ISSUE 439 OCTOBER 2020 439 ISSUE

MASCOTTHE MAGAZINE OF THE MIDGET & SPRITE CLUB £3 TAKING THE FROGEYE CHALLENGE

www.midgetandspriteclub.co.uk

HIGHLY COMMENDED

THE NATIONAL OUR SECRETARY’S FAREWELL BY STUART WATSON CAR CLUB AWARDSIN ASSOCIATION WITH 2019

TREASURER’S REPORT BY DAVID KING 438491_PCRS04_Web_Banner_NCCA_210mmx210mm_2019_(print).indd 2 05/02/2019 14:02

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: ‘NECK UP OR DOWN’ BY DR JOHN • FUEL INJECTION BY MALCOLM LE CHEVALIER Specialist vehicle NO ADMIN FEES! insurance from people who share your passion.

rhspecialistinsurance.co.uk 0333 043 3911 From iconic models to future classics – we’ve been providing specialist vehicle insurance for over 40 years.

17812 08/20

RH is a trading style of A-Plan Holdings. A-Plan Holdings has granted a licence to ERS Syndicate Services Limited to use the brand name, RH, subject to the terms of the licence. The insurer on all RH policies is Syndicate 218 at Lloyd’s, which is managed by ERS Syndicate Management Limited. ERS Syndicate Services Limited is an Appointed Representative of ERS Syndicate Management Limited, which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority. A-Plan is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered Office: 2 Des Roches Square, Witney OX28 4LE. Registered in England. Registration Number 750484.

RH200820 - MG Midget and Sprite Club.indd 1 17/08/2020 12:48:16 echoed by friends too. I can highly recommend them. MIDGET & SPRITE CLUB You can find them at: www.danstengineering.co.uk ISSUE 439 If you have not heard, the Classic Car Show at NO ADMIN FEES! the NEC in November has been cancelled. This is disappointing but safety must come first. Let’s look Specialist vehicle forward to next year’s event instead. WELCOME In this issue you will see an article by stalwart club member, Stuart Watson. Stuart has been MASC’s insurance from TO THE OCTOBER membership secretary for many years and has been EDITION OF superb. This is a very busy role and Stuart has done a fantastic job. He has been supported of course by his people who share MASCOT lovely wife, Sybil. Club membership is booming with many new members joining each month which seems to go against the grain of a national lockdown. This your passion. NEIL THOMAS is a great achievement and Stuart has undoubtedly [email protected] enabled this growth through his commitment to the membership sec’s role. I am sure that others will Hello everyone, here we are in October and the nights thank you also Stuart, but from me, thank you very are drawing in and thoughts for many are heading much. It has been a great pleasure working with you. towards winter projects. I am no exception and Now I must thank Dr John Davies who is a fantastic after 10 years of running my K Series Midget with a contributor to MASC. John has taken upon himself to standard engine, I have decided its time to upgrade. undertake a significant piece of work for the club and Whilst my motivation is to support the saying “The that is to create a search database of all the technical older I get, the faster I was’, it is also motivated by articles that have been collated over the years by very dear friends who are suffering ill health and my another club stalwart, Alan Anstead. Further details realisation that that none of us are involved in a test of this facility will be announced soon, but in the run and so there’s a need to get on with things. This meantime, thank you very much John. is all very real. I have bought a VVC160 engine, which I will convert to solid Piper cams, a new E6 gearbox Following my appeal last month for material for from BGH with a longer first gear and a lovely pair of MASCOT , members responded and sent me lots of Jenvey Heritage Throttle bodies. Next season on the articles. Editing MASCOT is like a roller coaster and Hills and Sprints should be exciting. so I find myself this month having to miss some of the material out due to space considerations, however I And whilst I am will include in a future issue. Thank you for your great mentioning this I support. must pay tribute to the following I have also heard from Mike Bennett saying that companies, our very they have had a very good response to opening own advertiser, Hardy the booking and with 57 entries over a third of the rhspecialistinsurance.co.uk Engineering, who have places for the Saturday run are filled. As well as UK carried out some work entries, we have had 3 from Germany and 3 from The for me on my LSD. Netherlands. We have also arranged for regalia for 0333 043 3911 Also a company called the event to be available from an on-line shop through Danst Engineering. My our website. From iconic models to future classics – dealings with them has been first class. This is So that’s all from me this month. Take care and have we’ve been providing specialist vehicle a great October. Neil insurance for over 40 years. TAKING THE The statements and opinions expressed in each THE DEADLINE FOR FROGEYE and every issue of Mascot are not necessarily the ARTICLES AND REPORTS considered views of the Midget and Sprite Club. CHALLENGE. 17812 08/20 The views expressed by the editorial contributors, TO BE INCLUDED IN THE letter writers and advertisers are their own and do NOVEMBER EDITION OF RH is a trading style of A-Plan Holdings. A-Plan Holdings has granted a licence to ERS Syndicate Services Limited to use the brand not necessarily reflect the view of the Club. The MASCOT IS... Midget and Sprite Club accepts no responsibility name, RH, subject to the terms of the licence. The insurer on all RH policies is Syndicate 218 at Lloyd’s, which is managed by ERS for the results of following contributor’s advice, Syndicate Management Limited. ERS Syndicate Services Limited is an Appointed Representative of ERS Syndicate Management nor does it necessarily endorse the services or FRIDAY 9TH Limited, which is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority and products offered by advertisers. OF OCTOBER Financial Conduct Authority. A-Plan is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered Office: 2 Des Roches Square, Witney OX28 4LE. Registered in England. Registration Number 750484.

RH200820 - MG Midget and Sprite Club.indd 1 17/08/2020 12:48:16 AUGUST > SEPTEMBER 2020 We extend a warm welcome to the NEW MEMBERS following new and rejoined members

6143 Terry Kearney Essex Sprite 6144 Jim Parker Kent Sprite Mk 1 6145 Tim Dafforn Warwickshire Midget Mk 3 6147 Thomas Klein Germany Midget Mk 3 6148 Matthew Bolton & Fay Stevenson East Sussex Midget None 6149 Richard J White Germany Sprite Mk 2 6150 Michael Gambie Gloucestershire none None 6151 Ian & Claire Preece Powys Midget 1500 6152 Michelle Adams Vale Of Glamorgan Sprite None 6154 Robert Howes-Ward Norfolk Midget Mk 3 6155 Mr P J Taylor North Yorkshire Midget Mk 3 FL 6156 Peter Osborne Bedfordshire Sprite Mk 3 6157 John Paternoster Kent Midget Mk 4 6158 Barry Fleetwood Somerset Midget Mk 2 6159 Dave Price Devon Midget Mk 3 6160 Martyn Hale Warwickshire Austin Sprite 6161 Dean Burne Lincolnshire Midget Mk 3 6162 Richard Jenner Highland Midget 1500 6163 Nathan & Sarah Clements Bridgend Midget 1500 6164 Colin Fish Essex Midget Mk 4 6165 Adrian East Somerset Midget 1500 6166 Gavin & Dawn Manion West Midlands Midget Mk 3 6168 Elliot Caldwell England Sprite IOW Frogeye 6169 Greg Bradshaw Cheshire Midget Mk 4 6170 Edward Collier Cheshire Sprite Mk 2 6171 Steve Woodhurst Essex Midget Mk 2 6173 John Collinson Devon Midget Mk 3 6174 Roy Spencer Lancashire Midget 1500 6175 Kevin Berry Derbyshire Sprite Mk 1 6176 David Crockett Tyne and Wear Sprite Mk 3 6177 Graeme Browse & Kevin Pharoah Kent Midget Mk 3 6178 Brian Manners Hampshire Sprite Mk 1 6179 Danny Cusworth Cheshire Midget Mk 4 6180 Mike Haughton Cheshire Midget Mk 3 6181 Ian Wilson Norfolk Sprite Mk 1

2 6182 David Nutland Dorset none None 6183 Dean Maratty England Midget 1500 6184 Richard Rolfe Suffolk Arkley SS (Midget Mk 2) 6185 Graham & Roslyn Bridgewood Lancashire none None 6186 Sue Lovell Kent Sprite Mk 1 6187 Philip Nuttall Derbyshire Midget Mk 3

Hi Neil, Hi Neil, I’m Dean Burne and am based in I have just joined the club, membership no. 6165. Horncastle, Lincolnshire. Here’s my car. I have an Mg Midget 1275 MK3 from 1971. Adrian East She has been stored for the last 5 years but I’m aiming to get her back on the road for next summer! I have set an Instagram page up for those who might want to follow or make contact. @ madgethemg Dean Burne

Dear Neil, Hello Neil, XHR 2 T came-up locally and a deal was rapidly struck after a test drive. The previous owner’s Our car is a 1964 Mark 2 Midget, HMY6B, owned main interest was bodywork and he’s done a great by me since 1975, when I bought it from a friend for job on a new sill, new passenger floor, and inner £50. To be strictly correct I gave him my rusty Ford wing and he replaced both front wings with used Escort van which had cost me £50 in exchange for heritage items. I’m aiming for ‘oily rag’ rather than the Midget! The car has never been fully restored, concourse perfection and plan to keep the car just well maintained and improved over the years more or less in her current state. We live north of as work was required. It has done some long trips Inverness notably four excursions to France to take part in the Fougeres Rally, Richard & Helen Jenner 6162 I have attached a photo of HMY6B taking part in the Fougeres Rally in Brittany. Kind regards, Steve Woodhurst 5908

3 NEW MEMBERS CONTINUED... Hi Neil, I quickly had it inspected by our trusted garage Last year I became a member of services; and luckily for me the only fault was a MASC, although at the time I didn’t actually have leaking rear wheel cylinder. She’s a real head turner a Spriget! However membership was invaluable and evokes many pleasant comments. I am very to me as I learnt a lot from reading the club happy with the sympathetic restoration; which magazine MASCOT and receiving invaluable advice was done back in the 1990s and is still looking from members, especially Terry Horler and Ian amazing. I decided to call her Marilyn and we had a Cooke. Gordon Elwell from classicrevival.co.uk was little naming ceremony with (a very little) splash of also helpful. champagne on the bonnet to mark the occasion! Starting my search about two years ago near my George Hooks home in Kilkenny, Ireland proved to be fruitless as there are very few of this particular model here. Hi, I’m Stuart Smith and have recently joined MASC. It was then onto England, but three trips later Here’s my car. and still no joy. Finally last January on a horrible winter’s day I viewed a fine example in Denmark. Stuart The weather was so bad that day, it was not wise to have a test drive, nor was there time to arrange an inspection as we were leaving shortly afterwards for a long sojourn in Spain. Nevertheless, I had a good gut feeling about it so I left a deposit.

