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The Cruickshank Designed MG Magic Midget.
Building A Pioneer.
by A Hughes
As outlined on the History page, there was no commercial activity involved with tether cars in the UK until after the end of the Second War. Although there were published designs, the only way to realise these was to make all the parts yourself. Having recreated several commercial cars using original parts I decided to have a go at one of the original seven ‘Pioneer’ cars from the Drysdale Press plans. The decision on which model to chose was made when the Editor of the Retro Racing Club Magazine found me an original plan for the Cruickshank MG.
The design for the car was based on a full sized racing car, the MG Magic Midget, EX 127. There is a deal of confusion over the MG record-breaking cars. There were two quite distinct cars built and developed from 1930 onward. The more famous was the streamlined record breaker EX 135, which was based on the 6 cylinder Magnette chassis and is closely associated with Goldie Gardner. This was the car that modelled and raced so successfully by Jack and Lucy Gascoigne and Ian Moore. The other car used the smaller 4 cylinder Midget chassis as a base and was originally built in 1931 to be raced by George Eyston. This was the car that Cruickshank’s design was to represent.
The design, as originally published, bears only a passing resemblance to the prototype, which was a very small car with a simple, almost slab sided body. Cruickshank specified a much more streamlined and less angular shape, much more reminiscent of a large Brooklands cars. It gave the car the proportions of a much larger prototype.
Armed with the plan, a supply of 9mm plywood and a band saw, the chassis was no problem at all and there it sat on the shelf to taunt me for several months. You know how it can be with projects, either something else comes along to occupy your time or the impetus is not there to get on with it. I experienced both, but every time I looked at the chassis I had doubts. Could I get a suitable Kestrel with the correct radial finned head? The worm drive gearbox looked very suspect and there seemed to be no sensible or robust way to install the engine mount and the suspension looked a bit iffy as well. Just could not see my way to continuing with the car until I had resolved these issues. In the course of looking for information on a particular hydroplane, Peter Hill discovered that in Model Engineers during December 1944 Cruickshank had described a MKII version of the car. He had abandoned the worm drive gearbox as it self destructed in short order. Got rid of the separate engine mount and bolted the motor straight on to the chassis former and altered the suspension to suit. He had obviously had the same reservations as I did.
It was another 5 months before I obtained the relevant magazines (thanks Rod) and then I was away. One new solid former replacing the suspect two in the existing chassis, and there was a built in engine mount for the correct Kestrel that I had found on ebay. The spares box provided a bevel gearbox almost identical to the drawing and enough clutch pieces to create a useable unit. 1066 long flywheel collets fit a Kestrel perfectly, not just a happy coincidence methinks. The cush drive was not necessary, but it looked so good that I made up one of those as well. I did divert from the plan as I went for a live rear axle to simplify the wheel design. Leaf springs and axle bushes quickly followed and there was a complete chassis.
Wooden wheels were retained, but with 1066 type tyres from Bill Bannister instead of rubber rings which were standard at the time. Four very tasty hand made (and handed) ‘knock off’ spinners hold aluminium covers on to the wheels as per plan.
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Battery box and switch made exactly as the drawing and there was a presentable car. Only a body to build. Aaagh, the worst bit of all. How I love tin bashing, or aluminium in this case. Firstly I had to decide whether to go with the original streamlined shape, or the later and more scale like one with the slab sided built up tail. Having seen the superb version built by the late Dave Moir I decided to go for the longer one-piece tail with the extra work and swearing involved. 24 swg was the thickness of sheet specified and luckily this is available from B&Q so there was no room for any excuses. My wife staggered home from school with a bag of stakes and a dinging hammer that I had ‘borrowed’ and I spent a happy week cutting, bashing and annealing.
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On of the most useful bits of equipment I have is a Mini Folder, designed by Mike Broadbent of Aviation Modeller. Sheet metalwork is a lot easier with this tool, check it out. Fuel tanks are a cinch.
For the sheet metal virgins there are two ways of creating a 3D shape. Sinking which involves bashing the metal into a bag or block and raising that stretches the material either with a hammer or an ‘English Wheel’. This is a much more subtle process and the one specified by Cruickshank for the nose of the car. Mind you, I can now agree with Ian Moore about it being ‘an anti social way of making a body’. I still have ringing in the ears.
Either I must be learning, or had a bit of luck as the resulting panels fitted better than I ever dared hope. A trial fit showed need for a little ‘gentle persuasion’ on the cockpit cover and that was all. At this stage I cut and drilled all the holes that would be needed before the rubbing down and painting process began. 24 swg is thin and great care was needed when handling the formed nose, especially marking and cutting out the octagon.
I was amazed that after a rub down with 400 wet and dry and a spray with etching primer only the headrest needed any filling. Another coat of primer and frightening it with 1000 w&d and it was topcoat time. The original car had a variety of colour schemes in its life but Cruickshank had used British Racing Green so that was the colour I used. One coat all over and it looked super, until a rogue gust flipped a piece of paper on to the wet surface of one panel, so that had to come back to the bare metal. The radiator mesh and logo looked to be difficult, and so it proved. Cutting the letters was easy enough, but getting the mesh to the double curve and then getting the letters on was a very frustrating process. Eventually I got there and all that was left was 6 very fiddly body clips to be made from a watch spring. Suddenly the car was finished, well almost, as Cruickshank had specified a wooden penholder as the stalk on the knock off switch. Could I find one, just to be ridiculous? The copy shop supplied a beech mapping penholder and I had a completed Cruickshank MG Magic Midget.
Completed Cruickshank MG Magic Midget
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