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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Unusual engine conversions

Just randomly, was it ever a thing to add a Ford V4 to a midget? The Essex V4 was a bit marmite but the Cologne V4 as fitted to Saabs was well regarded in non Midget circles.

It seems to be quite light and the sound is unique but probably a lot of work.

I have too many 'this engine' into 'that car' dreams.
P Peters

We had an NSU Ro80 when I was young, someone fitted a Ford V4 into that - not a great engine tbh.

I know someone who fitted a Honda S2000 engine and box into an MGA, that would be a bit mad in a Spridget.

78-84 Toyota Startlet had 1.3l with 5 speed gearbox and RWD - a rotten one of them would be a nice find
Malc Gilliver

@Malc

Was it the Essex V4 as per transits Capris and Corsairs or the German Cologne V4 as per Sabs and Ford Taunus's?
P Peters

An Ro80 is one for my dream garage - with its original rotary, but not a Ford V4.
If you fancy a V4, didn't Lancia do some corkers in the pre-Fiat days? Fulvia Coupe?
Or go mental and pop in a Mazda rotary? An RX8 twin rotor produces 231bhp from a naturally aspirated 1.3 and loves revs.
Jeremy MkIII

I wondered about the Ford V4 after fitting my car with a Ford gearbox but the bellhousing bolt pattern differs from the inline 4 my gearbox was intended for, I would have had to change to a V6 gearbox and bellhousing.
David Billington

@P Peters, my dad called it a Capri GT engine, so I would assume the Essex.

@Jeremy Mk3 - The Ro80 was so smooth but 30K miles was the limit of the tips and it didn't consume fuel as much as suck the tank flat !

When my sister fell ill and my dad had to drive from Derby to Chesterfield he destroyed a set of Michelin XAS tyres so it was clearly quite fast !

No idea why I remember the name of the tyre so clearly, but he was really annoyed that the tread had come off the carcas.
Malc Gilliver

I know the Corsair had a V4 engine, but didn’t realise that the Capri did.

There was an ‘Atlantis’ Midget, with a Ford crossflow engine.
Dave O'Neill 2

@Dave O'Neil

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/from-the-archive/greatest-road-tests-ever-ford-capri-2000-gt

I could well be wrong about the engine, but he did describe it was a Capri GT engine
Malc Gilliver

Triple world Champion Jack Brabham sold Brabham Midgets with a Coventry Climax engine.
He once sought my assistance on a difficult issue when at Brooklands.
“where’s the Gents”.

Some years ago a chap named Stuart in Masc had a Rover V8 Midget with Sierra 4 wheel drive.
Alan Anstead

According to wiki.

Engines used in Capris.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Capri


anamnesis

V4 was used in the Corsair and the Transit. I used to enjoy hustling the V4 Transit through London traffic. We had the ones with sliding doors
Alan Anstead

Dont think that list is complete as if my memory is correct I think the works Cologne Capris went to something like 3.4L and for homologation purposes 250 cars of about 3.2L were sold.


One of the Brabham Midgets was at Goodwood a couple of years ago.

Trev
T Mason

On the subject of Ro80s, I spotted this one in Malta in 2009. I don't know what engine it had, though.

We're going again tomorrow. I might have a look, see if it's still there.


Dave O'Neill 2

Just had a quick look on 'streetview' and it was still there in 2016.


Dave O'Neill 2

Used to run a bored and stroked mgb engine in my midget track car/hillclimber--it was on the better side of ok.
my first sports car, like back in the early 70's was a 100/4 healey with a 3.4 jaguar engine and g/box--very fast car that one by crikey, should have kept that one- tried to get it back here a few years ago but it got sold and the bloke that bought it took it back to the UK, so it's over there amongst you there somewhere-

Just on this v4 thing--I've done my fair share of engine transplants over the years and can't understand why anyone would do a v4 transplant when there'd be no more work doing the v6-much better option----------
Used to do maintenance on a fleet of v4 transit pie vans--i'd be quite happy never to see another one thanks--headgaskets valves-timing gears--full time drama. The guy had 6 of them and there'd always be at least one dead.
willy
William Revit

K series, Ford Duratec+Zetec are very common conversions.