I’m a returning member (I initially joined as a 17 year old some time ago). I’ve had my car since 1988 and have been making regular performance improvements since. It now has a 1600 K series engine. I’ve driven it to LeMans Classic, sprinted, hillclimbed it and raced it since the mid 1990s The car is pictured at a very wet Silverstone a few years ago. Danny Cusworth

Five frustrating Covid months later on 15 June I eventually received my pride n joy from DK Classics who had agreed to deliver it to my front door. It is a ‘59 version in OEW with the original 948cc engine. According to the heritage cert It was manufactured on 10 December and immediately exported to California. As well as coming with a good history file, it included 2 flying jackets and silk scarves!

4 To submit your photo by email to [email protected] (jpeg, max file size 5MB)

5 MASC MEMBERSHIP MATTERS

I thought that I ought to do one more report the most popular way of renewing and joining, on Membership before I bow out of the role of this has been overtaken by Direct Debit payments Membership Secretary at this year’s AGM. I’ve been which now account for 50% of all payments. This meaning to send a report to Neil for ages but you is by far the easiest way for both the club and for know what it’s like – full of good intentions and all members and the processing costs are much lower that. Anyway I see that my last report was in 2015 which enabled the club to reduce subs for members so this one is well overdue. paying by Direct Debit. It’s not many organisations Surprisingly MASC that can boast that over a ten year period the Membership cost of annual membership for most has actually numbers have reduced while hopefully the service provided has at flourished during least stayed the same if not improved . For instance the lockdown with MASCOT is now in full colour and some of us 158 members having joined since the beginning of remember when it was just 11 issues a year without the year. I can imagine that all those stalled projects even a January issue. lurking in the back of the garage have suddenly Notwithstanding all these changes membership filled owners increased free time and made them has continues to flourish and has climbed steadily think about joining a car club and thankfully it was from 750 back in 2011 to its current 1250 and the MASC. Membership has now grown to a record retention of existing members is currently well 1250 members – over 1600 if we include partners - above 85%. and we ought to as they are equally as important. One benefit of being Membership Secretary It was at a Heart of for the last nine years is the continuing contact England meeting with members of the club and I’d like to thank back in 2011 ( the members for the correspondence help and or maybe it was kindnesses that I have received during that period Warwickshire in and long may those friendships continue. One those days) that I mentioned to John Platt that I benefit of computerising the system was that I might be interested in taking over from John as he could still operate the system when I was away was looking for a successor and John made sure from home but thanks go to my brother Pat, who that I kept to my word. That was nine years ago and is also a fellow MASC member, for printing and since then a lot of paper has passed through the posting membership cards and letters when I was printer and almost 13,000 letters dropped into the out of the country. Royal Mail post box. I had been warned by John’s wife Anne that the job would take over all my spare Proportion of Available Sprites and time so ( as that annoying Meerkat advert goes) I decided to automate as much as possible. John had Midgets within MASC done an admirable job in transferring the manual Although membership of the club has increased records to an Excel spreadsheet from the carrier it is interesting to note how relatively few existing bags of paper documents that he had inherited and Sprite and Midget cars actually belong to the club. I was keen to build on that. I was determined to try On the website howmanyleft.co.uk Olly Robbins has and encourage the increased use of email instead of compiled the number of cars Taxed or ‘Sorned’ for letters and minimise the effort in the registration of many makes including Spridgets from data on the renewals and new members as much as possible. DVLA website. The accompanying tables and charts show the figures for Taxed, Sorned and MASC Many members Member cars broken down by model. These figures were happy to for Taxed and Sorned are not totally accurate switch to email between models as assumptions have been made while some took regarding model as the model number itself is a little longer and held by DVLA and so the year of Registration has of course some don’t have a computer at all. Still been used. Similarly the accuracy of the Mk3 and payment by cheque has fallen to less than 10% Mk4 Facelifted (FL) versions are not guaranteed in and while payment online through the website was

6 the MASC figures as I am sure that many members do not record the FL suffix when registering their Spridget. However it is interesting to note that of the 13,100 MG Midgets which are Taxed or Sorned only 535 or 4% are actually owned by members within MASC this being as low as 2% when looking at MG 1500’s. Sprites fare much better with 33% of available Sprites being within the club and 43% of Mk 1’s belong to MASC members. Mk4 Sprites and Mk3 Midgets are also well represented within MASC. These widely differing overall percentages between Sprites and Midgets could be in part explained by the fact that Midget members are amazingly attracted to join alternative clubs whereas MASC seems to be to be the ‘goto’ club for Sprites. Since I last looked at these figures in 2014 the percentage of Midgets in the club has risen for 3% to 4% and the percentage of Sprites has risen substantially from 26% to 33% so we must be doing something right to attract an increasing number of Spridget owners. However these figures seem to suggest that there is plenty of scope to increase the MASC membership particularly within the Midget fraternity and perhaps Midget 60 presents the ideal opportunity. From October MASC Membership secretary will be in the capable hands of Mike Bennett and I wish Mike all the best in the post and I’m sure he will enjoy it as much as I have – well most of the time. Stuart Watson Retiring MASC Membership Secretary

7 TREASURER’S SUMMARY REPORT Treasurer’s summary report for the at classic car runs throughout the country and internationally, with a good turn-out in different year 2019/2020 areas for Drive-It day in April. The recently formed The Directors and Committee have approved Young Members group enjoyed two runs as a the Directors’ report and Club’s accounts for group, the second ending at Bicester Heritage the year April 2019 to March 2020 and they will for their Scramble event, both organised by Liam be presented at the AGM where I will report in Murphy, the Young Members representative on the more detail. I’m happy to send out full copies to committee. The Area Representatives put a lot of any member interested; please email me at djs. effort into organising participation in such events, [email protected]. Highlights for the year follow: as well as the regular club area meetings month by month, and the Directors continue to be very Directors’ Report: grateful to them for their commitment to the smooth running of the club and the number of members After the excitement of Spridget 60 in 2018, the who are active as a result of their efforts. The main year was a quiet one. There were no national voice of the club remains its award-winning monthly club events held, but the club continued to be magazine, MASCOT, which contains a wide range represented at many shows countrywide, from of articles covering technical and other topics and small, local events to much larger regional or including reports of area activities. This is ably national shows. At some of these the club had edited by Neil Thomas, and thanks are due to him its own stand including the Lancaster Insurance for the time and energy he puts into it. Classic Motor Show and Practical Classics Restoration Show, both held at the National Gary Lazarus retired from the committee and Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham, and at as a director during the year. Gary had been a Silverstone Classic. Alan Pritchett continues to committee member for over 20 years, a founding organise the NEC shows and Mark Hall the entry to director when the club became a limited company, Silverstone Classic and the Directors are grateful and previous editor of Mascot. His contribution to to them for their commitment to these. At other the running of the club cannot be overstated and shows we were represented by areas or individual the committee welcomes his continuing interest and members exhibiting. There was also representation support.

Accounts:

8 Notes: 1. The asset value of £1 relates to the old marquee. 2. Creditors consist of members’ subscriptions and advertising revenue received in advance. 3. Regalia sales and costs high in 2018/19 because of Spridget 60 regalia. 4. Spridget 60 income and expenses relate to 2018/19 only. 5. No committee members or directors receive remuneration or travel expenses. 6. Company expenses include room hire for AGM and cost of annual return to Companies House. 7. No new equipment required by areas during the year. David King Treasurer - August 2020

9 10 11 DON WESTCOTT TAKING THE FROGEYE CHALLENGE

Part 1 I was there the next day. It appeared more or less complete, although tucked into a corner of a garage And what a challenge it turned to be it was difficult to see everything. Having had a look around for all of the obvious rust traps – big holes in !!! the floor were easily spotted – we agreed a price. Having completed a full body-off restoration of a Next problem was getting it home as it obviously Jaguar XK140 back in 2004, which subsequently wasn’t driveable – understatement of the year won the Practical Classics magazine Readers’ !! Fortunately, I knew someone with access to a Restoration of the Year four years later, I had started breakdown truck who kindly agreed to take me to getting withdrawal symptoms for another project. collect it. So, two days later, it was “signed, sealed My initial choice was between a Morris Minor and delivered” into my garage. Traveller or a Mk1 Frog-Eye Sprite, with a Now the fun really began. With the car in my preference for the Frog-Eye. It should be simple to garage, it was possible to carry out a much more work on, mechanically it is very similar to an A30 or detailed check than previously. I know, first rule A35, on which I cut my motoring teeth back in the of buying a car is carry out a detailed inspection 50s and 60s, and it’s small enough to fit into the before handing over the cash !! space available in my garage alongside the XK. A few little things gradually became obvious, such However, around the time that I started looking, as it had some front end damage to the bonnet and prices started going skywards and, after four years, someone had swapped the original engine for a I had virtually given up finding one at a price that 1098cc lump from a Morris Minor. I was prepared to pay. Suddenly, out of the blue early in 2013, I received an e-mail from a friend The plus side was that the car was basically telling me that a friend of a friend had one for sale. complete and the seller had included various extras It had been sitting in his garage for around twenty in the price, such as three tonneau covers, - two of years and he wanted to clear the space and was which I had combined to make one good one and open to offers – and it was only 30 miles or so from the other, which fits a Mk2/3 Midget, is available for where I live. sale. There was also a nearly new hood, a genuine

12 BMC workshop manual and various additional Removing the seats was a case in point where mechanical bits and pieces in a large plastic sack. judicial use of the angle grinder on the retaining nuts and bolts made this a relatively easy job. It My first step was to join the Midget and Sprite Club. also created space to work in the body of the car, A wise decision. I didn’t realise how useful they allowed removal of the carpet and trim and gave would be to me. Although the car had an old buff access to the rear compartment as well as under log book, the previous owner hadn’t bothered to the dashboard and into the footwells. keep the registration up to date so the DVLA had no record of the car. Several phone calls, e-mails, various forms and a few photographs later, plus Crawling into the restricted “boot” area was fun invaluable help from the M&S club, I received a V5C and made me appreciate the benefits of my regular confirming my car’s existence and, importantly, trips to the gym to keep supple. It was at this point retaining its original registration number. that I discovered the reason for so little rust at the From my past experience with the XK, I know back end – someone had replaced it with a fibre how important it is to keep copious notes so that glass moulding ! everything is recorded and photographed as you Dismantling started with the bonnet. The loom and go. Fortunately, the bonnet had already been lights were very accessible - as it was standing on unbolted, so, with the help of a neighbour, I lifted end. However, this presented yet another anomaly, it off and stood it on end for easy access ready why was the horn unit attached to the bonnet for dismantling the lighting, wiring and locking structure and not the chassis ? Next job was to mechanism. I then put the car up on jacks so remove the locking mechanism. A different story that, starting from the rear end, I could steadily but, again, perserverance – plus lots of Plus Gas – work forward removing the various bolt-on items resulted in its eventual removal. such as seats, bumper over-riders, lights, wiring, dashboard, etc. Rusty nuts and bolts were, of course, the big problem. When I had stripped the XK, the shell was less than twenty years old, whereas the Frog- Eye is more than twice that. This problem was compounded by the fact that most fixings on the Frog-Eye were attached into captive nuts so you couldn’t get a spanner on both ends. An additional problem was that the rust had often eaten away the head of the bolt so that a standard socket no longer fitted it securely. Lots of Plus Gas, various mole wrenches and occasionally resorting to an angle grinder, followed by drilling and tapping a new thread, slowly achieved the objective.

