I thought I’d post a bit about the donor car we’re using, its a 98 Rover 200 Vi. It has the 1.8 litre VVC engine that produces 143bhp as standard. At some point the bonnet had flipped up, dented the roof and smashed the windscreen! We drove it back like this from Oxford and it didn’t skip a beat. We were quite surprised by it’s performance too, needless to say my dad had a big grin on his face.

The engine is in good condition, having had 2 cambelt changes according to the history. Its done 97k which is high but should be OK. Being a VI it has the CAT2 immobiliser, and lots of other goodies which most 200s don’t have. We’re pinching the half leather seats to put in my Rover 220 Di (daily driver) and probably the leather steering wheel and vented brakes too.

Once we get all the parts from it we’ll be breaking the Vi, so if you need anything get in touch! We’re close to Peterborough if you want to collect any big items.

We’re at the stage of gathering parts, ready for the rebuild in the summer. So far we have a Rover 200 Vi (more info to follow) and this lovely Ford type 9 gearbox. Its a recon box from a 2.8 V6 Capri, we’re unsure of the mileage but it looks to be in good condition. It has the long input shaft, so we will be getting the bellhousing from Titan Motorsport later in the year. We have to modify the front x-member and create a hole for the new gear stick to come through as it sits slightly further back behind the original.

Firstly welcome to my blog! I’ve created this to document the restoration/butchering of my 1973 MG Midget. She was my first car and is now sitting in the garage very poorly. On the way back from Leeds last year she blew a water hose whilst on the M62 in rush hour. Luckily I had breakdown recovery free with my classic insurance! The engine bay needless to say got very hot with the lack of coolant still remaining in the system. Most of it had gone onto my windscreen and hood, the rest just turned to steam! It was so hot it melted the HT Leads onto the spark plugs! We put the hose back on and topped her up and I drove the 150 miles back home with the car slightly misfiring and quite worse for wear.

7 months later and here we are! Since owning the midget we’ve had a fair bit of work done: new hood, new clutch, new starter motor, new coil, an engine tune-up, new alloys, K&N air filter, sports exhaust and a 4 pot brake conversion. The plan is to restore the body work and upgrade the suspension and drop in a 1.8 VVC K-series engine. Hopefully we will be making around 160-170bhp which is nearly 3 times the power of the 1275cc A-series at the moment. We should be looking at 0-60 in around 6-7 seconds if all goes to plan.

I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for reading.