Picture Of

MG Midget Cars

The MG Midget C-type was produced by the MG Car company from 1931 to 1932. It was designed for competition use and based on the MG Midget M-Type. A special car, EX120 had been developed from the MG Midget M-Type for George Eyston to make an attempt on the 750 cc class 24 hour record at Autodrome de Montlh?ry in France. The attempt was successful and a series of replica cars were made which became the MG Midget C-type.

The MG Midget is a small two seat sports car produced by MG division of the British Motor Corporation from 1961 to 1979. It re-used a famous pre-war name used on MG M-type, MG D-type, MG J-type and so on.

The MG Midget Car used a tuned short stroke (73 mm) version of the bevel gear driven overhead camshaft engine from the 1928 Morris Minor Cars and Wolseley 10 with a single SU carburettor and a new crankshaft producing 44 bhp (33 kW) at 6400 rpm. It could from 1932 be had with the crossflow head to be seen later on the MG Midget J-type and a Powerplus supercharger version was also available with 52.4 bhp (39.1 kW) at 6500 rpm. Drive was to the rear wheels through a four speed non-synchromesh gearbox. The chassis was new and took the form of a ladder frame with tubular cross members and passed under the rear axle. The suspension used half elliptic springs and Hartford friction shock absorbers with rigid front and rear axles and centre lock wire wheels. The MG Midget Car had a wheelbase of 81 inches (2057 mm) and a track of 42 inches (1067 mm).

The body, which had no doors, was metal over an ash frame and had a pointed tail which held the spare wheel and cycle type front wings. Later MG Midget Cars had a more conventional rear with a slab type fuel tank. The exhaust pipe was routed outside the MG Midget Car and finished with a spectacular fishtail. The record breaking MG Midget Cars had a streamlined cowl over the radiator but this was not usually fitted to later MG Midget Cars as it could cause overheating unless high speeds were maintained.

The standard MG Midget Car initially cost ?295 or ?345 for the supercharged version rising to ?490 and ?575 by the end of production.

As well as the Montlh?ry record, MG Midget C-type were used in many other competition events including a works team of fourteen cars entered in the 1931 Double Twelve event at Brooklands where they took the first five places.