13 My attention then went to the car body. The rear will have realised by now, I have very little previous lights and wiring came away quite easily, although experience of Frog-Eye problems so am on a fairly the number of extra wires, not shown on the wiring intensive learning curve !! diagram, was puzzling. However, on second Once these cables had been removed, the thoughts, it may have to do with earthing the loom dashboard could be moved so that the electrical due to the glass fibre shell at the back. Bumper wiring, running along the forward bulkhead, could brackets, complete with overriders, were the be detached from the instruments, each wire being next objective. I found that the bolts holding the carefully labelled for future guidance. brackets to the car were more accessible that those holding the overriders to the brackets, which were While working in the driver/passenger area of removed in a vice afterwards. the car, I then took the opportunity to remove the Trim panels were next. Those on the off-side of the aluminium trim and tonneau clips that run around car gave access to the loom that runs over the rear the edge of the body and doors. wheel arch and along the sill before rising up to the My attention next went to the foot controls. The behind the dashboard. Removing the trim panels clutch and brake pedals were easily detached from revealed another anomaly – everything had been the end of the master cylinder, followed by the painted black over the original green vinyl, including accelerator cable and linkage – or what there was the seats and dashboard. of it. Judging from the parts catalogue, the end Before dismantling the dashboard, the steering of the linkage and accelerator pedal are missing. wheel needed to be removed, which presented Another puzzle to be solved in due course. another problem as it wasn’t an original wheel. Next step was the hydraulics – a relatively simple Once again, trial and error eventually resulted in process of following the respective pipe runs from the plastic horn push coming away to revealed the master cylinder to each junction and on to the the retaining nut – but no horn wires !! Another appropriate brake cylinder. Not surprisingly, there problem to be resolved when I start putting the car was very little brake fluid in the system. Removing back together again. the clutch pipe was a similar operation – albeit over Removing the dashboard itself was fairly straight a much shorter run. forward, once I’d consulted the manual to find the The natural progression, having removed the rear location of the mounting bolts. First job was to brake pipes, was to dismantle the hand brake disconnect the oil pressure and water temperature system. The mechanical links on the rear axle gauge pipes from the engine, so that they could came apart easily as they were covered in thick be pulled through the bulkhead, followed by the black grease but the cable run to the hand brake various cables for the speedo, windscreen washer itself was a different matter, due to the restricted and heater, but the cable for the rev counter was access where it goes into the prop shaft tunnel. missing. Answer, remove the prop shaft first – not forgetting Yet another puzzle, until I realised that the 1098cc to mark the position of the universal joint with the engine had a different dynamo, without the rear end rear axle pinion. It was at this point I realised that gear box attachment, so I now have to decide on the an even simpler answer was to unbolt the hand best course of action to correct this. Should I fit a brake from the tunnel by the passenger seat and dynamo from a 948cc engine or is it easier – and pull the linkage through into the car. Two of the cheaper - to fit an electric rev counter ? As readers three bolts holding the backing plate came away but

14 the third, and most inaccessible, had to be drilled Not wanting to waste people’s time, I short listed out. two local companies and discussed with them the work involved and what I wanted to achieve. That left the fuel system. The supply from the I then made arrangements for them to view the electric pump was a flexible hose which was shell with a view to giving me an estimate to carry connected to the fuel pipe that was clipped under out the repairs. Rather surprisingly, one of them the car to the tank at the rear. Yes, an electric subsequently cancelled the visit with a promise pump, mounted on the nearside front wheel arch, to ring back. I never heard from them again – the as the take off point for a mechanical pump had repair business must be good in Wiltshire !! been blanked off. Again, I must check whether this However, Tony Nott of Calne Auto Repair Services procedure is because it now has a 1098cc engine – who had previously carried out some tidying up or whether someone had had problems with the on my XK140 – did turn up, inspected the shell and mechanical pump in the past. gave me what I thought was a fair price to carry At various stages during the dismantling, I stopped out the work. I had emphasised the fact that this to refurbish the bits and pieces that had been was a budget restoration, with the end result to be removed. Generally, this consisted of scraping a presentable enjoyable car but not necessarily a concours winner. off the rust and grease, degreasing using copious amounts of Gunk, painting the parts with Bilts To be continued... Hamber rust converter and then finishing with a coat of Hammerite paint. The visual improvement was unbelievable and most satisfying, which encouraged me to carry on to the next stage. Next stage was the body shell – a sub contract job as far as I’m concerned as I can’t weld or panel beat. Talking to various people at car shows I gradually complied a list of bodyshops that were recommended for this type of work. My initial inspection of the shell revealed the obvious failings of the floor – huge hole on both sides of the footwell, the offside front wheel arch, nearside outer door sill and a series of suspicious looking areas around both rear wheel arches. In addition, I assumed that there would be several other areas of rust that were hidden for the moment – I just didn’t realise how many !!!

15 MALC LE CHEVALIER 1500 DIY FUEL INJECTION CONVERSION If you have met me or seen my car, you will already injection 101 to try and demystify things a little. In know it is not destined for any concours parade. It a basic system, we need seven things: is my car, built by me, for me. It has always been 1. A fuel rail and injectors: The fuel rail acts as a my means of escape from my desk job and I enjoy pressurised “float bowl”, providing a reserve of fuel the spanner-ing as much as the driving. Hence behind the injectors. Injectors, to me, is a bit of why I am always taking things apart, modifying and a misnomer as it makes them sound like syringes (hopefully!) improving things. that “push” the fuel into the engine. Actually, the For many years my car was fuelled by means of injectors are simply electrically controlled valves a Weber DCOE carburettor. It had that glorious, that switch on and off and high speed. When they distinctive noise and was great for general and are energised, they open and the pressurised fuel open, fast road driving. But after years of messing in the fuel rail flows flows through the injector with and enjoying the DCOE there were two quirks into the manifold. The ECU (see below) is able to that became a little wearisome. Firstly, the lack control how long the injectors remain open down to of a proper choke and it’s general lumpiness when a resolution of 0.1ms (0.0001 seconds) allowing for cold put me off using the car in the colder months. very precise control of the volume of fuel flowing Secondly, a slight hesitation in the transient during the cycle. response that was only really an issue when really 2. A means of sensing engine load/demand: Either pushing on out of tight and twisties at sprint and a manifold air pressure (MAP) sensor or a throttle hillclimb courses. position sensor. Fairly self-explanatory, these The above, plus the aforementioned compulsion measure the pressure (vacuum) inside the manifold to build, tinker and learn new things (I am a and the angle of the throttle respectively. mechanical design engineer, it’s just what I do!) 3. A means of sensing the engine speed (rpm): and a desire to have something unique, lead me On my setup this is done by sensing the trigger to devising and building a fully programmable pulse from the distributor/coil, via some signal electronic fuel injection system for my 1500. conditioning circuitry. Fuel Injection Systems 101 4. A high pressure fuel system: Carbs only require a few psi pressure, whereas an injection system I imagine there are those who think an electronic requires a much higher pressure (typically 43.5 psi, fuel injection (EFI) system is totally alien, possibly 3 bar) to push the fuel through the injectors and in even sacrilegious! So the following is a fuel

Laying out the main parts of the system circa. Out with the old - DCOE carb’ removed. December 2019.

16 the process atomise the fuel. So a new pump, a much fuel it needs and continues to adjust itself pressure regulator, a low pressure return to the tank for maximum performance for any given speed and and all the associated plumbing is needed. load. 5. An electronic control unit (ECU). The ECU is simply a small, specially designed, computer and Where to Start? what makes the system EFI rather than just FI! For The build sort of started in the summer of 2019, example, the TR6 PI (petrol injection) system, was as I started sketching out detailed plans and without the E, as it was controlled by mechanical accumulating parts. Parts were mostly found means, not by a computer. through eBay, sorting price low to high and looking for bits from cars that were of similar power output 6. A manifold to hang everything off. (at last check, I had 101hp at the crank, but I have 7. Some wires to link all the electrical bits together. built in head room to go up to 120). The throttle With this we could run the engine if we already had was from a rover K-series engine, the injectors a well defined fuel map. A map is the term used from a Land Rover V8, the temperature sensors are for the settings and equations contained within Ford, it is fuelled by a Bosch-a-like fuel pump, and a the ECU - relating the load, engine speed and fuel controlled by a Speeduino ECU. requirements together. As the plumbing, wiring and manifold were all going However, we add a few more sensors to expand the to have to be custom made, and the software/ECU range of control we have and allow easier tuning: can be calibrated to work with whatever it is given, the mis-match of parts wasn’t ever an issue. 1. A manifold air temperature (MAT) sensor, for measuring the temperature and thus density of the air entering the engine. 2. A coolant temperature sensor, to allow the ECU to calculate and control the warmup enrichment requirements, effectively replacing the choke. 3. A wideband lambda sensor (also known as an O2 sensor). Which “sniffs” the composition of the exhaust gases and is thus able to tell how rich or lean the engine is running. This is where the system comes into it’s own, using all these sensors and the clever computer software the whole system is able to self learn how

The ECU, small enough to fit in your hand. I had soldered all the components. New fuses, relays and electrical spaghetti.

