To tell this story we have to go further back in time to the years leading up to The Second World War. In the Spring of 1936 the Cowley inspired TA Midget was born, replacing the MG PB. The car used many components from the Morris parts store and actually was not initially very popular with MG enthusiasts. However, this resistance was eventually overcome and the car began to promote the appeal of sports car ownership, the type of car that had previously been dismissed as being temperamental and difficult to drive.
The TA's chassis was of traditional MG design, but the tubular cross-members seen in previous models had been replaced by less stiff channel sections. Also, the forward portions of the side rails had been made as box sections to stiffen them, which was needed as the engine mountings were of rubber. Suspension was by the now familiar leaf springs front and rear, but the brakes were hydraulically operated for the first time on an MG car.
The engine was changed from the neat, but demanding, over head cam unit of the previous model and was replaced with a 1292cc pushrod operated overhead-valve four-cylinder unit. This was essentially the same as that used in the Morris 10, but the MG version was equipped with twin SU carburettors and produced around 50bhp, a significant increase compared to the old PB. The engine was mated to a four-speed gearbox, which featured a major technical development – synchromesh!
The mechanical specification of the TA made it a much easier car to drive than previous models or indeed than its competitors and there is no doubt that this little car opened up a whole new appeal of sports car ownership to a much wider motoring customer base.
The TA became very popular, and inevitably found its way into competition events where it stood up for itself quite well. However, because of its unsuitable valve timing, and weak bottom-end, the engine did not stand up well to being consistently run at high revs and engine failure was not uncommon.
 In the summer of 1939, as the war clouds were gathering, MG announced the launch of the TB Midget. The chassis and body options of this car were essentially the same as the TA, but the TB had a new engine, a 1250cc overhead valve, four-cylinder unit taken from the new Morris 10 and known as the XPAG engine. The engine had a much stronger bottom-end than its predecessor, better valve timing and a more advanced design in cylinder head. These combined features gave a power output of 45bhp and with a dry clutch and a more efficient set of ratios than before, not to mention the improved synchromesh. All of this meant that the little car looked very promising indeed, but the onset of war stopped production as MG had other, more important, tasks to carry out to support the war effort.
On the eve of the war, MG had offered a modified TB model, which it sold under the MG TC banner. The chassis of the new car was essentially the same as before, but the sliding trunnion spring mountings had now been dispensed with in favour of more conventional rubber bush shackles, a situation forced upon MG due to the lack of raw materials necessary for the original mounts. Although this change helped to simplify maintenance procedures, it actually made little difference to the handling of the car.
 The engine was the now familiar twin-carburettor 1250cc XPAG unit and the transmission was the familiar single-plate dry clutch and four-speed synchromesh gearbox as had been seen in the earlier TB. The brakes were nine-inch hydraulic drum units and the wheels were the usual centre-locking wires.
The TC was offered with only one body style, an open two-seater that was very similar in appearance to the TB model. All the traditional features were still there with the humped scuttle with folding windshield, cutaway doors, swept outboard front and rear wings, a slab-type fuel tank and rear-mounted spare wheel. Despite the fact that the car was so obviously dated, in terms of both mechanical specification and appearance, the MG TC Midget found a ready market – a level of success that took MG somewhat by surprise. The car was made famous by its appearance in many war films as the car to be owned by RAF officers.
Being aware that the more cars they could export mean a greater allocation of raw materials, MG sought sales around the world and succeeded in generating a substantial demand for it to the extent that in its four-year production period some 10,000 TC's were built with a substantial number of those being shipped to the USA. On the other side of the Atlantic the Midget was to generate a whole new enthusiasm for sports cars and motor sport and it is quite remarkable how a car, which was basically manufactured as a "stop-gap," should have enjoyed so much success and to generate sales figures far beyond those experienced before the war.
In 1949, a replacement for the TC was announced. It was not, as one might have expected, a car with a totally different and modern appearance, but yet another Midget in the familiar mould. The TD Midget, while it certainly had the appearance of a Midget, had much that was different under the skin. The TD had a completely new chassis, one that had been developed from that used in the Y-Type saloon, that was a much sturdier and stiffer frame than the previous one. The difference here was that it had box-section side rails and cross members that were all of a welded construction. Unlike the previous Midgets, the chassis was kicked up over the rear axle. Consequently, the rear leaf springs had a greater camber than before and were now controlled by lever-arm shock absorbers. At the front, the old beam axle and leaf springs had been discarded in favour of an independent suspension system of double wishbones and coil springs. The upper wishbones actually formed part of the levers for the lever-arm shock absorbers. The complete front-end design was to become the common in the construction of front suspension for many future MG cars.
