These initial matters aside the was a sales success with examples being made between and , and today they remain a favourite, not least from their still sensible values to buy and maintain. Engine Number of Cylinders : 4 Bore and Stroke : Rear : Half elliptic 6 leave springs; lever arm hydraulic shock absorbers. Brakes : Lockeed hydraulic disc at front drum at rear. The Sprite used a modern unibody construction and offered sharp handling, while power came from a cc version of the famous BMC A-Series engine.
Its success encouraged MG, which was assembling the Sprite anyway, to start producing its own version the same year. It may not exactly be politically correct in this day and age, but MG began using the Midget name at the end of the s and continued to use the label on the T-Series cars into the mids before resurrecting it for its re-badged square-body Mk II Austin-Healey Sprite. Midgets and Sprites are identical for the most part, but early Midgets have extra chrome trim and a nicer interior including available leather , which resulted in a higher price when they were new.
The model year brought the first major update with the Midget Mk II, which featured wind-up windows, lockable doors, available wire wheels, suspension improvements, and a few more horsepower. Acceleration in all Midgets is modest, to put it nicely, but brought a lot more pep under the hood with the famous twin-carb cc version of the A-Series.
It was similar to the engine found in the Mini Cooper S, although down to 65 hp compared to 75 hp in the Mini, thanks to lower compression and smaller valves. The Sprite dropped out of the lineup in , leaving the Midget to carry the cheap roadster torch for nearly another decade. While the Midget and Spitfire had been chief rivals in the entry-level sports car market, they came under the same corporate umbrella with the creation of British Leyland at the end of the s.
Both little roadsters soldiered on through mostly unchanged, but that year the MG plant in Abingdon closed after operating since the s. With the disappearance of MG and Triumph, the traditional British sports car was gone. Save my name and email in this browser for the next time I comment.
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