British-Cars.org

Welcome to the DMR Site for British Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG Midget and Sprite General - Off at Last!

Heading off to Wales tomorrow for 5 night staying in B and B's. Managed to sort out the fuel leak, dynamo problems and replaced the tacho so at least I will have a rough idea of the engine speed.

Heading north to Snowdonia, then down the north west coast and returning over the Brecons.

Got the hood up but hoping we may get a chance to take it off.

Tools and spares in the boot, bags behind the seat.

First time we have taken her out for more than a day trip so hoping all goes well.

Tony Brough

Good luck Tony have a great holiday.
PRC Cuthbert

Sounds exciting. More people should take their cars on extended trips. Worrying that you might break down can ruin many a trip so just go and enjoy.
Martin Washington

Vary cool tony....I certianly wush you the best

As they say, prepare for the worst and hope for the best, Id bet with all the tools and spares, you will have a trouble free drive,,,,

Well, unless you forget an extra rotor bug, and you know what that will mean.....(wink wink !!!)

Prop
Prop

When my 13 year old son and I put 4,605 miles on our Midget last month (over about 11 days total) we simply had the time of our lives.
Painful - sure. Fun - You Bet!!

Have a great one, drive it like you stole it and all will be well.
Rick Bastedo

Yes good luck and you will have a great time

We've been to Wales for a week the last two years after not going for many years and are going again next month

we stop at B&Bs but don't normally bother booking as we never know for sure where exactly we're going, we just pop into a pub and ask around, never failed yet many times we've had a place to check out within minutes or even seconds

personally I prefer the white mountain rods as theses are ideal for Spridgets

if you like real ale and classic basic pubs I know a gem (or two) and plenty of interesting ones even some quite posh - just let me know

Martin,
5 nights is a good holiday but it's not an extended trip and if you use the car regularly it's a lot less likely it'll breakdown, however doing 4,000 in the UK would very difficult to do and probably at least four times as difficult in all respects compared to USA but well Rick on such a high mileage in such a short time :)
Nigel At

Had a great time, almost 600 miles in 6 days with only a a little trauma....

Took a wrong turning and overheated a little whilst climbing to almost 600 feet.....

Then when heading back today, lost power, smelt petrol and thankfully a parking place very near by. Petrol pipe had come away from pump. 10 minutes to fix then back on our way.





Tony Brough

Nice to hear all went well.

But 600 miles in 6 days i regularly do more in 2...
Midgets are made for driving road trips essential for my enjoyment!
Onno Könemann

Tony,
600 miles in 6 days not bad, well done

but could do better :)

overheating or just getting warm? - you did fully service the car before going :)

time for a coolant system clean and coolant change perhaps :)

any roads you can remember as we off again in a few weeks time - I like (white) mountain roads
Nigel At

Onno

When I get a bit more confident with the reliability then I will try harder....

Nigel

It was just getting warm I suppose as it didn't blow off or lose any coolant, well no more than usual.

As you know there are quite a few mountain roads around there. the road where it got hot was just off Lake Bala. Just after a parking area on the side of the lake, on the B4403 near Llangower, there is a small single track B road. Although if wasn't a fast road the slow climb and scenery to the right as you go up was quite nice.

I also enjoyed the A5 towards Betws y coed. The B 4407 was closed, which was a shame as it looked fun. So went further down to the A470 which drops down to Blaenau Ffestiniog.

On the way home it was over the Brecons, which I find a good drive in any car.
Tony Brough

>>It was just getting warm I suppose as it didn't blow off or lose any coolant, well no more than usual.<<
Tony to be fair it could just be blowing off the excess after all that work or perhaps you don’t need to keep topping it up as you’re taking it above the coolant level that it’s happy with, check the pressure cap though for its seal, and the spring can weaken, if in doubt or it looks old for the sake of £3/4 change it – GRC101 (7lbs) (had this on another thread and part number is even easy for me to remember)

>>Just after a parking area on the side of the lake, on the B4403 near Llangower, there is a small single track B road. Although if wasn't a fast road the slow climb and scenery to the right as you go up was quite nice.<<
there’s an unclassified (white road) that’s a dead end showing in my 2.3miles/1” road atlas, not been up that one – been on loads around there and liked the white road from Pandy to Dinas Mawddwy (excellent pub there)

