Paul Jolly: Ingenious Arkley upcycles rusty MG Midgets

Morgan is perhaps most famous for its waiting list and price tag premiums achieved and this peculiarity has been ongoing since the 1970’s. One entrepreneur who took advantage of this was John Britten who ingeniously found a way of upcycling rusty old MG Midgets and Sprites with his Arkley. A Morgan lookalike baby kit car.

Essentially, it was by grafting on a GRP forward hinged bonnet, complete with vintage style wings, and a retro style sheared off rear end, also in GRP. This design retained the central steel tub, screen and doors. The appeal was instant and some 900 were made up to 1987.

So, who bought these little sporty numbers in the day? Well, it was the glamourous and gorgeous girls out shopping in the Kings Road Chelsea in their cute little pocket rockets.

Whilst not attempting to emulate Morgan’s status, these cars did an excellent job of looking the part for a fraction of the cost. But there was a catch. The Midget only weighed 735kg when new and this was drastically lightened with the removal of steel bodywork, fore and aft. The power to weight ratio went up big time as did the skittish behaviour on wet roads. In fact, they were lethal and would dart about over manhole lids and poor road surfaces. You would not want to be involved in an accident with such flimsy bodywork around you.

Manufacturers take great trouble designing safe cars with crumple zones and the balance of weight distribution carefully calculated for obvious reasons. Improvising a car in this way today would simply not be permitted. But hey, this was the 1970’s after all.

When choosing a car for our loved ones, we take care to think about their safety and wellbeing naturally. I am no different.

And what car did my wonderful wife-to-be drive when I first met her? An Arkley, no less!

Not only could I hardly fit in it, such is the well named Midget moniker, but I soon replaced with something more substantial. A pagoda roof Mercedes 280SL. I should have kept both cars in hindsight.