17 The working system circa July 2020. Needs some New decals and vents ensure my car isn’t confused tidy ups, but I am too busy driving it now! for a smokey old carburettor car! Breaking Ground front of the computer allowed me to test the basic functions. Amazingly, it all worked first time! Probably the most pivotal part of the project was the manifold, as it is what everything else attaches The ECU connects to a laptop via a USB cable in to and the interface between the new system and order to tune and alter settings. Settings can be the old engine. I was able to draw up the flange changed whilst the engine is running, which makes in a CAD (computer aided design) package and it extremely flexible and easy to tune and once have it laser cut from stainless steel. The rest of things are right, the settings can be permanently written to the ECU and the laptop left at home. the manifold was fabricated from various sizes of stainless steel tubing. The fabrication was a bit To tie all the electrical gubbins together I had to rough and ready (I am not really a fabricator!) and make a loom. I found this very enjoyable to make done using nothing but a grinder and Dremel for and it took a few evenings work. Not difficult cutting and shaping and gummed together with my with the right tools but you can’t rush it. A lot of 90-amp hobby MIG welder! It was labour intensive people are scared by electrical/electronic systems. and is a bit shoddy looking, but it is functional Which is understandable, as you can’t see it and kept me entertained during a brief spell of working. But I look at it differently. I find them unemployment! strangely therapeutic to construct, work with and trouble shoot. You have to be very methodical with Once the manifold was near complete, the strip electrical circuits. You can’t bodge them - they down of the car began, so I could begin test don’t work like that, and problems have to be fitting things. It was a bit of an iterative process, solved with “intelligence” because the problem isn’t positioning things, finding clashes and re- usually immediately visible. configuring until a reasonable and tidy compromise Power for the new systems is controlled through a was found. pair of fused relays and a new six way blade fuse box. I think I have to be careful driving at night for The Brains Behind the Outfit the time being, because I have calculated that with The REALLY clever stuff is contained in the ECU and all the additional electrical loads I am near the limit associated software/programming. Fortunately, the of the original alternators power output. Having clever boffins in the world have done all the hard lights on might tip me over the edge! work already and wrapped up all the electronics and software stuff into nice easy to use packages. The Birth, Teething Problems and Talking of packages, the ECU itself was a fun Refinements! mini-project. To keep costs down I bought the With everything welded, soldered, plumbed, wired self assembly version of the Speeduino ECU. This and bolted together, the first start was rather comes as a box containing about 100 zip look bags uneventful! Turn the key and it worked, albeit a of various components and a circuit board. It took a little rough! After the adrenalin had subsided I was couple of evenings to solder all the tiny components able to dial in a reasonable idle and have a few runs to the PCB (without any real instructions as to up and down the road. Even without much tuning what went where!). Another couple of evenings in the engine was super smooth, lively and tractable.

18 After that, so the theory goes, you plug in a to cope with filtering about four tanks (135L) of laptop and hit the “Autotune” button and the fuel an hour and a whole load of muck was now software optimises the fuelling required based on being washed out of the tank and being caught by assumptions that are generally the same for all the filter. In hindsight it stood no chance. A new, engines and live data from all the sensors. much bigger and purpose designed filter solved But practice and theory don’t always align! this and concluded weeks of frustration and head scratching. The car hasn’t missed a beat since. The first few longer test runs were not entirely successful. Each time I went out, the car started Finally, I somehow knackered the starter motor to run increasingly rough after about 20 minutes. beyond redemption whilst trying to set up the The first time I manage to get back and parked up starting sequence and idle mixture. It was only 50- in the garage before it died, the second time, it died odd years old, pah! Rubbish quality Lucas parts! whilst I was opening the garage and I had to push it in. The third time (I should have learnt by this Driving point), it coughed and died about 50 metres from home. There were a lot of twitching curtains as I Aside from learning something new, the intention embarrassingly pushed it the remaining distance of the conversion was to improve the transient and into the garage! response, idle and all round driveability of the car, all things that despite years of messing I never got I jumped to the conclusion that it was the fuel perfect with the previous DCOE set up. getting too hot in the rail due to the proximity of the rail to the exhaust manifold and the fuel rail being Once the above issues were sorted, the Autotune made of an excellent heat sink material (copper). feature in the software worked brilliantly and the Therefore, I set about heat wrapping the exhaust engine got better, smoother and more powerful the and fuel rail. In the process of doing so, I noticed more and more I drove it as it constantly refined the a coolant leak near the heater box, so perhaps this fuelling requirements on the fly. Whilst the tuning was causing the engine to overheat? Either way, process is ongoing, it is already a step up from with the leak fixed and the exhaust wrap in place the carburetted setup. Cold starts and running the problem hasn’t recurred and the wrap has are much improved and general driving is super noticeably helped under bonnet temperatures. An smooth. The acceleration enrichment curves still hours full chat blat, without issue, when it was 30+ needs some work to really perfect the transient degrees, was the proof of that. responses. But doing so is a little more difficult as The second major problem manifested itself as I need someone to drive the laptop whilst I drive the the car being unwilling to accept high loads and/or car! high revs without going way lean and popping and banging like the royal artillery regiment! The data I would like to get it on a rolling road at some point logging capability within the software showed that to see how it compares to the old system. I don’t the ECU was continually sensing this lean condition expect to see much change in the headline figures, and opening the injectors for longer and longer to but it will be interesting to do the comparison. try to add more fuel until the injectors were maxed From there I plan for a few more engine out (always open). enhancements to try to bump power up to 110+ After some over analysis of the data logs I jumped hp, including adding a fully mapped ignition and a to the conclusion (seeing a theme here?) that I lumpier camshaft. With precise electronic control needed bigger injectors. Injectors were purchased of the fuelling and ignition timing I hope that even and installed and still the same problem! Eh?! with a big, lumpy cam, I won’t lose out too much in Well, long story short – check the basics first. I terms of low speed driveability. tested the fuel pump flow rate and it was barely Or maybe I could just whack a turbo on it! :-) dribbling out of the end of the hose. Certainly not flowing at the pump rated 135 L/hour! The tiny fuel If you would like more details on the project, I did filter I had carried over from the carburettor system a short series of youtube videos on the technical was totally clogged and the pump was struggling details of the setup, search for “Midget 1500 Fuel to keep up with demand. With an injection system, Injection”. Or, drop me a message via Facebook or the pump runs constantly at full speed and anything [email protected]. in excessive of three bar pressure and the required Cheers, happy Spridgeting! flow is recirculated back to the tank via a pressure regulator. This means that the old filter was trying Malc Le Chevalier

19 BY JOHN E DAVIES GEAR LEVER GROMMET: All Sprites and Midgets built before the arrival of the “face lifted” cars (HAN10 and GAN5 respectively) were given a flexible circular rubber grommet (part number ACA_5208) to seal their gear lever and gear NECK UP OR DOWN lever turret. No-one disputes this fact. What is Photographic evidence can help us - but which very often hotly disputed is how this grommet was photographs precisely? In the Northern Hemisphere installed at the factory: was it “neck-up” or “neck- (Abingdon in particular), the trouble is that very down”? And why on earth is the strong opinion on early pre-release and press photographs of Mk1 this matter so polarised between the Northern and Sprites show gear lever grommets randomly Southern hemispheres? In my experience, there is distributed, sometimes “neck-up”, sometimes no more emotive subject associated with our cars: “neck-down”. So, if one chooses carefully and very no other topic is able to generate so much animated selectively from this vast collection of early material discussion and produce so many raised hackles. (the launch of the Mk1 Sprite was explosive in the In what follows, I hope to restore calm, logic, law extreme), it is very easy indeed to make a very and order to this matter and I begin by reminding strong case for either a ‘neck-up’ or a ‘neck- everybody that everything is upside down in the down’ gear lever grommet. For example, those Southern Hemisphere. Unless you are a member who believe it should be ‘neck-up’ often point to of the Flat Earth Society, you will know already that the terrific BMC movie1 of Roy Salvadori driving Australia is ‘down under’; its water goes the wrong PBL_75 “neck-up” at Silverstone in the wet with way down plugholes; its sun travels scarily from commentary by John Bolster (“You’ll never tire of right to left, pointing north at midday; its stars at driving a Sprite”). Others, studiously ignoring Roy, night twirl the wrong way; the man in the moon is instead point to photographs of brand new ‘neck- upside down; runner beans grow in a clockwise down’ Mk1 Sprites taken about the same time Roy’s direction. The Australian gear lever grommets movie was shot in 1958 by British Pathé. are upside down too, but I am leaping ahead of my story: we must first look at some facts. While we take this look, the misguided members of that strange Flat Society should instead fly from Heathrow to Melbourne, watch the moon flip 180º in 24 hours (one of life’s great experiences), then try to explain that flip with their flat theory.

1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHre536AHrk

20 Two early photographs of brand new Mk1 Sprites (note the utterly pristine mats): one “neck-up” (top, provenance unknown); the other “neck-down” (Photo C081280, courtesy BMHIT archive). In the Northern Hemisphere, order emerges from this blushing mess of gear lever grommet confusion if one ignores completely the early photographs and examines later ones taken after the Abingdon production line had settled down, after it had solved the worst of its prodigious initial teething troubles (the most serious requiring extra gussets to strengthen the body shell and cars travelling backwards up the production line). With very few exceptions, later photographs show the gear lever grommet ‘neck-down’, in complete agreement with the orientation illustrated in all variants of the original production factory Parts Lists and Owner’s Handbook.

certainly to be found at ground level, within the Pressed Metal Corporation factory at Enfield (New South Wales) where, to avoid excessive import taxes, the CKD2 kits for Mk1 Sprites were assembled for the Australian market. Precisely why this factory decided to go ‘neck-up’ with its grommets is a mystery, the whole affair is shrouded in doubt. We do know that at least one of the first Mk1 Sprites to reach Australia (a very early car, an import, not a CKD kit) had a ‘neck-up’ grommet so perhaps this influenced matters, we don’t know. Alternatively, perhaps the captains of the Enfield Perfect in every detail: a brand new Mk2 Sprite at factory simply thought the grommet looked better Abingdon, with gear lever grommet ‘neck-down’. ‘neck-up’, even though the rubber surface looks For the later Northern Hemisphere cars (beginning rougher and the rubber tends to tear more that with the Mk2 Sprites and Mk1 Midgets) the way. We don’t know that either. What we do know evidence is quite simply overwhelming: the is that it would be an extremely brave concours Abingdon factory installed the gear lever grommet judge who deducted points for an ‘upside down’ with its neck down as surely as the Healeys in gear lever grommet in one of our cars, no matter Warwick watched the sun rise on the left while their the hemisphere and no matter which way the thing runner beans grew anticlockwise. is pointing. Of course, in the final analysis, it is To right - a pre-production version of the Mk1 the owner’s own choice: the grommet does work Sprite’s Owner’s Handbook (top, note the strange both ways and many people do prefer the ‘neck-up’ steering wheel) shows the gear lever grommet look. Summing up, no owner can do very wrong ‘neck up’. All production versions (bottom) show the if they go ‘neck-down’ when they are ‘up’ in the same grommet ‘neck-down’ Northern hemisphere, and ‘neck-up’ when they are downunder. Why then do all Australian Sprites and Midgets wear their gear lever grommets ‘neck-up’? Well, John E. Davies (Member 3443) rather than looking up into the inverted bowl of the Southern Sky for help, the answer is almost 2 Completely Knocked Down