Toyota 4AGE
Nissan CG https://barrattengineering.co.uk/
Rotary engine
think ive seen Mazda mx5 conversion too somewhere on the web...


Some rarer conversions:
Jaguar XK 3.4L
Renailt Clio
LS6 Corvet + other USA V8's
Honda Vtec
Rover V8
Triumph 1500 in a 1275 spridget

In the old days people would build in 1500&1600 mga engines in frogeye's

Mate of mine, Tarquin, started at some point a mazda V6 conversion (mx7?) with a mx5 gearbox.
Conversion never finished but I was suprised how well it fitted






A de Best

@William Revit
"can't understand why anyone would do a v4 transplant when there'd be no more work doing the v6-much better option"

The extra weight and that weight being further forward. The Saab V4 rally folk tune the hell out of V4s but won't change to V6 because it messes up the balance.

@Jeremy MkIII
The Lancia V4 engines are very expensive these days

@Alan Antstead
"I used to enjoy hustling the V4 Transit through London traffic. We had the ones with sliding doors"

I also remember the sliding doors as a kid in my dad's Sherpa and possibly Morris J4 before that. There were crude catches to hold the doors open while driving around which seemed completely normal in summer - driving around in traffic completely exposed with the doors pinned back that is. If you forgot the catch or deliberately didn't set it, the first time you braked the door would slam shut.

I imagine if you did that today the police would be almost as angry as if you said something mean on Facebook :)

P Peters

P Peters
The V4 Transit that I hustled through London traffic, with the doors held open, in the 70s, was blue.
Alan Anstead

" -- imagine if you did that today the police would be almost as angry as if you said something mean on Facebook -- :) " 😅😅😅😅.

So true. Lol.

It was great. No seat belt on. Door wide open. We were so free back then man. 😉.

Transits. Gem of a van. 😁.

No sliders on car and classic. But £22000 will buy a nice mk1 with slam doors.

https://www.carandclassic.com/make-an-offer/1973-ford-transit-custom-swb-panel-van-v4-nJEo6g

Anything Old Ford is an arm and leg these days.


anamnesis

This takes me back.
Dad had a Bedford Dormobile (fitted with a straight six from a Cresta) which had sliding doors.
He lent it to me in 1977 when I got a short but lucrative job in the South of France and I drove there and back with the door clipped open.
I lived in the van for eight weeks in the Marseilles summer while working 12 hour days, preying on the Continental hippie girls at night.
Bliss.
Best job I ever had.
And the van never missed a beat the whole time, although I did an oil and filter change in the carpark of a fairly sw*nky hotel in West Paris on the way.
Edit: Blimey, I didn't guess the nanny filter would trip over that!
And I just remembered it was 1978, not 77.
Greybeard

@Alan Anstead , , , with a light on the top ?

And, I've seen a photo of an Alfa 2.0l twin spark in a midget. Lovely engine!
GuyW

I've seen a few FIAT twin cam engines in spridgets, quite a good fit as it's quite a short engine for its capacity being fully siamese bores. It was a fairly common choice for Morris Minors when the engines were more common.
David Billington

Guy
Correct.
Alan Anstead

There have been some Jaguar straight six transplants including Colin Dodd’s ‘The Fright’ in Australia, see: https://driventowrite.com/2022/11/23/elemental-spirit-part-5-building-the-perfect-beast/comment-page-1/
M Wood

Grey
I'm guessing that's without seat belts. You'd have to hold on to the wheel on left hand corners 🤣. Sounds quite an experience!
Bill B

@Bill, don't you usually hold onto the wheel on corners?
GuyW

Explanation required.

@Bill?

Why do people put an 'at' sign before people's names?