 One feature that was a departure from the old Midget that raised the hackles of the "hardy" MG enthusiasts, was the use of 15-inch pressed steel wheels rather than the old spindly 19-inch wires. It was alleged that these looked slightly out of place on a car with such old-fashioned styling to the bodywork, especially at the rear where they didn't quite fill the wheel arches.
The engine and transmission were again the same as the TC and was the first time that an MG was equipped with bumpers both front and rear, which it was suggested, took away the character displayed by earlier cars and gave the TD a more "civilised" look. The TD was certainly more comfortable to drive than any of its predecessors.
In spite of the change in styling the TD found an even larger market than the TC, selling almost three times as many in a similar four-year production run. Again, a substantial number of the cars produced went abroad, particularly to the USA. A Mark II version of the TD was introduced during its production run, having a slightly more powerful version of the XPAG engine (57bhp) with a higher compression ratio and bigger carburettors. There were also improvements made to the suspension, while the one-piece seat back and individual seat cushions gave way to a pair of bucket seats. In 1952, centre-lock wire wheels were again offered, but this time as an option.
In 1953, when sales of the TD were beginning to falter, MG had the prototype of the replacement car ready to go into production. The car, code named EX175, was based on a modified TD chassis and mechanicals, but with a beautiful streamlined body shell, which brought the car right up-to-date. Sadly, it was to be turned down flatly by the management of the British Motor Corporation (BMC), the company that now owned MG, Austin and Morris, because a deal had already been signed to build a similar car - the Austin-Healey 100.
Earlier, in 1951, a racing driver by the name of George Phillips drove a re-bodied TD Midget in the Le-Mans 24 hour endurance race, a car had been specially built for him by MG following his earlier successes with his own TC that had been fitted with a lightweight two-seat racing styled body. So different was the appearance of his new TD racer it was difficult to believe that it was actually a TD Midget underneath.
It was a road-going version of the Phillips’ car which had been put forward as a replacement for the TD Midget and dismissed.
In 1953 MG knew that something had to be done about the flagging sales of the TD, but having had the chance of producing an all new model completely dashed, all that  could be achieved at the time was to give the existing car a facelift in the form of the MG TF Midget. This car was basically the same as the TD, having the same form of chassis, suspension, brakes, steering, engine, and transmission. It was the bodywork that displayed the most changes, although it still had that un-mistakable, and by now, old-fashioned MG styling. The most obvious changes were to the front end where the radiator grille had been lowered and leaned backwards to lower the height of the bonnet. The front wings were shaped so that the headlights could be faired into them rather than being separately mounted, and at the rear there was little difference compared to the TD, apart from a valance to fill the gap between the bottom of the fuel tank and the bumper.
In terms of performance, there was no change in comparison with the TD, and despite the new body style, MG was kidding no one but themselves, and the sales figures reflected this. By 1955, the TF was seen even by Longbridge to be a flop, but all that could be done to try and improve upon it as best they could. In the short-term the engine size was increased to 1466cc, and the name was modified to the MG TF 1500. Even the upgrade to the XPEG 1500 engine was not enough to give the car a new lease of life, marking the end of production for the old traditional style of Midget – a car that had been in production in many similar forms since 1929.
The year was now 1955 and MG desperately needed something that was completely different and completely up-to-date in terms of performance, handling, and appearance. This period coincided with a major internal change within the MG company, the most important of these being the reinstatement of a separate design department. However, no direct replacement for the TF was forthcoming and the Midget gave way to a new type of MG, code named the EX182.
With the benefit of hindsight, many more people have affection  for these models than for any other MG produced since, and there are few MG enthusiasts who do not regard a T-type as being the only real MG. Furthermore, no range of cars did more for the reputation of MG as a company, or indeed for British car manufacture in the post-war period. The importance of the T-type cars can never be overstated.
In 1961 the Midget name was resurrected and put onto an MG car that really wasn’t an MG at all, but a slightly more upmarket version of the Austin Healey Sprite Mkll. However, the two names ran side by side until 1971, when the Sprite version was dropped and MG Midget was left to go it alone for another eight years.
To follow up on the continuation story of the MG Midget you will have to go to our page covering the story of the Austin-Healey Sprite, which can be accessed from the Classic Cars menu page.
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