From Jonathan Smith
This shows inter alia the strengthened sills in Jonathan's car. Note the big starter button. Very neat!
Here's an engine bay from the 'other' direction Note the strengthening in place of the heater/battery tray. I think that's a VVC and of course the orig Rover ECU (latest Emerald also runs the very complicated cams …)
Russ Morgan was one of the first to Konvert his Midget, using a standard 1.6 engine in 1999. He was kind enough to let me have a go around Castle Combe; I say kind, but look what it made me do to my lovely 'standard' 1293 Midget … Anyway, Russ recorded 0-60 in 6.4s on instruments with that setup, hence we are sure a 1.8 with be under 6s. When he's installed a diff up to the job, I'm hopeful we'll have figures for his 1.8/210bhp version. Here are two pics of Russ' car - he won't mind me showing the engine being built, and the chassis mods he has applied rather than the whole car in its glory (elsewhere on the site):
Here's Les Carter's KMidget engine bay. He says ' I'm going to spend the winter upgrading the back axle and fitting new rear springs on (the old ones have flattened and the silencer is catching with a passenger).' Reminds me I must fit a heater air-hose on mine sometime; also note how much neater the wiring is compared with mine (must tidy up BRB one of these days!)
There's been some discussion on the BBS re strengthening the bulkhead, to put back rigidity lossed through removing the gearbox cross member and part or whole of the heater tray. You can see Russ' solution (see the stronger chassis, in (2) above; also Jonathan Smith's in (1) above; and of course what I did to BRB at http://www.btinternet.com/~anthony.cutler/Kseries2.htm (the simplest job, as usual!). Check out Paul Walbran's solution below (Paul and Andrew are pioneers of the KMidget from NZ: find them on: http://www.mgparts.co.nz) in raw and final form:
And whilst we're here, have a look at the 5-link rear-end James has applied to Tam's KMidget (most excellent!):
Take a look also at: JamesM's Blog; very useful record of his conversion in progress.
... and a picture of Sean's KTMidget which he promises to finish this summer...