What am I missing? What does it mean?
anamnesis

Guy
Grey's Bedford had sliding doors he kept open. I was thinking it would be possible to fall out on a fast LH corner....
Bill B

Passengers wedge a foot against the A post Bill. Driver's wear out the top bush on the steering column. Lol.

I did a stint as a delivery driver with sliding front doors in the van. Great fun in the summer. 😁.

Yeah Grey's trip sounds fun.
anamnesis

@anamnesis

"Explanation required.

@Bill?

Why do people put an 'at' sign before people's names?

What am I missing? What does it mean? "



I use it on forums where I can't reply directly to your comment, so other people don't think I am replying to them, I would also use where in between posting a number have people have responded so I would @them individually
Malc Gilliver

@everyone. Ive only just started doing this here as others were doing it. I presume as a means of alerting the stated individual? Ive no idea if its used anywhere else other than @BBS

@Bill, yes I understood about the open sliding doors, but I rather expected you would hold the steering wheel anyway when negotiating a corner. Except of course when steering with your knees whilst you open your bag of crisps.
GuyW

If you use ‘@‘ on some forums, it will alert the person that has been @ed to the post.
Dave O'Neill 2

Ah, thanks Dave, I think I get it. But on here then, I assume it has no use, as it doesn't trigger any notification. Is that right? So why do people use it on this type of bbs? I see it increasingly used, not just here, and can't see the point.

I think I'm going back to the quill. 😅😅.

https://youtu.be/iEmRR2ZUW2c?feature=shared









anamnesis

Good number Anam 🙂. Doesn't this @ thing come from twitter or is that #? Oh, it's X now innit? Never used it, never will. Same with the book of face. I do use WhatsApp but within restricted interest groups or family.
Bill B

It seems to me that it does have its merits as an alert, even if on the BBS it doesn't trigger an automatic notification. Most of our conversations ramble and are inclusive in much the same way as in an old fashioned style pub, conversations before about 7pm are very public and anyone can just chip in. At least in the more rural or remote parts of the kingdom. I dont know how this works down in that Luddun place.

Anyway our discussions meander in such a way as to sometimes leave behind unanswered questions. Using this symbol with the name would be a way of just linking back to a point that Annam, Willie or whoever else raised as an earlier question, possibly several intervening messages ago.
GuyW

@Whoever. I think it's a Twitter thing but I'm on a work group that uses something called 'Monday' for group collaboration and when you put an @ before someone's username the software sends them an e-mail to let them know there's something relevant to them.

It's one of those things that's started to be adopted beyond its original home into other places - like here now;)

@Alan Anstead
P Peters
The V4 Transit that I hustled through London traffic, with the doors held open, in the 70s, was blue.



The world has changed though, if you tell people you're coming in the back of a Tranny they look at you funny and don't think of attached Image1 but Image - oh best not :):)

@David Billington
Fiat/Lancias engines were a real joy in a Minor I put a Lancia engine with bike carbs in my Minor but it was stolen and never seen again. Its shortness back to front meant it just about fit where many other inline 4s wouldn't. Image2







P Peters

Ok I see the point if using it sends an alert on the likes of twatter or whatever.

But on our 'simple' bbs, and those like it, @ in front of a name is useless, and not needed. Frankly, I think it looks silly.

Just using someones name is enough to direct a comment at them. Sticking a symbol in front of their name doesn't enhance that.

Coming in the back of a tranny. 😅😅😅. Yeah, these days that can be misconstrued. Ooo er missus.

anamnesis

It may be a "simple bbs" but it doesn't suffer with Alzheimer's like FB does.

Rob
MG Moneypit

@whatever

I first came across this use of @ in the 80s at a US military HQ on something called Intelweb.

And here we are chatting about Spridgets and @s on its evolution. Ain't tech great?

@karl
Karl Thompson

@ak.

Would that work in a fight? 🤣🤣🤣


anamnesis

This thread was discussed between 17/06/2025 and 26/06/2025

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG Midget and Sprite Technical BBS is active now.