21 FROM THE BOWELS OF BRISTOL

At long last, the Bowels of Bristol members have on so we just stayed in its wake of destruction until popped their heads out of their isolation bunkers it finally found a field of something more tasty to to see what remains of the World above. The sky chomp its way through. is still blue, the trees are still green, the rain is still By now, John and Jane in the white Frogeye were in wet, do we venture a little further? trouble with a low fuel situation. To find out, it was decided that a mission in safely Was petrol still available? Happily, it was. We waited spaced numbers would be conducted on the 23rd of as what was probably the last few drops of this August. Mike Davis would be mission leader, taking magic fluid available anywhere in Gloucestershire a detachment of up to 11 others to explore and were transferred to the Frogeye’s tank. Our lunch report back to Masc HQ. stop at the Seven Springs near Birdlip was quickly Under code name ‘Drive it Day Delayed’, 11 cars, approaching, 11 cars making it into the car park. including decoy cars of a Mazda MX5, Caterham Despite our leader seeking advance permission 7 and an AC Cobra replica (Hawk) assembled at for all of us to park up, a masked man emerged Roman Camp on the A46. Jeff Allen waved us off from the pub to say that unless we had all booked and returned to base to inform friends and loved a dinner there, we had to leave. Evidently, their car ones should the mission fail. park would soon be filled by pre-booked diners. Good progress was made to Nailsworth. No Hence, our group was split as some of us sought scorched fields, Martian landing craft or six legged the nearest lay by to take refuge in. Second loss, horses were encountered on the way. Confidence the Hawk broke something important in it’s rear growing, we met Sally Hale in her Sprite Mk1V at Axle as we left the pub. Frank got it to the lay by but Nailsworth garden centre. Here, people were going that was it,’Orange Hawk Down’. Whilst huddled in about their garden shopping from behind masked the car park, the response from the passing was faces, did they have no intention of paying for their amazing, honks, waves, cheers, even the offer to items? Shortly after leaving, our first loss, Keith and buy a hill climb Frogeye from a local land owner. In Val in the Caterham 7 were whisked away by forces fact, it was like that throughout the day. We always unknown. An uneasy feeling set in as we then get noticed but today was on another level. Far from found ourselves being held up by a very large alien being shunned by being out in our cars, the public machine taking everything in its path coming the reaction was incredibly positive. other way. It couldn’t detect our little cars following

22 FROM THE BOWELS OF BRISTOL

The Diners of our group then found us, only to report that the car park at the Seven Springs was no more occupied than when we had arrived, less than half full. With the Caterham and Hawk being lost, we only had Pete and Jane’s MX5 as the Decoy car. We also lost the Frogeye’s of John and Phil as they have curfew devices fitted. Our depleted task force prepared for the return journey. Other than an ice cream stop on Rodborough Common, where John Beatty suddenly appeared, we enjoyed a trouble free return to base. Our Spridgley things are now in isolation for 14 days

before we can decontaminate the paintwork and make a list of the things that might have fallen off or leaked out during our 80 mile mission. Thanks to Mike and Alan for organising this expedition. Not without some casualties but overall, a very enjoyable if delayed ‘Drive it Day’. So good to be out again. Terry

23 AREA REPORT CAMBRIDGESHIRE

So as not to contravene the ever changing covid particularly flying, yes flying, his gipsy moth from rules, 5 of us met up at The White Swan to conduct New Zealand to Australia. our area meeting outdoors on a somewhat chilly Also that it would be a good idea if long sea cruising evening. ( a couple of bowls of piping hot chips trips could have garages below decks so that car courtesy of HTJ helped stave off the cold). enthusiasts could work on their cars during those Mick sent his apologies, but is now on the road with long ocean passages. - Just a thought. his midget thanks to much assistance from Tricia, Neil our host at The White Swan was very who he is thinking of getting her some overalls and accommodating and had put in place the necessary hiring her out! protective measures for our safety, and had laid on New member from Suffolk, Julian Winters turned up an adequate supply of Adnams Ghost Ship which in his fine 1972 midget joining Chris and Rob in their was appreciated. midgets making a fine line up in green white and Graham Kirkup red (ready for a Monza line up in Italian colours). I was a non starter, literally, as having sorted the water pump recently, the starter motor decided to let me down, however John Davies has come to the rescue with original replacement parts. Discussion centred mostly around cars, but covered Sir Francis Chichester’s navigational expertise Exclusive Club Member Discount

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Central members have been making the best of the summer sunshine by taking out their cars to local shows around the area. Although it has not been possible to travel out as a group some members have booked their cars into shows individually hoping that others in the group might also turn up on the day. The Central area has a long tradition of attending the Middleton Hall Classic Car meeting held on the first Sunday of the month. Middleton Hall is just on the Justin’s Frogeye Sprite. outskirts of Tamworth more or less right in the middle of our area. The event was restricted in numbers. Even booking a month in advance we were only just able to reserve tickets with only three or four remaining on the website. When the day came we decided to arrive fairly promptly around the opening time, however, as we arrived at the gate I could see the friendly face of Elaine Parkes waving at me from behind her Healey Sprite beckoning me to a saved spot on a grassy area. Elaine had bagged best place right next to the Hall facing the drive so she could watch all the cars drive in. Elaine had come to the event with husband Martin who had Elaine Parkes’ Sprite. driven there in his competition Hillman Imp. Glancing over to the entrance I spotted Justin and Tracy arriving in their Frogeye Sprite. It was not long before Justin had pulled up his bonnet and was showing me his new roll bar fittings and the work he had been doing over the summer. The sun shone and we enjoyed a packed lunch whilst chatting to fellow enthusiasts. What a pleasant way to spend a Sunday. Tony Phillips had mentioned to me he might pop into the Moira Furnace Midweek Classic Car evening event. Once again the sun was shining so, to make the most of the good weather, off I set hoping to see Tony there. Held next to the canal and over several fields I wrongly Tony Phillips’ Sprite. thought I might find it difficult to find until I noticed several classic cars turning off the main road down a side lane into Moira. I duly followed them only to arrive and be greeted with the sight of over a hundred and fifty cars, evenly spaced out around the heritage site. Tony was not hard to find either. He was parked right in the middle next to a Model T Ford. Once again Tony had been working on his car during the summer and people were soon taking pictures of his beautiful Healey Sprite and joining us for a spot of classic chatter. I can’t think of anything better than taking our lovely cars out in the summer weather for us and others to enjoy. Dave Warren Central MASC Email to [email protected] A view of the cars in front of the furnace.

25 AREA REPORT HEART OF ENGLAND

Kent And a few words from Malcom Le Chevalier - HoE Well another month has passed in these strange waterside drinkers club times. I trust you are all staying safe and keeping A group that have been getting out are the HoE well. I’m pleased to say that Alan Pritchett is well on waterside drinkers club. Steve, Alan, Jim, Kevin, the way to a full recovery after his cycling accident. Geoff and Karl met this month at The Talbot in To put a few minds at rest I contacted the Green Knightwick, a charming pub on the banks of the Dragon to enquire what the situation was at the pub River Teme, on the 11th September. The concerns for meeting up and the response I received did not about Jims drinking are deepening as his twin cam give me confidence that we could hold a meeting frog build continues to be troublesome and now his safely at the pub. Therefore for the foreseeable regular Midget has also developed a misfire! His future our meetings will be held over zoom as they tower of empties is very impressive, but even more have been for the last few months. That said, with impressive is how he affords so much Bollinger, as the government’s latest guidelines (the rule of six), well as all the go faster bits for his cars, on a state I feel we need to try and be creative in how we pension. Yorkshiremen sure do know how to make meet up. So I am suggesting that members meet up their money go further! locally in groups of know more that six which could Malc only 3 cars and do a little run on their own. Just do it safely. A band of six from the Worcestershire side (HofE watersides drinkers club) of our region have already met up a couple of times. Let’s see some more. At the end of August we met up with a few members at the Eagle & Sun at Droitwich Spa. Social distanced tables in the pub and good company meant for a very pleasant lunchtime. It was nice to see some members I hadn’t met before. September zoom meeting We discussed the Green Dragon situation and the general consensus was to continue with zoom meetings as we are. We decided to meet up at the Wheels on Wednesday event (Held on a Sunday, don’t ask me why!) at Spetchley Park Gardens in Worcestershire. After the club matters we then did a now popular quiz in which Jay and Liz won by 2 points. Their prize this time was to prepare a quiz for the next zoom meeting! Wheels on Wednesday (on Sunday) What a great day. The last event of the season, the weather was glorious and the last day before the new government guidelines came back in to force lead to a well attended, socially distanced event. Cars of all shapes and sizes, old and new, including 14 of our own Heart of England members parking up. It was so good to see people in the flesh but strange not to hug (Linda said that). Dave & Linda

26 So, another summer is almost gone and it has and paint are in good nick, but the mechanical felt like a quiet one. It’s not just a feeling though, and electrical bits have been neglected. It’s nice the key metrics are certainly down on last to be involved in a new project, especially a much year. Firstly, checking back through my MOT earlier car. I am on first name terms with every nut history, last year I managed on average 320 miles and bolt on my 1500 and could strip and rebuild a month, this year to date I have only managed it blindfolded, so dealing with an A-series car 190. Secondly, Geoff Hunter has only had 17 is a refreshing change. They are not yet MASC major and 39 minor breakdowns this year, whereas members (working on it!), so for now they are yet normally he is comfortably into triple figures by to receive their club members discount from me - now. Unfortunately, the cancellation of the 2020 helping out for free instead of demanding unlimited “Treffen” pan-European MG rally means it will also tea and chocolate biscuits. be a quiet winter for him, as he usually spends A reminder that if you are going to be working the colder months sorting out all the paperwork on your Spridget this winter: Hands, Face, required to repatriate the various vehicles he has Space. Wear gloves or wash your hands regularly to had to abandon en route. Rumour has it, that avoid permanently dirty black fingerprints. Always having spent so much with the German arm of the wear appropriate facial protection, especially if RAC over the years, he had become a bargaining using an angle grinder (those flying wire brush chip in post-Brexit free trade deal negotiations - strands are nasty!). Be sure to warn your family to this year’s cancellation has put Boris in a really give you space when you return from the garage compromised position. for that five minute job that turned into a three hour Whilst I haven’t been doing much driving, I have swear-a-thon! been doing my fair share of spanner-ing. Along with Until next time, stay safe and happy Spridgeting! my own projects I have been spending a lot of time with some new Midget owners in Evesham, helping Malc Le Chevalier them tidy up their newly acquired ’64 Mk II. It is one of those unusual finds where the bodywork

27 AREA REPORT KENT Sometimes a special occasion calls for some table decoration to ‘set the mood’. In this case the occasion called for candle light. A candle kept for emergencies was soon found but then arose the question of where to stick it (Manners Timothy!).

