PROJECT MG MIDGET PART 1– IN THE BEGINNING…

It was the big ends that did it – or rather the prospect of lying underneath the car on wet and cold concrete changing the shells. Again! The year was 1975 and I had a white 1098cc Midget, originally registered in the Channel Islands, then re-registered when it was returned to the mainland. If my memory is correct, it should have been C-reg, but was actually registered JJP 861J. It was during the first September that I discovered the heater was an option, and hadn’t been included!

Now, with the big ends making dying noises, that Midget had to go. But what to replace it with? Well, that was obvious – another Midget, only newer, in better condition and with more power. The search was on, and five candidates appeared. There were a lot more Midgets around in those days, but a lot of them seemed to be Blaze Orange. I never liked that colour, but I liked white with a huge black stripe even less, so one of the four Blaze options it had to be. The one chosen was 1275cc, only five years old, and had 14,777 miles on the clock – the newest car I’d ever owned.

It felt great driving it back to my lodgings, roof down in 1976’s long, hot and dry summer. And it was rather surprising to find it still had 14,777 miles on the clock when I arrived. It actually had 14,777 miles on the clock for the next two years,