Antique & Classic Cars Blog

There’s a reason most TV and movie detectives are men. It’s probably that the entertainment industry is hopelessly sexist and chauvinistic—but it could possibly be that men have better eyesight.

Take for example this humble MG. (Very humble.) Feminine eyes could easily mistake this for a car so far past its prime that good sense and nuisance laws demand its immediate removal to the nearest scrap yard.

Ah, but the male eye is more finely tuned to the treasure within. With the right wrenches, the right attitude, the right beer, a good measure of luck and more money than anyone would have thought going in, this dog in pig’s clothing could easily become…a race car?

Yes, a race car. Spridgets (Austin Healy Sprites and their immediate kin, MG Midgets) are popular vintage race cars because they’re abundant, cheap and light enough that with thousands of dollars of engine work they’ll go pretty good. Such is the plan for this garden Midget (not “garden-variety” until removed from the garden). This Midget lived in PA, got pulled to MN behind my ‘94 Dodge Dakota in 2004, went to a friend’s son who got it running then moved to Hudson, WI, and now is going to a garage in Roseville so son, blogger and friend Mike can undertake the modifications necessary to put it on the track: fuel cell, roll bar, racing brake pads, etc.

With the stock motor, steel wheels and street tires, it’s sure to be the slowest car in the league first season out but it should be a hoot anyway. And if kids and time and dollars and other distractions make the racing life less than viable or fun, you can always sell an MG to another guy with keen eyesight and an active imagination (and a tolerant significant other).

The photos here document stage one of the process: fitting new fuel pump lines so the car will run. I wore safety goggles but my eyes are so drawn to an MG that most of the tablespoon of grit that fell off the bottom of it went right in them anyway.

(This and two other commitments prevented my making the Northern Lights Car Show. Please let me know if you have some digital images you’d be willing to share and we’ll post them for everyone to enjoy. Thanks.)

This entry was posted on Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at 8:55 am and is filed under Car stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.