Richard led our assemblage through Shipbourne; Hildenborough; Leigh; Penshurst; Groombridge; Withyham; Hartfield; Colman Hatch to Ashdown Forest. Upon arrival we found Surrey Rep Mike Gorman patiently awaiting. We spread ourselves in a socially distanced ‘horseshoe’ so that we could both chat and enjoy the view out across the A rummage around in the Forest and beyond. Originally a deer hunting forest garage soon provided a in Norman Times, Ashdown Forest is now one of solution to the problem. the largest free public access spaces in the South A smooth-case gearbox East. It is a great place for walking and enjoying lay-gear would satisfy the the spectacular views over the Sussex countryside requirement as the candle and is known the world over as the home of Winnie stick and a magnetic parts the Pooh. The Forest is at the heart of the High tray the bowl for it to sit in. Weald Area of outstanding Beauty and has national It now appears that I will & international protection because of its wildlife. have to purchase another Nearly two thirds of its six thousand five hundred magnetic parts tray as the candlestick has achieved acres are heathland amounting to 2.5% of the U.K’s some permanence upon the living room table. extent of this rare habitat. At the beginning of the year there was a long list of Our stay in the Forest was to be cut short as with places to visit for our popular mid-week Old-un’s the first drops of rain chairs were collapsed and runs. But at present so many places are closed, picnic hampers gathered up for a short sprint to restricted, have timed entrance, that finding the cars to either erect hoods or make a dash to somewhere to go and something to see, or do, has outrun the rainclouds. Whilst some of our group become a challenge. endured the rain on their route home my route home experienced not a drop apart from the those Richard Bowles led this months run to Ashdown aforesaid initial few drops. Forest. We assembled at a regular meeting point the Oakdene Cafe, Wrotham. The Cafe was closed And still the carbon thrusts fail. Neville Plummer until 1000hrs and seating was then only available supplied the picture of his delaminating carbon outside. Disposable cups were to be offered. thrust on his 1275 IOW Frogeye. It only has added However we were to depart at 1000hrs. a couple of hundred miles ‘on the clock’ since fitment. Needless to say he will be substituting one If the multitude of craters, on this occasion filled of my roller bearings a.s.a.p. with water, that are the Oakdene parking area, get much deeper each will need a separate “Deep Alan Anstead Water’ marker and ‘Life-belt’. I made a mental Kent Area Rep note of everyone leaving to ensure no one had Contact details at rear of Mascot. disappeared into the ‘Deep.’ www.masckent.org

28 AREA REPORT LINCOLNSHIRE At Halls Garage we have now fitted Dave Marriott Archers Peel (Sebring) Fastback kit and sprayed the complete shell in Old English white with a Tartan red stripe down the middle of the car. We had quite a few problems with the kit that had to be rectified before painting. The car has now been delivered back to Dave to be reassembled. He has most of the parts already to go back on to the car as he has been busy waiting for the body work to be done. He has already started making good progress with the car, as he now has fitted Sebring and Sprinzel badge, wiring loom lights and has started on the suspension. At Dave’s suggestion we at Halls Garage, Tifosi Car Company had a mould made of the Peel (Sebring) fastback panel along with all the other panels that we currently produce. This has proven to be very successful as we have already had 2 kits sold as they are currently unavailable from anywhere else. The Ahsley GT that I’m currently building, is making good progress having the rear fiberglass backend and have mocked up the front screen and hardtop. I have recently made a former to make the rear window for my hardtop using an original rear window that was kindly borrowed from a local Frogeye sprite owner. I now have a 1098cc 2inch main bearing engine to rebuild to go in it when it is done.

Frogeye, Sebring Sprite and Jacobs Midget Replicas

Tifosi Rana Tifosi S S Tifosi J.E.M. Frogeye Sprite Replica. Our S S (Sebring Sprite) Our Jacobs Evolution Based on any Sprite/ Reincarnation for the Midget, inspired by Midget monocoque. Racing Enthusiast Based the late Dick Jacobs. on any Sprite/Midget.

Morton, Near Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 0NS T. 01778 570286 [email protected]

www.sebring-sprite.com

29 AREA REPORT HOME COUNTIES NORTH

After planning a long and varied events calendar for historic racing cars. The small display of cars the year the Home Counties NW crew (we might be they put on show this year was interesting, but too old to be called a crew) finally managed to do although I love getting close to race cars and one of the events in August – well we sort of did it. particularly historic race cars, most of us enjoyed Sunday 23rd August was the date planned for the poking around the workshop and nosing at half Stoke Row and Nuffield Motorsport Day. It is an built and half covered cars just as much – we are annual event close to Henley-on-Thames and petrolheads after all. normally involves a display of historic and modern Having the first event of the year in August is an odd racing cars and motorbikes, plus lots of other experience, but at least we already have next year’s classic cars. There is an opportunity to take part calendar sorted - just this year’s events on different in an official organised tour with up to 60 other dates! Hopefully the new lockdown restriction that cars. The finale of the tour is arriving rally style to are about to come in won’t hamper the final few a ‘podium’ in the field and being interviewed about events that areas have planned, but we all need to your cars. Sadly, not this year though. stay safe. Although the show was cancelled the official tour Mark went ahead. Keith Warner contacted the organisers who were happy for us to use the usual show field to park up and have picnic lunch after a lovely tour of our own (expertly planned by Ian Hooper – thanks Ian) through the Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire countryside. It was great to meet up for the run, at Tesco of course, and see friends I had only spoken to or seen on zoom since lockdown. When we arrived at the display field in Nuffield we parked up and made a guard of honour for the cars arriving from the tour. However, it appears nobody took pictures of any of the cars arriving. Another interesting attraction for the day is being able to look around the Delta Motorsport workshop that is based on site. Delta support and run several

30 AREA REPORT NORTHAMPTONSHIRE Recent relaxation of the pandemic guidelines had allowed a meet so some of us spent a pleasant few hours at Bruce’s place in Dingley near Market Harborough. There had been thunderstorms around and about all day so it was a relief to be able to make it there and back with the roof down even though I deployed the tonneau while parked up. Phil drew up as I was chatting to Bruce and David and I could see his eyes light up when he saw the paddock of flat wet grass we had to park on. Phil has competed in auto tests so, second guessing what he was thinking, I said “No doughnuts!” - Phil reluctantly complied and sedately parked up. After a little persuasion we managed to get Bruce’s Midget started but the engine didn’t want to run cleanly so we pushed the car into position for the obligatory group photos. Afterwards, Phil, Mark and I enjoyed a brisk convoy run back towards Northampton and went our separate ways when we reached the A14. I did shout “Are we nearly there yet?” when we were stopped at some traffic lights but the other two couldn’t hear me over their burbling exhausts – probably best to steer clear of the curry next time. Dingley is a convenient location for our group and Bruce has plenty of space so we should have more Dingley do’s in the future. In fact we had another one a few weeks later. This one started mid-afternoon to make best use of the autumn sunshine on offer. Whilst not the same as our usual pub meets these events have allowed us to catch up with the “Zoomophobes” in our midst and to meet others, like David and John, who we had only seen via a computer screen up until now. I received some nice comments about Mungo’s new engine. It’s certainly encouraging when Mark (who builds classic race engines as a day job) says “I’d be happy with that” when he heard it running. I replaced Mungo’s track rod ends that have been on the car for less than two years and the boots have failed. The driver’s inertia reel seat belt was struggling to retract properly and I found that the webbing had started to fray so quickly ordered a replacement set from The MGB Hive and fitted them in time for our first Dingley Do. The first set of seat belts was fitted in around 1994 so that is a much more acceptable working life. With the latest round of car jobs finished I took the opportunity to install LED strip lights in my garage in preparation for the winter projects I have planned. Andrew Parrott

31 AREA REPORT NORTH WEST For sometime I have been giving some thought to how the North West area can work better to bring meetings to more members in our area. Being a very large area it is not easy for a lot of members to travel the distance needed to attend a meeting at the Kilton Inn on the second Wednesday of each month. We tend to find the maximum distance for members to travel in an evening is an around trip of 80 miles. So how big is the north West area, well it reaches from Crew in the south to Carlisle In the North some 165 miles with Colwyn Bay to the West and to the East we border with Notts/Derby. So what we would like to try, is to find a member in North Wales , Lancaster/ Blackpool and the North Lakes District or any other locality in our area, for someone to become a Sub area Rep. The idea being they could submit information on anything going on in their local area, events etc, also organise two to Four meeting a year, on a Saturday or Sunday with a short run and lunch stop. This could mean that we could meet a wider group and local members in that area and they may also get to meet up more regularly. This information I would list on the areas events list, in the hope it would give us much better coverage of the area and other members. With membership growing fast and a very important year approaching, MG Midget 60 Big weekend, our club is going from strength to strength, so do help us keep in touch with more members. If you fancy giving it a try and taking up this position, we of course will give you our full support so please contact Shelley & Neil Your North West Area Reps. For our August club night Shelley and I along with two other members went to the Kilton Inn our normal meeting venue, where we dined at half the governments expense, then held a Zoom meeting from there, another distance meeting. I feel we are really looking forward to getting back to normal, Zoom is good, but there is nothing like having real personal contact, which is what we humans really need. August Bank holiday weekend did give some of us the chance to get together at Oulton Park Gold Cup Meeting our first outing since we had our Valentine’s day Run. We had nine cars attend on the Sunday and six on the Monday the weather was much better than the forecast. This was a very well attended weekend with very good racing of Historic race cars per 1966 and classic Formula Ford. To give you a flavour of the weekend I enclose a few photos , sorry there are not many photos of the race cars as they were a little too fast for my camara!! There was however no entry to the paddock this year. This was a very good time to catch up with friends we had not seen for a long time. For a bit of extra interest this year Oulton Park held a car Auction which attracted 110 entries in the sale was a very rear Austin Healey 3000 with an asking price of £80.000 to £100.000 , it did not sell, no surprise as the headlights did nothing for it’s looks, what do you think. Neil & Shelley North West Area Reps.

