Turbocharge your Spridget! (So-called because the MG Midget was the badge-engineered version of the Austin-Healey Sprite. Also known as the ‘Spitfidget’ after the ill-conceived merger into British Leyland when the Midget got a Spitfire engine.)
I’ve just received the latest quarterly-issue of Moss Motors’s British Motoring in which they have an article on an MG Midget equipped with their new turbocharger. (Note: The Fall issue that features the Turbo Midget is not online yet. Link is to the Summer issue.) I’ve always liked the Midget, though when I was younger I felt superior in my B. It’s a very small car – one of the reasons I like it – and simple. A little too small for me, I think. But it’s dead cute!
The car in the article is gunmetal silver with silver flames on the bonnet and ‘minilite’ wheels. Looks pretty slick.
Yeep. I really hope they’ve upgraded the tyres, suspension and shocks, and probably the steeering, because otherwise that thing is going to be spinning very small, very fast circles. I had an idiot mate who did something similar, dropping an RX7 rotary engine {mated with a Toyota 5 speed gearbox} into an old Spitfire: it went like the clappers in a straight line, but Spits had all the weight in the front and were quite poorly balanced, so the back end had a nasty habit of sliding out on corners - didn’t matter so much with an 1100cc engine, but this thing was suddenly putting out a lot of horsepower for such a small, light car. He spun that thing a few times before crashing it.
I nearly bought a Midget. Then I put up the top, and I noticed the really snug fit on the top of my head. It was a fine little car, but I was ineligible. Rats.
I got the Herald over 80 (indicated). It handled quite well. Haven’t been that fast in a Midget (come to think of it, I’ve never been in a midget) but I did a ton a couple of times in my first B.
B’s are a bit wider and have a little more weight. I think they would handle 80-85mph fairly well. I think the motor/transmission would whine a bit on early models.
The little '63 started twitching and I thought the whole thing was going to fall apart from the vibration.
That said, put me in that car on a back road, top down, crusing at 50-55 and I’m happy Seven. Hell, even crusing 35 on a warm summer night downtown suits me.
Top speed of the '66 MGB is listed as 103 mph. Mine has an overdrive though, and the new alloy head should give it three or four more horses. Basically, the turbocharged Midget will have about three more horsepower than a 1960s B, or about the same as mine will have.