed later by a 69 Chrysler.
Egon
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Re: MG Midget
[re: egon]
11/17/08 06:33 AM
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Egon, I don't remember the 66 Chrysler 300, but I do remember once driving a '57 red Chrysler 300 convertible that I couldn't afford. I don't remember exactly what the engine was, but it was a big one with two 4-bbl. carbs; sure was pretty and would really get up and go.
My dad would never buy new vehicles, always said let someone else take that first year or two of depreciation, so the 59 Olds was a year old with about 7k miles on it when he bougbt it, but in '66 it had over 100k miles on it and they had moved to Anchorage. They were looking for a newer car when a Buick dealer in Alaska went under and the bank was liquidating the stock, so he got a good enough deal that he bought that 66 Buick new. 
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Re: MG Midget
[re: Bird]
11/18/08 06:02 AM
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Bird, the Chrysler 300 I had was not from the original line of letter cars. They had been discontinued by 1964?? I think. It was just an ordinary four door hardtop with a 383 with a four barrel on it. The 69 was a Newport with a two barreled 383.
The one you drove probably had the ram manifold on it where the carbs sat beside the valve covers rather than between.
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Bird
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Re: MG Midget
[re: egon]
11/18/08 06:49 AM
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Egon, there's probably not many people old enough to remember that Chrysler ram manifold. There was a Dodge D500 with that 2 carb arrangement, and I may be wrong, but I don't think the '57 Chrysler 300 had that.
Back then, the little town of Plano, TX, just had a town marshall and a night watchman instead of a police department, so they only had one police vehicle. And the town marshall was also the worst hot rodder in town. When we moved there in 1956, the police car was a 1955 Olds, so after he tore the automatic transmission out of it 5 times, they bought a new 1957 Ford sedan with a manual transmission. He blew the engine in the Ford. I understand some rods went down through the oil pan. So then they bought a new 1958 genuine police special; a Plymouth with the push button automatic and two 4-bbl carbs. That car was tough enough he couldn't tear it up until one night he decided to see how fast it could go and he scraped a bridge bannister a long way out of town on the highway and tore off the right front fender and most of the grill.
That was when the city fathers decided it was time to create a police department and hired someone from out of town as the Chief and made the town marshall a patrolman and a very short time later fired him.
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Re: MG Midget
[re: Bird]
11/18/08 12:24 PM
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In reply to:
there's probably not many people old enough to remember that Chrysler ram manifold.
Sucks, that was only yesterday wasn't it?
The ram manifold may have come about in 1960. For sure the 57's did not have it.
Egon
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CJDave
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Re: MG Midget
[re: egon]
11/19/08 07:13 AM
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All this talk of Mopars is making me nutzo. The VERY FIRST TIME I laid eyes on a double-rocker Chrysler I was IN LOVE! I put those early Chrysler hemi engines in everything you can imagine. My daily driver was a '58 New Yorker 2-Door hardtop with the 392 in it. In the later fifties, Chrysler was real good at playing the mix-n-match game and made several versions of hemi V-8 engines, some as small as 241 CID. The '57 Chrysler 300 had two four barrels as did the '56. The '56 was a 354 CID. 1957 and later was 392. In '59 they came out with the "B" engine family, the 361-383 wedge engines. Then came the 413, and then by combining the 383 bore and the 413 crank came the 426. The 383 made it's reputation as a highway patrol car engine. Not much could outrun a '59 Dodge with torsion bar suspension and a "pursuit grade" 383. YES, there WAS a difference between your Dad's 383 and the one in the cop car that was pulling him over.
CJDave
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Pat
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Re: MG Midget
[re: CJDave]
11/26/08 09:58 PM
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Dave, I just loved MOPARs for the same reason I loved XKE and many others. I loved the look on the driver's faces when I totally blew them away with my '66 Sunbeam Tiger.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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