32 AREA REPORT NOTTS & DERBY As another summer comes to an end. This one without doubt will go down on record as the strangest of modern times but it hasn’t stopped us enjoying the world of Spridgeting. Whether it be catching up on those little jobs we keep putting off or finishing off major restorations. Nigel Baston has now covered 450 trouble free miles in (Tappet ). My own cars have also received a bit of TLC recently. Spridge requiring a cylinder head service and a replacement inhibitor switch for the overdrive gearbox. Meanwhile over the border in Lincs our born again boy racer Geoff Goddard has been putting his Sprite through its pacers at Mallory, a new circuit for Geoff to unleash the Sprite. Here’s a few words from Geoff about his day The day before was dry and so was the day after but by Sod’s Law it was very, very wet on the actual track day. The first person I met on arriving at Mallory Park told me the hairpin was very slippery. I thought my first lap was slow enough, but I was wrong. I disgraced myself with a 360 exiting the hairpin and brought out a red flag. So more caution was required. It was interesting finding the limits of grip in the wet. The dividing line between feeling comfortable and a high pucker factor was very narrow. But we survived the morning and learnt a lot about making quick corrections. In the afternoon the wind got stronger and the sun almost came out, so the track dried out. Fantastic fun thereafter. Going into Gerrard’s at a bit over 70mph was exhilarating. Phone GPS said I was getting 89mph just before the bend. It might have been faster but younger MGFs kept getting in the way. A grand day out but very knackering. Stay Safe Spridgeteers. Richard

33 AREA REPORT SCOTLAND

This is the time of year that I normally begin to plan Although I will be away, work will be getting started my annual pilgrimage to the N.E.C. for the National on laying the founds/drainage for the extension, Classic Car Show, but this year I have decided to so I hope when I return it will be full steam ahead give it a miss. Covid 19 has not gone away and the on the actual build. It will be nice to have a warm thought of a 4 hour train journey from Glasgow to workshop to whittle away the winter nights. Birmingham and the same back wearing a face mask does not appeal, plus being a reduced show ( The aluminium sheet has been delivered so the some would say that is no bad thing ) all in all I have winter projects, the aluminium tonneau for the decided that I may go to the practical classics show Frogeye and the teardrop caravan will proceed, in the spring instead. hopefully at pace, I am thinking of towing it with the Morris 1000 Traveller as I think the dog and I are As they say, “ every cloud has a silver lining “ getting too old for this wild camping lark, but we’ll or maybe it should read “ every silver lining has see. a cloud “ as the money I would have saved has already been spent on a new tool. I decided to Unfortunately I still do not know if the local college invest in a heat induction tool, it wasn’t cheap but will be able to accommodate us this session for if it does what it says on the tin, it should prove a our weekly “ old codger “ sessions as priority is good investment. probably being given to the apprentice students understandably, but we can but live in hope. Everything will be put on hold for a couple of weeks as I am going to North Berwick on Scotland’s east I expect on my return to put the 3000 and the coast for a week and then walking back across the Jensen in their car coons for their winter hibernation country on the John Muir Way, it is a total of 130 as I don’t see many opportunities for an outing after miles so this could be my last report or the dog September. and I will be the fittest specimens on the planet. Ah well. Better go and pack the rucksack and hope Hopefully the Boness motor museum will be open for some better weather. as I have been told it is interesting and we will be passing through Boness en route Graham

34 AREA REPORT WILTSHIRE Stop Press. We’ve escaped! With fellow Wiltshire member, Dave Williams, a small lifetime dream has been achieved, by one Mk2 Sprite and one 1500 Midget. On 1st September we made a break for freedom and drove 2000 miles, including all the best roads in Britain, just the two of us, as far as is Spridgettly possible without a boat, passport or motorway. Brilliant fun! More on this later! Until now there’s not much going on in our area over the summer, and I’ve been reluctant to gather any groups together too soon. I was unfortunately shielding as extremely vulnerable myself, until 1 August, and I still want to take extra care. So organised MASC social life has been minimal, sorry everyone. None the less, many of our members have been busy and enjoying socially distanced runs and activities with other classic car groups, so the Spridget spirit lives on. Our regular venue, The Barge at Seend, has now reopened but not on Mondays (our normal meet is the last Monday) and has declined our meetings due to limiting groups to 6 people and two families maximum. But we will be back there soon, I’m sure. To keep things rolling I have been e-mailing, phoning and WhatsApping our local members occasionally, and have since 1 August met up individually with several members with their cars in gardens and at pubs for a natter, and talk about their cars and other things. I’ve met with three of our newer Wiltshire members this way, which was very enjoyable. Half price meals have helped too! Others have done the same, in small groups. So, our own escape trip was to do Lands End to John O’Groats, seeking out some of the most challenging hills and passes and generally perfect roads for Spridgets on the way. It was quickly planned and fingers well crossed to avoid further Covid lockdowns or problems, and I’m so pleased it went really well. There will be a full write up in the next MASCOT but till then here are a few pictures. Suffice to say North West Scotland is particularly beautiful with Spridgets in the scenery! Anyway, all the best from sunny Wiltshire, and we look forward to meeting you all soon. Andy Cross

35 AREA REPORT YORKSHIRE Dear All.. he’s very keen to Anita and I were hoping that by now, we would have receive anything been able to have our monthly meetings back on you wish to submit track… Instead, we are (hopefully) enjoying our but it may not get immediate inclusion in the Spridgets on a regular basis, albeit out on our own. magazine. I’m sure you’ve all received your latest copy of You’ll all no doubt be aware that next year it’s 60 MASCOT and will have, by now, read it from cover years since the Mk1 Midget was launched (and of course the Mk2 Sprite). With this in mind, the North to cover… If, like me, you were disappointed to West Area of MASC are hosting the Anniversary read the Club’s stance on events and meetings, but Celebrations which are to be held at ‘The Mere’ with a note to say that the FBHVC have amended in Knutsford, Cheshire over the weekend of 25th their advice you are now totally confused with the – 27th June 2021. For more details and booking information being given. information, have a look at the website..: https://www.fbhvc.co.uk/news/article/coronavirus www.midgetandspriteclub.com https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ I know many home projects are in progress and staying-alert-andsafe-social-distancing/staying- hope that we’ll see more Midgets and Sprites alert-and-safe-social-distancing-after-4-july gracing Yorkshires spectacular roads in the not too Last Saturday, Anita and I went along to a small distant future… I’m about to embark on the major gathering organised by another Club that we are task of restoring the body of GAN101, I know it’ll members of (Retrotorque) at a lovely local Pub be a challenge as I want to preserve as much of that has had a Motoring connection for decades… the original car as possible without making the This prompted a thought…. A meeting of those task impossible.. Once I get going, I’ll record the who would like to come along, held outside in their progress in pictures. huge car park with Government Social Distancing Many years ago, Anita and I used the MG Guidelines adhered to… The Pub itself will serve Enthusiasts BBS on their Midget and Sprite General food (from a limited but excellent menu) and drinks or Technical pages for all our communications, we to your table should you choose to eat or have a stopped using it as I felt that Facebook has so much drink… more to offer… However, I’ve recently re-visited the We could even combine this with a short scenic run BBS and I have to say, it’s still VERY active.. It’s full … What are your thoughts..? of enthusiasm and interesting technical Q&As.. Well Thank you to those who have written short articles worth a visit. and have sent them to Neil (our MASCOT editor), Mark & Anita

36 DEAR MASCOT...

team at AH-Spares for their help with this matter. HELLO NEIL, Without this sort of support we would all find it Having just got my Frogeye back on the road after a much more difficult to keep our cars on the road. lay-up of 40 years I was having problems with the JOHN E. DAVIES (MEMBER 3443) electronic flasher unit I had fitted from Classic Car [email protected] LED’s. The flash rate was fine when the engine was not running, but when running, the flasher rate was in hyperflash mode. Having firstly gone through an electrical system check with the assistance of Dr HI NEIL, John E Davies I was informed by Duncan at Classic At present I am the custodian of the Midget and car LED’s to fit a suppressed HT lead between the Sprite club rotisserie which is now available to coil and distributor and that should fix the problem another member to use! If you could make fellow which surprising, it did. If it hadn’t done then fitting Mascoteers aware of this via MASCOT I’m sure it all spark plug leads with 5 ohm suppressed caps will help somebody! (which I already had fitted) would have been the next step. Tels Nos 01384 896842 07849 891669. I’m located in The West Mids. I assume that the same quick fix may be possible if using other supplier electronic flasher units and BEST WISHES, JIM that some other members may find this information useful. NIGEL BASTON HELLO NEIL, NO. 4559 Here’s how I carry my bikes on my Midget using a Saris Gran Fondo carrier. The bikes are super secure and they don’t obscure DEAR NEIL, the lights or number plate from the back. The other One Early hood problem fixed. advantage is that, being a narrow car, the bikes don’t stick out at the sides. Only disadvantage is Except for the early ‘nine stud’ Frogeyes, the you really don’t want to drive too quick as the bikes original hoods of all Mk1/2 Sprites and Mk1 Midgets tend to act as a bit of a whale tail. seal themselves to the top of the windscreen via a thin 2.5mm thick metal strip in a pocket sewn into MANY THANKS, the leading edge of the hood. After nearly 60 years GRAHAM FREER these strips are often badly rusted, are sometimes little more than dust. New metal strips with the correct subtle curve are available from the usual suppliers but it’s worth checking the thickness of any strip before placing an order: the fabric of most after-market hoods is slightly thicker than original and any strip much thicker than 2.5mm may not allow the ‘flap’ to be pushed up into the groove at the top of the windscreen. When I experienced this problem recently and told Jon Hill at AH-Spares that their 3.5mm thick metal strips were 1mm thicker than original and too thick for my new after-market hood, Jon acted very swiftly and efficiently to correct matters. I’m pleased to report that the latest metal hood strips now available from AH-Spares (part number XHOD145) are now 2.5mm thick and have exactly the right curvature. One of them solved my problem and I thank Jon Hill and his

