50 Shades Of Green

Andy Ainsworth shares the history of MG Midget ONU 501W, a car with a very intriguing past and an equally promising future.

I’ve been an MG Midget owner for nearly 40 years, I having had well over 20 registered in my name. These have been raced, restored, sold and later invariably missed. You could say I’m a fan of the model. When you add in an MGB, two BGTs, a Metro, a 1300 saloon, two MGFs and my current daily driver ZS, perhaps you could say I have a passion for the marque. The biggest mistake I ever made was selling the Midget I’ve recently reacquired, ONU 501W, a round wheelarch chrome bumper car registered in 1981. This is a car with connections to a British Touring Car Championship winner, a legendary Formula 1 driver, a British motorbike champion and a saloon car racing legend. It was originally built by a man who is now a historic F1 car preparation expert and his former employer who is an ex-F1 Championship organiser.

Intriguingly it also has two chassis numbers, but perhaps the thing that fellow anoraks amongst you will have already questioned and expect an explanation of is why, having been built in 1980, it is not one of the last rubber bumper cars? Well, numerous chats and emails with Dennis Wharfe, Chairman and Historian of the MG Car Club’s Historic Register, revealed some very interesting information. In the dying days of British Leyland, dealers were offered the remaining A-series bodyshells to sell through their parts department for £199. They were identified by a part number on the plate between the passenger door hinges rather than the body number which the factory used during assembly prior to it being issued with a formal chassis plate.