The MG Midget is the smallest, cheapest and most playful of the classic MGs, and for many people the easiest way into classic sports-car ownership of all. It is tiny, light and darty, with a go-kart feel that faster cars cannot match, and it costs less to buy and run than almost any other classic. If the MGB is the sensible MG, the Midget is the cheeky one.
The Midget is part of the classic MG range, its entry point, and a car that has introduced generations of drivers to the simple pleasure of a small British roadster.
The Spridget: an MG badge on a Sprite
The Midget’s story begins with another car. In 1958 BMC launched the Austin-Healey Sprite, the cheeky “Frogeye” with its bonnet-mounted headlamps. When the Sprite was restyled in 1961 into a more conventional shape, BMC took the opportunity to sell the same car twice: a slightly smarter, better-trimmed version wearing an MG badge and grille, the MG Midget, launched in mid-1961. The two cars were near-identical underneath, and enthusiasts have nicknamed the family the “Spridget” ever since.
So the Midget was the later, slightly upmarket twin of the Sprite, not the original. It outlived its sister, though: Sprite production ended in 1971, while the Midget carried on under British Leyland to the end of the 1970s, becoming the better-known name of the pair.
The marks and engines
The Midget ran through four broad versions. The MkI (1961-1964) began with a 948cc BMC A-series engine of around 46 bhp, growing to 1098cc and front disc brakes. The MkII (1964-1966) kept the 1098cc engine but gained wind-up windows and proper door handles in place of the old sidescreens. The MkIII (1966-1974) brought the 1275cc A-series, the sweet spot of the range, lively and robust.
Then came the change that surprises people. From 1974 the Midget 1500 set aside the BMC A-series and used the 1493cc engine from the Triumph Spitfire, a real British Leyland parts-sharing oddity. It came with a Morris Marina gearbox, and on home-market cars kept twin SU carburettors. The Triumph engine gives the 1500 more torque than the old A-series cars, though it has a slightly weaker bottom end, so a rebuilt or well-maintained unit is worth seeking.
Chrome and rubber bumpers, round and square arches
Like the MGB, the Midget divides into chrome-bumper cars up to 1974 and rubber-bumper cars from late 1974, when American crash rules brought the large black impact bumpers and a raised ride height. The chrome-bumper cars are lower, sharper-handling and more sought-after; the rubber-bumper 1500 is the affordable way in, a torquier but slightly softer car.
There is one more identification point worth knowing. For a brief spell on the MkIII, from 1972 to 1974, the Midget wore rounded rear wheel arches in place of the usual square ones. The round-arch cars are a distinctive, short-lived variant, and the later 1500 reverted to square arches for strength, so a round-arch car is always a chrome-bumper MkIII.
What it is like to own
The Midget’s charm is its simplicity and its lightness. There is very little of it, so even modest power feels lively, the steering is quick and accurate, and it changes direction like a toy. It is cramped if you are tall, and it is noisy and basic by modern standards, but that is the point: it is pure, cheap, wind-in-the-hair motoring. Running costs are the lowest of any classic MG, the mechanicals are simple enough for home maintenance, and the parts supply is second to none.
Buying guide: what to look for
The Midget is a monocoque, so rust is structural and is the main expense. The sills are the priority, inner and outer, because they carry much of the shell’s strength; check their full length and at the ends inside the wheel arches. Lift the carpets to inspect the floors and footwells, which rot from years of open-top damp, and look at the rear wheel arches, the double-skinned area behind the rear wings, the boot floor and the rear spring mountings.
Mechanically the A-series cars are tough and cheap to rebuild. On a 1500, listen to the Triumph engine carefully for big-end rumble and check for crankshaft end-float, a known weakness, since a rebuild is the big mechanical cost. Otherwise check the usual king-pins, dampers and bushes. Complete new bodyshells exist but cost more than many cars are worth, so buy on the soundness of the structure first.
Current value and where it sits
The Midget remains one of the most affordable classics on the road. Projects start at a few hundred pounds, good usable cars sit between £5,500 and £9,000, and excellent examples reach £9,000 to £13,000. The chrome-bumper cars, particularly the early MkI and the 1275cc MkIII, are the most valuable; the rubber-bumper 1500 is the budget choice.
In the wider story the Midget is the people’s MG, the cheapest and simplest sports car the marque made, and the natural rival to the Triumph Spitfire, so close a competitor that the two even came to share the same engine by the end. Above it sat the roomier, faster MGB for those who wanted more car.
Owners’ clubs and parts
The MG Car Club and the MG Owners’ Club both cover the Midget, with the Midget and Sprite Club catering for the whole Spridget family from the Frogeye onward. Parts supply is excellent: nearly every panel and component is reproduced, and complete Heritage bodyshells are available, which makes the Midget a thoroughly practical car to own and restore.
Related
The Midget is one of the classic MGs, the smallest and cheapest of them, and the entry point below the MGB. For the wider period it belongs to, see British classic cars of the 1960s and 1970s.
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