Listen to this! MG Midget with Lenham Le Mans GT body. Huge fun.
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- čas přidán 2. 08. 2024
- Straight-cut gears, a roaring exhaust and fun, fun fun with barely any power. Yes, it's the classic British Sports Car - using ordinary car running gear and turning into a package of absolute hilarity. Join us for this MG Midget road test with a difference. (No, these gearboxes are not normally so loud, this car has a competition gearbox).
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Any 90 year old who can get in and out of a Spridget has a great deal of respect from me.
my 92 year old mum can get into my frog eye
@@alancribb3817 Can she get out of it too?
My parents had a nearly new frog eye. They had to sell it when I got too big to sit in a little seat on the transmission tunnel.
Thinking on it my mum would also be 92 were she still alive.
Lightness with just enough power is the purest form of fun of driving. Oh, the straight cut gear noises are glorious!
Who needs a radio eh ?
Same as motorcycles I think
Oh the sound of those straight cut gears,a sound that used to warn us mischievous kids that shit dad's back 😂😂
What a little beauty! So lovely that enthusiasts are still keeping all these sports cars going and, indeed, competing in them.
I opened CZcams with the intention of watching another video about a blue sports car. But when I saw this, I couldn’t resist clicking on your vid instead. Such a cool little car with an interesting history behind it, I recall reading the build thread for it on the Retro Rides forum.
The smile on your face when driving it speaks volumes.
I just watched one about an AC Greyhound restoration but this must be equally rare.
I absolutely love the sound of them gears running
Sounds like the car has a supercharger!
I had a 1961 A40 Farina, with a 1098cc Morris Minor engine in it.... It would happily drive up multi-storey car parks in top gear, yet do 80mph with ease... The A series really is a fantastic engine!
Totally agree on the A series, my 64 Midget has the original engine the 1098cc (rudely called be some the weak engine due to the smaller bearing which got replaced on tge Mk2 Midget (mine being MK with tge sidescreens mentioned in this video. I'll me doing over 600 miles each way in mine this Summer going to the Brodie Castle show in August. No trailer or dolly for me the Flying Midge will walk it 😂.
Great video this one though
Perfectly sums up 'Power...Less is more' Ian....Best video in ages mate! 👍👍
Hi hello from France 🙋🏻♂️🇫🇷 !! Have all a really good day !! 😀
Brilliant vid! And Fergus knows his way around making videos too - "we'll put the camper up here " !!! Love the sound of the straight-cuts - never occurred to me that they were stronger for competition work. Remember all our old BMC cars with the vocal first gear ! Thanks, Ian and Carly - a delight of a video.
straight cut gears also produce more torque
@@martinfletcher8275 👍🏻👍🏻
Straight-cut gears transmit power more efficiently...a helical set wastes power due to the side thrust and this is easily seen as the box heats up more than a straight-cut box.
That engine bay is a work of art and so well sorted.Beautifully prepared.
When I was a teenager in the late 90's I helped my dad do some repairs on a rusty old mg midget (66?). I fell in love with that car.
Straight-cut gears are not only easier to manufacture than hypoid gears, but they also are more efficient at transmitting power. Some of the power you run through a hypoid gear is turned into an axial (thrust) force, so you get slightly less power out of the gear than you do an equivalent straight-cut gear.
Suddenly Ian and Fergus are 7 feet tall when stood next to that tiny car. Great gear sounds, takes me right back and a great vid too. 👍 For the camera work.
