Don’t forget the Monthly General Meeting tonight at the Fullarton Community Centre! Hope to see you there. To help you while away the time between now and 8pm tonight I found this article in the MG Car Club of SA magazine. I can’t vouch for its accuracy but it made for an interesting read…
A Brief History of a Brief Competition History
The original M-Type Midget helped bring motor racing to the masses and its competition history in the hands of both factory and privateer racers is well documented with tales of daring do from Brooklands to Lands’ End Speed Trials and even Le Mans. Yet try and research the competition history of the later Midget, you largely draw a blank. Type into Google something obvious like ‘BMC Motorsport History MG Midget’ and you get pages of hits about Minis conquering Monte Carlo or Bathurst, and Healeys (big and small), MGAs, MGBs and MGCs at Le Mans, Sebring, Targa Florio and rallies everywhere, yet you almost must hire a private detective, or at least scroll to the 6th or 7th page of Google search results to discover anything about the Midget! You could easily conclude that Works backed ‘Spridget’ racing was the sole domain of the Austin Healey Sprite but dig a little deeper and a rich and colourful competition history of Midget begins to emerge.
In terms of factory backed cars, the likes of the Big Healeys, the Sprite, MGA/B/C and of course the Minis feature heavily in the results sheets of many of the ‘big’ road and rally events across Europe and America. Drivers that were, or about to become, household names often filled their seats, including the likes of Stirling and Pat Moss, Paddy Hopkirk and movie star Steve McQueen. Formula One and Le Mans starts such as Innes Ireland, Pedro Rodriquez, Graham Hill and Bruce McLaren also all raced a Sprite or Midget at different stages of their careers.
Ever mindful of the advertising and publicity that success on Sunday brought, in 1961 the (then) new Midget was thrust into the rally program with three factory backed Midgets competing in 1961 and 62, before being withdrawn from rally events (but not before one was rebadged a Sprite and continued to compete in the hands of Works and privateer drivers for several years as both a Sprite or a Midget). The symbiotic relationship between Sprites and Midgets is something that rears its head again and again in the racing career of the Midget.
As a Works backed rally car, the Midget might not have lasted all that long; however, as a road racing car, the pages of its history were only beginning to be written. Inspired by the outline of the Aston Martin DB4, Dick Jacobs (of Jacobs Racing Team fame) took a racing coupe concept to Albingdon where it came to the attention of Syd Enver and, after some modifications, it became the ‘Jacobs Midget’. The new body was more aerodynamic (a huge advantage when you consider the output of the humble A Series engine) and when completed tipped the scales some 150 kg lighter than the production car. Again, a huge advantage given the powerplant. Three coupes were produced, two of which were raced by Jacobs Racing who found class success in events such as the Nurburgring 500 and 1000 and one to a privateer racer.
Such was the success of the Jacobs team with their two humble Midgets, the cars were returned to the Albingdon where the Works team took over their running (under Dick Jacob’s guidance) for a number of events in 1965 including Sebring and the Targa Florio, with Paddy Hopkirk returning to steer the Midget at that event. All three exist to this day and, like its sibling, the ‘Sebring Sprite’ has spawned a number of replicas.
Two production Midgets then were taken racing in 1965 for the ‘World Championship of Makes’, held in Bridgehampton in the US. Lightened with some aluminium panels and mildly tuned 1293cc engines one went on to place third in class before being used by MG USA in 1966 to promote the launch of the Mk3 Midget and its ‘new’ 1275cc engine. These cars then passed into private hands to race on in events throughout the US for a number of years. One car has disappeared but one survives to this day, the only one of the five ‘works Midgets’ (not counting the Jacobs cars) believed to survive to this day (the other three being the Mk1 Midget rally cars, all of which have been lost to history).
When you talk to a Spridget aficionado about racing, the Sebring and Le Mans Sprites are never far from their lips. And nor they should be. Donald Healey’s team won or placed in their category at Sebring on a number of occasions and the Le Mans Sprite was ultimately developed into a car capable of 150mph on the Mulsane Straight for hour after gruelling hour (albeit using a highly modified MGB gearbox!). A far cry from the humble showroom car! Healey, always mindful that sales were always a must to justify the racing program, particularly in the US, a far more standard Midget would be entered in the Production categories at Sebring, although with no lesser drivers than those steering the Sprites (Graham Hill for example). The irony (ignominy perhaps?) was that these MG Midgets were all, in fact, re-badged Sprites and after the events were returned to being a Sprite and subsequently sold on! The Midget does get almost the last laugh though … the final of the Healey built ‘Works Sprites’, was completed in 1969 for the Targa Florio just as BMC withdrew its backing from Healey Racing. Sold off to a privateer it was raced extensively in the US, including Sebring, often recorded in the record books as …. a Midget!
No article about racing Midgets would be complete without a doff of the hat towards John Spritzel, the BMC tuning wizard and his entry into the somewhat controversial 1968 London to Sydney Marathon (won by Andrew Cowan in a Hillman Hunter). Not only did he help organise the event, but he entered it in an MG Midget and was holding well into the Top 10 cars until the Australian outback beat the Midget’s suspension, ending his race!
As the basis of many a race car in marque sports car events, Midgets continue to grace tracks across the country. Easy to work on and still relatively cheap, add the mandatory safety equipment even to a standard car and you have bags of competition fun and they are simple enough that any mug spanner turner can easily find 25-50% more power and handling with little effort or outlay before you really get silly!