The MG Midget 1500

When I felt a craving for some fresh-air motoring the other day and Pamela Wearing of Leyland Cars sought to disperse this by lending me an MG Midget 1500 it immediately rained for days on end. But at least this enables me to report that the hood and wind-up glass side-windows of the latest Midget keep the weather out effectively, with only very small gaps that no sports-car user is likely to object to, and that the hood is notably taut and drum-free. Someone from the office who used the MG for a local errand came back and said it had scarcely changed since it was first made, which is about the truth of it, if you overlook the ugly impact-massive front bumper, and the fact that the engine is now a l 1/2-litre instead of a 1.0-litre, which provides a top-speed of just over 100 m.p.h. and 0-60 m.p.h. pick-up in under 12 1/2 sec.

Whether it is technically viable or not, a sports two-seater seems faster round corners and through traffic than most saloons. So I found this MG good fun, and also perfectly practical transport. The boot is small, true, and you have to get used to pulling out the heater knob to cut off the hot air supply. But everything functions very well, although there was a trace of sticky throttle. I used the little car with much enjoyment for more than 1,000 miles in ten working days, during which absolutely nothing fell off or went wrong. It gave 34.5 m.p.g. of 4-star and approx. 2,000 m.p.p. of oil. But what a pity this successor to all those different versions of the MG Midget down the years now costs £1,799 which, with a gp. 5 insurance rating, puts a heavy premium on this form of simple fun-motoring.—W.B.