Wow what a fabulous car. The Ashley front end and Lenham rear end really make the car look great and as you said more practical. Love the classic sound of an A series with a good old fashioned exhaust note. It reminds me of my first car (which I still own) a 1969 Minijem GT mk2 kitcar based on a humble 850cc A series powered minivan., It only weighs 450kg so is a similar driving experience to the Midget. I would say you could drive it but its buried in the back of my garage awaiting time for me to spend time on it. These small cars are great because they are so simple to work on and dont have crazy performance so you can drive them in a fun manor and enjoy each and every journey. I once drove mine from Leeds to Coventry when we moved house. it would do an indicated 85mph flat out but I had to wear ear defenders as without them you were totally deaf lol. I must admit now I'm 48 and rather larger than I was when I acquired my car as a 21year old getting in and out is a challenge!! As always a great video educating us all on some extraordinary cars from the past. We are all so lucky to have you both a source of great factual content. Definitely my favourite channel on CZcams 🙂
Dig it out! Take it for a fast run! Put it on the Interwebs
Hats off to the owners 90 year old uncle for being able to get in and out of that car and drive it for his birthday, many respects to the gentleman 👏
My first car was a 1966 Midget in Ivory white and i loved it. Only £300 in 1979 and worth every penny. So many firsts in that car and so many happy miles covered. The only downside was the top was not one you could fold down, it had to be removed. Nice video and nice memories.
That winding sound of strait gears and a open airfilter carburetor engine. A real delight to put the pedal to the metal , pure music for my ears. What a fantastic little thing!!!
In 1991 my then-girlfriend had a '70 AH Sprite, and we took it on a week-long tour of The Lake District. SO much fun!
That thing sounds phenomenal! And that Kamm tail is just perfect. Not usually my kind of thing at all, I generally like comfy barges with big squashy chairs in them but that car is absolutely gorgeous!
Ah love that gearbox whine! What a soundtrack. What a cracking little car. And restored so beautifully too!
The subtitles call it the Lenin Motor Company! :)
Gawd. I should probably change that...
@@HubNut It's not you, it's autogenerated.
Sometimes they are absolutely hilarious. The ones generated for Guy Martin vids tend to be very funny at times and totally unrelated to what he is actually saying, the algorithm really struggles with British accents.
I do try to edit them when I can.
You can't beat the whine of a straight cut gears Ian, the change to fourth gear is like switching on the noise cancellation on modern headphones. You get to hear the speed as well as experience it. Straight cur gears give maximum power transfer to the transmission as the torque is applied evenly across the gear teeth where a slanted tooth profile may be quieter but add extra forces along the gear shafts increasing end bearing pressure and hence are arguably less efficient (forces are directed in two directions vs one). I could draw a simple diagram to explain this better but text only comments here and I'm likely to bore many people to sleep. Fergus clearly has his head screwed on with respect to the changes he decided upon as well. Well done team!
You are not boring this readership lot...
Using every bit of power the car has and not breaking speed limits is the best part of the Sprite and Midget. I love bombing around back roads and winding out the 1098 A series in my 62 Sprite.
Straight cut gears FTW🎉
Is No1 going to mention how Ian's hoodie almost matches the car????
Straight cut gears arent used for being stronger, they are used in competition cars because the nature of helically cut gears robs a competition car of four to six horse power per gear , helically cut gears were only used to quieten gear whine, - hardly needed in a competition car.
the best sound evermore in my opinion is a fully straight cut box and idler gears in original minis, fair gives me goosebumps and brings the hairs up on the back of my neck whenever I hear one - a sound once heard you will never forget.
I seem to remember the Lenham back end sported circular Mk 1 Cortina rear light clusters but not on this example (?). My first sports car was a 1965 Mk2 Midget (EJG 899C) which I took to Ashley in Bishops Stortford from memory to have one of their fastback hardtops fitted which involved removal of the original boot lid and it made a very attractive little car. I eventually sold it for £250 and bought a 1963 Series 1 3.8 Jaguar E Type roadster for £400! It needed a bit of work and I well remember buying new wings from Martin Walter in Folkestone at the grand price of £26 each! They were supplied oversize and had to be cut down at the back edge to fit individually, taking into account any anomalies in manufacturing tolerances! Happy days!
