JC Midge is a hand built car i.e. a "plan and pattern" car designed by John Cowperthwaite. Like the
Locust
Locusts (derived from the Vulgar Latin ''locusta'', meaning grasshopper) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstanc ...
the body is made of aluminium skinned plywood or MDF and using a purpose made grille or one from a donor, such as a
Wolseley 1500
Wolseley may refer to:
People
*Sir Charles Wolseley, 2nd Baronet (c. 1630–1714), English politician
*Sir Charles Wolseley, 7th Baronet (1769–1846), English landowner and political agitator
* Frances Garnet Wolseley, 2nd Viscountess Wolseley ( ...
(but many other have been used). Unlike a
Kit car
A kit car is an automobile available as a set of parts that a manufacturer sells and the buyer then assembles into a functioning car. Usually, many of the major mechanical systems such as the engine and transmission are sourced from donor ve ...
only a few parts were available, the rest being from the donor car or hand made by the builder by sticking paper patterns on plywood or aluminium and cutting round them with a jigsaw. The starting point was a set of patterns and instructions costing £35 and the designer claimed it was possible to put a car on the road for £800.
The design is inspired of British 1930s cars like the
MG J2 Midget and similar to the
Burlington in both design and construction. Originally it was essentially a re-body of the
Triumph Herald
The Triumph Herald is a small two-door car introduced by Standard-Triumph of Coventry in 1959 and made through to 1971. The body design was by the Italian stylist Giovanni Michelotti, and the car was offered in saloon, convertible, coupé, est ...
,
Vitesse or
Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...
.
It was first presented in 1985 by J.C. Sports Cars in Sheffield, England run by John Cowperthwaite and founded after his earlier company called Moss had its factory destroyed in a fire in 1985.
Later marketing and development of the Midge was taken over by T&J of Rotherham and they continued into the mid 1990s. It was then taken over by White Rose Vehicles in Gillingham, Kent. WRV also constructed their own chassis that took
Ford Escort (with
Ford Cortina
The Ford Cortina is a medium-sized family car that was built initially by Ford of Britain, and then Ford of Europe in various guises from 1962 to 1982, and was the United Kingdom's best-selling car of the 1970s.
The Cortina was produced in fiv ...
or
Ford Taunus
The Ford Taunus is a family car that was sold by Ford Germany throughout Europe. Models from 1970 onward were built on the same basic construction as the Ford Cortina MkIII in the United Kingdom, and later on, the two car models were essentiall ...
(1976–1982) front suspension) parts instead using a Triumph chassis. When White Rose Vehicles ceased trading some club members raised the money to buy the rights to market the car. As it is plan-based the Midge has also been built using various donors including the
Citroën 2CV
The Citroën 2CV (french: link=no, deux chevaux(-vapeur), , lit. "two steam horse(power)s", meaning "two ''taxable'' horsepower") is an air-cooled front-engine, front-wheel-drive, economy family car, introduced at the 1948 Paris Mondial d ...
.
An updated version, the Midge Mk2, for which the donor car is the
Suzuki SJ is now available (2014) with the original principle of plans and pattern and a minimum of 'kit' elements. Being a re-body it is in the United Kingdom exempt from IVA (Individual Vehicle Approval).
It is not known how many have been built.
References
External links
Midge Owners' & Builders' ClubMostly Midge{Dead link, date=January 2020 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes
Car manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Kit car manufacturers