37 THE WHO, THE WHAT & THE WHERE OF THE MIDGET & SPRITE CLUB

COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN Mark Hall, T: 01296 660103 E: [email protected] GENERAL SECRETARY Glyn Polly, T: 07544 302 575 E: [email protected] TREASURER David King, T: 01453 544202 E: [email protected] EDITOR Neil Thomas, T: 07891 684435 E: [email protected] AREA REP’S DELEGATE Vacant MEMBERSHIP Stuart Watson, “Staddlestones”, Thicknall Lane, Clent, Stourbridge, West Midlands. DY9 0HX. T: 01562 883076 E: [email protected] GENERAL MEMBER Alan Pritchett, T: 07720 238810 E: [email protected] Anthony Cutler, E: [email protected]

YOUNG PERSONS REP Liam Murphy, E: [email protected] MARKETING OFFICER Clare Nedin, E: [email protected]

OFFICERS CLUB ARCHIVIST & Terry Horler, 63 Littledean, Yate, Bristol, BS37 8UQ. T: 01454 881770 TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION E: [email protected] MEMBERS ADVERTISING Neil Thomas, T: 07891 684435 E: [email protected] CAR REGISTERS SPRITES & MIDGETS Stuart Watson, E: [email protected] T: 01562 883 076 (EXCEPT MK1 SPRITES) SPRITES MK1 Gary Lazarus, E: [email protected] T: 020 7700 5696 REGALIA OFFICER Mike Grout, 55 Park Road, Spixworth, Norwich, NR10 3PJ. T: 01603 890211 E: [email protected] TECHNICAL ADVISOR Mark Boldry, E: [email protected] WEBMASTER Mike Bennett, E: [email protected] T: 01925 727479 TRADE ADVERTISING Gary Lazarus, E: [email protected] T: 020 7700 5696 ENQUIRIES E: [email protected] / [email protected] FACEBOOK COORDINATOR Richard Wharmby, T: 07814 764546 E: [email protected] AREA LIAISON OFFICER Andrew Parrott, Mob: 07808 158623 E: [email protected]

AREA REPRESENTATIVES BRISTOL Terry Horler, T: 01454 881770 E: [email protected] CAMBRIDGESHIRE Graham Kirkup, T: 01223 511835 E: [email protected] CENTRAL Dave Warren, T: 07831 101850 E: [email protected] DEVON Michael Ellis, T: 07414 279074 E: [email protected] DORSET John Gully, T: 07876 334949 email [email protected] ESSEX Tim Wyman, T: 07828 245280 E: [email protected] HAMPSHIRE Terry Langridge, T: 01252 626063 E: [email protected] HEART OF ENGLAND Dave Colclough, T:07543641284 E:[email protected] HOME COUNTIES Mark Hall, T: 01296 660103 E: [email protected] KENT Alan Anstead, T: 01322 384050 E: [email protected] LINCOLNSHIRE Jason Elliot, T: 07780 815264 E: [email protected] LONDON Gary Lazarus, T: 020 7700 5696 E: [email protected] NORTHAMPTON Andrew Parrott, Mob: 07808 158623 E: [email protected] NORTH WEST Neil McLeod, T: 01772 466648 Mob: 07921 089 680 E: [email protected] NOTTS/DERBY Richard Wharmby, Mob: 07814 764546 E: [email protected] OXFORD Grahame Gibbins, T: 01235 530456 E: [email protected] SCOTLAND Graham Smith, T: 0141 954 8276 E: [email protected] SOMERSET CURRENTLY VACANT MIDGET & SOUTH WEST WALES David Hill, T: 01239 811307 E: [email protected] SPRITE CLUB SURREY Mike Gorman, T: 01737-552256 E: [email protected] SUSSEX Chris Harding, T: 01342 718860 E: [email protected] WILTSHIRE Andy Cross, T: 01225 743554 E: [email protected] YORKSHIRE Mark Boldry T: 07471 606060 Anita Lachowicz T: 07484 682516 E: [email protected]

ALSO SEE THE CLUB Compiled by Neil Thomas. MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL: NIGHTS SECTION FOR NEW Please advise me of any If you experience ‘MASCOT’ problems upon renewal, please contact AREAS AND CONTACTS changes, errors etc. the membership secretary or the treasurer straight away.

© Midget & Sprite Club. Printed by Quorum Print Services Ltd, Units 3&4, Lansdown Industrial Estate, Cheltenham, GL51 8PL 38 Tel: 01242 584984 Website: www.quorumprint.co.uk E-mail: [email protected] ALL CLUB NIGHTS SUSPENDED CLUB NIGHTS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE 3rd Thursday YORKSHIRE AREA. From April to September we meet on the third Thursday from 7pm onwards at a Yorkshire pub. Contact Mark Boldry 07471 606060 or Anita Lachowicz 07484 682516 for venue details or email [email protected] 1st Tuesday ESSEX AREA. We meet on the first Tuesday of the month and from May – September its for a car run, ending in a pub for an evening meal and from October to April we meet at The Six Bells pub, Boreham, near Chelmsford, CM3 3JE. Please contact Tim Wyman tel 07828 245280, e mail: [email protected] 1st Wednesday CENTRAL AREA. Meet at The Red Lion, Lichfield Road, Hopwas, Tamworth, B78 3AF. 8.30pm onwards.Contact: Dave Warren, Tel: 07831 101850. Email: [email protected] 1st Wednesday OXFORD AREA. Meet at the Blackhorse Pub, Gozzards Ford, Nr Abingdon. 7pm for those eating or 8pm for those not. Contact Grahame Gibbins at [email protected] 2nd Tuesday LONDON AREA (CONGESTION ZONE). Meet at The Ace Cafe at 7:30pm together with the Classic Cars Magazine night. Details: Gary Lazarus on 020 7700 5696 garyfrogeye@gmail 2nd Wednesday DEVON AREA. Meet at Court Farm, Abbotskerswell, TQ125 NY Devon. 7.30pm Michael Ellis [email protected] and telephone: 07414 279074 2nd Wednesday HEART OF ENGLAND. All welcome at the Green Dragon, Sambourne, Redditch B96 6NU 8pm gathering for a 8:30pm start. Further information from Dave Colclough on dave@colcloughsonline. co.uk or 0754 3641284. 2nd Wednesday NORTH WEST AREA. Meet at The Kilton, turn off M6 at Jct 20 onto A50 towards Macclesfield. Pub 4 miles on left. Please note new venue. Neil McLeod email [email protected] Tel 01772 466648 Mobile 07921 089680 2nd Wednesday BRISTOL AREA will meet at Wishing Well, Wapley Road, Codrington, Bristol BS37 6RY. From 8.00pm – or earlier for a Curry enjoyed in peace! Contact Terry Horler 01454 881770 [email protected] 2nd Thursday NOTTS/DERBY BORDER AREA. From April to September we meet at The Hunters Arms at Kilburn, DE56 0LU (just off the A38) from 7.30. From October to March will be on the 2nd Sunday at various venues around Notts & Derby’s Contact Richard Wharmby, Mob: 07814 764546 [email protected]. 2nd Thursday CAMBRIDGESHIRE AREA. Meet at The White Swan, Elsworth Road, Connington, Cambs CB23 4LN from 8pm 3rd Thursday NORTHAMPTON AREA. The Red Lion, Welford Road, Thornby, Northamptonshire, NN6 8SJ from 8pm 4th Thursday LINCOLNSHIRE AREA. Meeting at The Wishing Well Inn, Dyke, PE10 0AF from 7 o’clock onwards. 2nd Sunday EAST KENT GROUP. Meet at the Crown Inn, Sarre, CT7 0LF from 12.30hrs Contact Area Rep [email protected] or John Clark group co-ordinator [email protected] 3rd Tuesday SCOTLAND. Meet at Houstoun House Hotel, Broxburn, EH52 6JS. Meetings start at 7.30pm. Graham Smith 0141 954 8276 email: [email protected] 3rd Tuesday SURREY. Meet at The Blue Ball, Deans Lane, Walton-on-the-Hill, Tadworth Surrey KT20 7UE. 7.30pm onwards. Contact Mike Gorman, [email protected] Tel: 01737 552256 4th Monday DORSET. New Venue: Charlton Inn, Bournemouth Road, Charlton Marshall, Blandford Forum, Dorset DT11 9NH about 7.30pm 4th Thursday SUSSEX. Meet at Bolney Stage, Bolney, RH17 5RL from 19:00. 4th Thursday HAMPSHIRE. Meets at The Barley Mow, The Hurst, Winchfield, Hants, RG27 8DE. Tel: 01252 617490. Please ring Terry or Harriet Langridge on 01252 626063 for details. 4th Sunday KENT AREA. Back at The Angel, Addington Green, Kent until further notice. Contact Alan Anstead [email protected] Last Monday WILTSHIRE. Meet at The Barge Inn, Seend, Nr. Devizes, about 7pm. Contact Andy Cross on 01225 743554 or email [email protected] Last Wednesday HOME COUNTIES NORTH WEST for members in Herts, Beds, Bucks, Berks, N. London or anyone interested! Meet at the Chequers Inn, Redbourn, AL3 7AD from 6:30pm. Please contact Mark Hall, T: 01296 660103 E: [email protected] Last Thursday. SOMERSET AREA. Non-regular and occasional meetings and runs arranged throughout the year. Area contact Colin Chorley email: [email protected] for further information. SOUTH WEST WALES. Non-regular and occasional meetings and runs arranged throughout the summer months. Please contact David Hill on 01239 811307 or email: [email protected]

39 WHO NEEDS EBAY? REACH FELLOW MEMBERS IN NEED OF SPARES, PROJECTS, HELP... MARKET PLACE

FOR SALE - A set of 4 MG Midget Rostyle style FOR SALE - Frontline double rear wheel bearing wheels 4.5J x 13, off a 1973 car, the wheels are in hub set. See Frontline web site for details. Only good straight condition, but will need cleaning and low mileage easy road usage. Bearings good but painting, see Photos. Based in Cardiff, Wales, Can new seals may be required. Open to offers. Terry meet M4 J32, for collection. £120 the set. 07968 - [email protected] 233245 or email [email protected] Bristol area.

FOR SALE - 1 Pair of Frogeye Seat Locating Bases. Just powder coated. Drivers side including runners. Passenger side needing fixed brackets. 1 pair MG Midget Trumpet type air filters complete. Just Resprayed. Sensible offers to michaelgoslin@ hotmail.com or phone 01834 870264. Thanks Mike

40 PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR ADVERT TO: Neil Thomas E: [email protected]

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