I was a Saturday boy at lenham motor company in the 80's when they had their workshop in Harrietsham 😊
I am seeing various Italian sports and 1950's-1960's super car design in miniature, especially the Ferrari GTO styled lights at the back.
Rear lights are from the Fiat 850 saloon, proving that the glamour extended right down to small cars in Italy.
@@HubNut it's a lovely little thing
What a lovely little thing that is! Makes me want to drop everything and get Hilda working again.
What a lovely car. Thanks for showing it and I learned something about the body by Lenham. I'd never heard of them.
Always a two edged sword watching videos on British gems like this. A reminder of British innovation, the ability to make a sexy car. Also a reminder that none of that exists anymore, certainly not on the mass market. Sad state of affairs.
Brilliant video, thanks.
A midget was my first car, and I had 5 more during my younger days. They are huge fun, and on my home turf of the Yorkshire and Durham Dales much more suited than the more popular B. Spitfires just got themselves all tangled up trying to stay with a spridget, escorts wallowed around, and only a mini or an elan could match them.
The definitive first sports car.
Indeed, the Spridgets were not designed for motorway cruising, because when they were designed, there were no motorways (though they were planned). The primary adaptive habitat of the classic English sportscar is 6 o'clock on a lovely summer evening, with the top down, on a twisting country road, with no other traffic around.
Fantastic!! What a sound! Lovely car
😎
Looks like you had a great week and packed a lot in! Great stuff!
Beautiful noises.
Wow what a cool well thought out little build, lovely story too! 👌👍
Ferg has built some fantastic machinery over the years ! ! nice to see the Lenham get a bit of fame !
Lovely, takes me back to my stage 1 tuned Mini Clubman. Thanks
What a sound!! Gotta love straight cut gears.
Spridget = road legal go kart = fun fun fun.
I agree that because you can’t drive the car to its limit on back roads and on track they are just fun, and hard to over do things.
The best performance mods I did to my midget were: front camber kit, rear telescopic dampers, Weber, roller rockers and porting.
Great video, great little car. As an ex-Series Land Rover-owner, the sound of the straight cut gearbox made me think, "oops, I've left it in low box"!
That's a fascinating little sports car. Really enjoyed watching.
Absolutely brilliant video Ian Miss hubnut 👍 ❤️ I love it and that noise I'd never get bored of that noise brilliant
I love the sound of that car....the sound of sports car racing! Thank you very much for sharing that with us,
Ian!
So nice to see cars like this still on the road respect
Excellent. I love the Midget. Simple, light and a complete hoot. Perfect.
Excellent review as always Ian and Carly and great to hear from Fergus, a lovely looking little car which makes a lovely noise and makes me happy.
You really enjoyed that test drive.
Good vid. V enjoyable !
My, yes. Lovely! I had my Midget out for a run earlier today… nice to see this Lenham!
More smiles per hour for Mr. Hubnut than any recent reviews and kora music at the outro.
Hi Ian what a cute looking car!! Thank you for the video.
A great little car.
And a great little video .
What a great video. I’ve never seen such a smile on your face before.
Made me miss my old sprite. Just such a happy feeling driving. Never failed putting a smile on your face.
Oh wow, love the sound of this Spridget. What a sound of mechanical joy.
Fantastic little car I love it.
Absolutely awesome. Wonderful little sportscar. Looking into the engine bay is a pleasure. Good work, Ferguson! 💥👍💥
Iain I loved this video a lot. If you can get more custom cars like this going over it with the owner, please do more! It is something different and really nice to watch.
Gorgeous sounding little car. ❤ 👌👍
another great video has always Ian and miss hubnut and hublets and hubmutts 👍
Everything looks amazing, especially the driveline.
Lovely little thing that, a modified car that just looks perfect for it's period. The straight cut gearbox whine takes me back to my youth, had a Mini with a Jack Knight 4 speed gearbox in it. Hilariously noisy, inside ant out of the car, but made every journey a proper event. No way could I live with it now 30 years on though!
