Regular readers will recognise this car without too much difficulty – we detailed its restoration from the November 2020 issue until the September 2021 issue, and since then it has popped up now and again in my own Driver Diaries. Over that time I have got to know it pretty well, but a 130-mile round trip gave me the opportunity to leave that history to one side and approach it with fresh eyes, to put it through its paces as a driver's car rather than a project and see what impressions it made.
To recap briefly, it is a 1970 MkIII model. The MkIII was current from 1966-1974, and introduced several new features to the Midget line. There was a bigger 1275cc version of the A-series engine for one thing, plus a taller 3.9:1 back axle (previously it had been 4.2:1) from 1968. There was also a new hood and frame that folded into a bigger cockpit after the rear deck had been moved 4in towards the back, while a facelift in October 1969 replaced the earlier chrome grille with a new recessed one painted satin black.
That is the car we have on test today, one built prior to the change to round rear wheelarches for 1972, at which point the toggle switches on the dash were also changed to rockers. Further – and more substantive – changes were made in 1974 when the A-series engine was replaced by Triumph's 1493cc unit and the chrome bumpers replaced with black polyurethane impact-absorbing ones. The bodyshell also reverted to the earlier square rear wheelarches at that point because it was found that the round ones were not strong enough in the event of a rear impact. In this guise,