>>I also enjoyed the A5 towards Betws y coed<<
yes so did I despite normally preferring the smaller A, B and unclassified roads

>>The B 4407 was closed, which was a shame as it looked fun.<<
yes it is and the A4212

>>So went further down to the A470 which drops down to Blaenau Ffestiniog.<<
yeap done that too – all’s just a morning’s driving : - just pulling your leg we drove all over and had a few days in the area

>>On the way home it was over the Brecons, which I find a good drive in any car.<<
our friends missed this and a few other roads and pubs the year before so last year I took them over on the A4069 Brynamman to Llangadog admittedly it was raining very and when we pulled in you couldn’t see anything but rain and my mate had to take a call from work (why do people take work mobiles on holiday???) but this year he asked if we could “go over the Black Mountains” - and I had to explain that we did last year but he missed it because of work! (he’s only an employee of a large company, retired this year)
Nigel At

Tony sounds as if you had a fairly good run out :)

If you fancy going the other way

"Heads of the valleys" road and take the turn off for LLangynidr, if you are lucky the valleys will be full of Welsh Mist (like Scotch, only thicker) and you will see islands of "Welsh Mountain" sticking up out of the mist as you drop down to Llangynidr, dash off to Talybont, no not the famous Talybont up in the Mid Wales Coastal bit then head up towards Brecon. If you take the road towards towards Upper Chapel after Brecon suddenly you are in driving heaven

B4520

That road up to Builth Wells must have been surveyed by God

Lovely Welsh Wales is full of wonderful roads
Bill 1

Sounds like you had fun Tony - and stuff and nonsense to those who are disparaging about your mileage - you went out there and drove it - and got confidence in it being reliable!

Plus, you were on holiday - and who wants to spend all your holiday stuck in a car, not in the UK anyways ..... I've done it in the States and Canada, but, then that's with cruise control and auto gearbox on long straight roads with no other traffic - totally different!!!

Hope you have many many holidays in your midget in the future.
rachmacb

Bill

We are looking to again for a bit longer next year. As you say Wales has loads of wonderful roads, you would almost think it was a different country ;-).

Still got lots to do to the car, but slowly slowly kill the monkey, rather than take it off the road strip it totally and then be to old to enjoy it by the time you manage to get it back on the road again.

I fancy going to Scotland in it before to long, through the lakes, up the west coast to Fort William area then the CairnGorms to Inverness and then across to Aberdeen area before heading back down the east coast.

Rach

I didn't take much notice of the those knocking the mileage and the "Must do more" comments. In fact I prefer the drive rather than the distance. I've had so many years of doing lots of miles (not in a midget) but never really appreciating where I had been.

So now the plan is to do enjoy the miles and also the areas in between.

Tony Brough

Tony,
If you do do the trip to Scotland, you really must try and go up further north and west from Fort William. Although the scenery to there is good, by far the best roads are to the north of there when you get away from the traffic. Fort William is just the start! If going that far, you need to allow a few extra days so you don't miss the very best parts!
Guy

Tony,
all comments about mileage are in good humour

Scotland is a long way in a Spridget so as you say you’ll be taking your time

We’ve been up middle/top of Scotland a few times on tours and holidays in various cars but not a Spridget, one of the best runs was up the A9 coast road from Inverness to Wick as we were lucky to have the sun shining but not too hot reflecting off the sea

I was advised not to bother with the middle bit of the very top of Scotland as it’s mostly factory forestry and nothing to see with long straight roads, I tried one of the roads, they were spot on long boring roads with factory tall trees only to look at

Dumfries and Galloway had some of the most traffic free roads I’ve been on

A lot of the Scottish roads favour bigger faster cars than a Spridget, I would say that the roads of North Yorkshire, Cumbria, Durham and Northumberland are more suited for a Spridget and the countryside and roads in all four of these counties are excellent – some like Scotland but nearer

Bill,
We’re off to Wales next week I think I’ve got your recommendation right – B4560 to Llangynidr then B4558 and on to B4520 (or other way round) – this’ll be our third year in a row, love the roads, countryside, pubs and beers
Nigel At

This thread was discussed between 15/08/2011 and 02/09/2011

MG Midget and Sprite General index

This thread is from the archives. Join this live forum now