25 MG Midget

The Midget enjoys its freedom, following an extended winter lay-up 1977 MG MIDGET 1500

The Midget may not have got its inaugural 2017 run in until March, but it’s certainly made up for lost time by really piling on the miles in just a couple of outings. Most of those – 220, in fact – were amassed on CCW‘ s day trip to sunny California (no, not that one). It coped admirably with what was a frequently hectic day, especially when called upon to keep up with colleagues’ various 1990s machines, all packing fuel-injected this and powerassisted that. While they cruised at the national speed limit, nodding along to the radio with the heater temperature settings just so, I was freezing my extremities off with the hood down and nothing but the blare of the little four-cylinder engine to listen to all day.

Credit where credit is due, though – not once did PCB fail to proceed. It developed a bit of a chesty cough following an impromptu pub car park stop to let stragglers catch up, but that soon cleared once we got going again – fuel vapourisation, probably. Other than that, it coped with everything from stop-start traffic and high-speed blasts, to endless shunting back and forth for the camera. Such was its good behaviour, in fact, that I drove home cross-country and stopped en route to snap it against a glorious sunset.

A few weeks later, PCB was drafted in to a two-car photo shoot with news ed Scullion’s MX-5. This involved it lifting its skirts on a variety of nadgery corners to prove its handling prowess for snapper Gunn’s camera – all good fun, and just the limb-stretching exercise the Midget needed to get it match-fit for the spring season.

That said, the commute into the office that morning – battling not just Peterborough’s usually awful rushhour traffic, but thick fog to boot – was rather less pleasant, though I was heartened to be joined, at one point, by an even more adventurous chap in an early 1960s Morris Minor.

The MG got me safely into the office and the sun obligingly stayed out long enough for a roof-down blast home in the evening.

Next up was Drive-It Day, and a minor entry ticked off my personal classic car bucket list.

’It coped admirably with what was a frequently hectic day in California’

Suspected fuel vapourisation caused a brief engine cough following this brief stop near California, but it soon cleared. Hood down all the way there, you’ll note...

Murray’s MX-5 demonstrates the noble art of hooning to a bemused-looking MG.