Background
The MG Midget is a historic MG model designation dating right back to the MG Midget M-type of 1928. Inevitably, today, the Midget name is most readily associated with the youngest Midget model, the lightweight two-seater sports car launched in 1961. This model was essentially a badge engineered version of the Austin Healey Sprite (or “frogeye” Sprite) which BMC had launched in 1958. Conceived by the Donald Healey Motor Company and produced by the MG plant in Abingdon, the Sprite was designed to be a low-cost entry point to enduring sports car ownership.
An unintended consequence of the Sprite’s arrival was the exodus of many previous MG owners over to the Sprite in the absence of an MG alternative. That predicament was easily solved, however, and with the launch of the MKII Sprite in 1961 came the MG Midget. The Midget was mechanically identical to the Sprite (now bereft of its frogeyes) but boasted a number of “refinements” to help justify its higher price. These included a revised grille design, upgraded interior fittings, better instruments and a splash of added external polished metal.
With their low weight, modest cost and relative ubiquity, both Midgets and Sprites were ideal candidates for a range of motorsport endeavours and activities. The MG factory positively encouraged this trend by producing three special Midgets with a GT configuration and an aerodynamically enhanced front end. The cars were fitted with 979 cc A-series engines with twin Webers and produced approximately 80 hp. Two of the three cars were loaned to garage owner and MG racer Dick Jacobs who successfully campaigned them in Formula Junior events.
From then on Midgets and Sprites (often colloquially termed “Spridgets”) became regular fixtures at hill climbs, circuits and autotest venues the world over. Specialist events even started to spring up such as the MGCC Midget & Sprite Challenge founded in 1977 and still running today.