I like that a lot. A track day symphony to enliven any dreary commute.
Super little car. I could see by the look on your face that you were loving driving it Ian
She's quite a looker from the nose and side profile, eh? I've not seen a Lenham body before and they really do take the little Spridget and spice it up a bit - even looks a bit like its big brother, the BGT. I've seen an Ashley front end on a couple here in NZ, but only at shows. I had a huge grin on my face from the time the car started moving until the end, mate! The musical sounds those straight cut gears make are just like nothing else....and in the background, we can hear the side-sucker up front working it's magic on the warmed-up little A-series and completing the orchestral arrangement (and my aural enjoyment). She plays a beautiful symphony, does that little car! It immediately made me want to go and find one to drive. Thank you ever so much for taking us for a blast in the wee beast, to Miss Hubnut for her usual excellent filming style and my thanks also to Fergus for doing such a great job on the little car and allowing you to bring us some footage of it. I wish his Uncle all the best for his 90th and hope that when I am 90, that I could still blast about a track in a little car just like it! Good on him!
Marvellous little car 😊
What a most interesting vehicle indeed really good video well done 👍👍
This was all of the awesome.
Stunning car. Nice number plate!
great....now i need one
That brought back so many memories. I had a Healey Sprite with a beautiful special body, (origin unknown) but the sounds and the sensations were all so evocative.
Used to be a Lenham le mans coupe race car that raced in the special saloons and sports car series in the 80s-always loved the look of that car.Obvs sounds like a mini with a straight cut-awesome.
What a superb car, and what fun it looked like, even on those limiting roads.
That A series sounded superb, very well matched to what must be a pretty light car.
A rear wheel drive sports coupé with a 1.3 is a good recipe. Lovely car great video. Thanks Ian, Carly and Fergus. ❤❤❤
Great video, thanks. I have a fettled '67 austin healey sprite with weber carb etc. 40mph feels like 80 in these things,and huge fun, especially with roof down.
Another great video. You may notice my icon is one of my MG's. So I may be a little biased about liking this car. Love the noise of the strait cut gears. Brings back memories of my youth.
Looks proper, it sounds proper
Very nice!!!!
Looks & sounds great. I'm pretty sure I don't fit, but still love it.
Ian's face on this is just pure pleasure for this little car.
Very impressed with the colour co-ordinated clothing Mr. Hubnut. Intentionally of course. Taken a page out if Steph’s book.
Who needs a supercharger whine when you've got straight cut gears.
This is certainly a usable car for lots of fun!
Another good vid love the A series engines ,on another note i keep passing Fox Anne where i live in somerset
Nothing quite like straight--cut Gears ⚙️⚙️⚙️⚙️! Lovely 🌹😛!
Love it. I found my Midget to be way more fun than my subsequent MGBs. My Beat reminds me of my Midget too, hmm...
The mighty A series engine! Sounds wonderful with the twin choked carb! I had a grin all the way through
I still miss mine & it's been 36 years.😢
Glorious, I want one.
thank you for hot work in i really liked ❤
Your comment about us not being allowed to have fun any more is spot on as the owner of a sports car and a motorbike I am all to aware of the stupid and uneccessary reduction in speed limits on A roads. Another great vidoe and what a lovely little car - not sure I could live with the straight cut gears in the first 3 ratios but with a syncromesh gearbox on at least 3rd and 4th (better 2nd to 4th) yoiu could daily that 🙂
Simply stunning 😍
Gotta love an A series engine. On my old mini you didn't change up until you hit valve bounce.
Love this car has personality and character in spades.
Very tidy build 😀
I LOVE this stuff!
Great best since the Panhard!
Thanks Tony Poole Dorset
I was so wrong in thinking it was a Gilburn, the jacking point and sill should have told me. Easy to give the throttle a blip when changing down under braking, just rock the foot onto the throttle pedal. Lovely memorable sound from that gearbox.