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Even though the black-bumper Midget was a cruel parody of the ridiculously fun pre-Malaise version, it's still saddening to see one among all the Hyundai Excels and Geo Prizms in my local self-service wrecking yard. This one has the dusty, bleached look of a car that spent a decade or three rotting in a back yard prior to its final ride behind a tow truck. Look at all those good parts! Doesn't anyone want Midget parts these days? galleryPost('Junk75Midget', 6, '1975 MG Midget Down On The Junkyard');
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This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition , where we check out interesting street-parked cars located in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot . After the Shark and Minnow Midget/Continental combo, it only seemed right to share some photos of another street-parked Midget (ideally, one not overshadowed by some monster land yacht), and Kitt has shot such a car for us in her South Denver neighborhood. This one's for sale, and instead of a price it's got a printout of the NADA Guides retail value; hey, it's worth a try! I've done a fair amount of Midget driving, and they're a lot of fun… provided you carry every tool you own in the boot- you'll need 'em, thanks to the one-two punch of Lucas Electrics and SU carbs- and don't mind the disconcerting experience of viewing the undersides of truck trailers on the freeway. galleryPost('DOTSBEDenverMidget', 6, '1973 MG Midget Down On The Denver Street'); DOTS FAQ
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newVideoPlayer("/70s_Leyland_Princess_476.flv", 506, 423,""); You can forget everything you've heard about the utterly execrable build quality of British Leyland's nadir, the Princess . Turns out that front-wheel-drive setup, Hydragas suspension, and weight savings from all the parts that fell off during normal operation made for excellent off-road performance!
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newVideoPlayer("76_Triumph_TR7_476.flv", 506, 423,""); There's really not much we can add to the Legend Of The British Leyland Wedge here. American car buyers looking for a little car that weaves maniacally among mid-60s Galaxies and gets air cresting hills knew exactly where to go: follow the wedge-shaped British Leyland truck to the nearest dealer!
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Many, many cars have passed through my hands since I first picked up a '69 Toyota Corona for 50 bucks , but only a few really make me feel a twinge of regret when I think about letting them go. One such car is the British Racing Green '73 MGB-GT I owned for a few years in my early 20s; it was slow, handled like a garbage truck, went through $40 carburetor floats like other cars go through oil changes, and proved that all those Joe Lucas jokes are based on painful reality... but I still loved it. Perhaps this is the evil lure of the British Car, but I was finally able to heed the rule posted on a huge sign at the only British-car wrecking yard in Northern California: IF IT RUNS, SELL IT. This beat-to-hell MGB-GT, which could be a '71, '72, or '73, might be my old car , after a couple of decades of neglect. Sure, mine was pretty nice when I sold it, but a lot can happen in 20 years! I spotted this B parked while going out to dinner a few weeks back (on the same commercial...
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newVideoPlayer("70s_Triumph_Spitfire_476.flv", 463, 387,""); Try to imagine a not-so-hot pursuit between a Malaise Triumph Spitfire and a smog-motored mid-70s cop Mopar. Will the single-digit gas mileage of the police car result in a drained fuel tank before the British Leyland build quality of the Spitfire sends it coughing to a halt on the shoulder in a cloud of wire-insulation smoke? We'll never know, because it turns out the Triumph wasn't running from the cops after all. Whew!
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newVideoPlayer("70s_MG_Triumph_476.flv", 463, 387,""); You'll have fun in the sun, "motoring tops-down" in a spiffy new late-70s MGB, TR6, or Spitfire. Note how the horrifyingly ugly bumpers of the Spitfire are barely glimpsed as we see happy Americans driving hundreds of yards with no apparent electrical malfunctions. Sure, British Leyland gave up on the idea of selling MGs and Triumphs in the US just a year or two after this ad, but can't you feel the optimism here?
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newVideoPlayer("70s_Triumphs_476.flv", 494, 410,""); When you're caught in flagrante delicto by your special lady's husband and have to flee on foot while dressed in a towel, you might breathe a sigh of relief when you discover he plans to chase you in a Triumph Stag; after all, the timing chains probably won't hold out as long as your legs. But then, in one of those cruel twists of fate that seemed all too common in Malaise Britain, you find yourself in the waking nightmare of being forced to choose another Triumph in which to make your getaway!
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The Bonus Edition DOTS cars just keep coming in. Today we're heading down to San Diego, where Brian B captured a very Jalopnik-centric pair of vintage cars: a 1968 Buick LeSabre and a 1972 Triumph Stag. One is a vast sedan with styling that may have been aimed at old people, but at least they were hip old people (like retired mobsters, etc). The other is a sporty British V8 machine with a reputation for unreliability so awe-inspiring that you can't help but admire its owner. Good finds! Make the jump to read Brian's descriptions. galleryPost('DOTSBESanDiegoCars', 6, 'Stag and LeSabre Down On The San Diego Street'); (Buick): I saw this lovely ol' gal docked in Pacific Beach and thought you might enjoy. She appears to be original and the relative lack of rust tells me she hasn't spent her whole life in CO. I'd peg it as a '68, giving it the 2bbl 350, right? (Triumph) I saw this beautiful Stag, replete with removable HT option, when I went to my...
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newVideoPlayer("Austin_Princess-476.flv", 475, 376); After seeing James May torturing himself with that British Leyland stalwart, the Austin Princess, on a recent Top Gear episode , we realized there's far more to the Malaise Era than 140-horse big blocks and tape-striped Brougham Edition Detroit land yachts. Thanks to British Leyland's inimitable devotion to engineering and build quality, the Princess set a new standard for, uh, luxury? Here we see how a Princess jaunt to the Continent with one's driver can lead to reversal of class roles and the possibility of Hot French Hitchhiker adventures.
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