1970 MG Midget, 1293 cc. Registration number ARR 183H. Chass...

Hammer

£9,000

1970 MG Midget, 1293 cc. Registration number ARR 183H. Chassis number GAN5/ 80533 G. Engine number see text.
Back in the 1920's, the M-Type Midget had been developed from the baby Morris Minor. The result was a basic, cheap, fun two-seater, with sporting pretensions which triggered a whole dynasty of Midgets. It was the Midget series which had established MG as a manufacturer of sports cars with an excellent reputation in motor sport. In the late 1950's, yet another basic, cheap, fun two-seater was developed from a 'baby' car. This time, the more modern equivalent of the old Austin Seven was used, the A30/35. This new two-seater car was the Austin-Healey Sprite, (Frog Eye) which appeared in 1959 and was built at Abingdon. In 1961, the bodywork of the Sprite came in for a major restyling. The central cockpit portion remained essentially the same, but the front and rear bodywork was completely restyled to give the car a more conventional squared-off appearance. The engine and running gear was essentially the same as the earlier Sprite, but output was up to around 47bhp, which led to increases in performance also. In this form, the car was known as the Austin-Healey Sprite Mark II, but shortly after, a De Luxe version was announced. It had been re-badged to become known as the MG Midget. The new Midget was to find a ready and enthusiastic market among the dedicated MG fans, as it was a sports car with all the traditional MG characteristics - small, inexpensive, fast, and safe with predictable handling.
The MG Midget Mk 3 was introduced in 1966, with a 1275 cc engine. The hydraulic system gained a separate master cylinder for the clutch. The hood was now permanently attached to the car, with an improved mechanism making it much easier to use, and minor facelift changes were made to the body trim in late 1969 with the sills painted black, a revised recessed black grille, and squared off taillights as on the MGB. The 13" "Rostyle" wheels were standardized, but wire-spoked ones remained an option.
ARR, offered in Flame Red, was first registered on the 3rd March 1970 and according to letters on file was bought by Terence Powers of Leicester in 1971. In the late 1970's he began preparing it for Concours Competitions including MGOC 1980 Donnington Park (first in class), ditto 1981 where he also competed at Brands Hatch, Woolaston Park, Elvaston Castle, Ashby Hall (all first in class) and finally Car of the year at the South Leics annual awards as well as front cover of Practical Classics magazine June 1981.
The offside front wing was damaged in February 1982 and a new one replaced it (see letter on file). Always garaged and pampered in September 2003 it received an Oselli Stage 2, 1293 cc exchange engine; this increased the HP to 95 and the engine will rev to 7,500 RPM with a balanced and lightened flywheel, big valve head and twin SU 1 1/2" carbs, from the original 64 HP and 5,800 RPM.
In 2010 the MOT mileage was 48,584 and in 2013 he sold it to Paul Pender at 48,759 miles. In August 2015 he sold it to our vendor with a mileage of 48,834. In 2017 he fitted drilled and crossed front discs and polybushed it, the mileage rose to 49,762 but has been SORNed since due to our vendors bad back.
Sold with the V5C, V5, a large history file and the Practical Classic magazine. The cataloguer can confirm that this is no ordinary Midget!