Tag Archives: Morris

One piece at a time – Morris Minor Tourer

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Way back in my school days I remember listening to Johnny Cash’s tale about taking a piece of Cadillac home from the factory in his lunch box every day and thinking ‘if only …’ Looking at this beautiful black nugget of quintessential Englishness I began to wonder if someone had managed to pull off the feat of stealing this car one piece at at time from the Morris Factory at Cowley since the sum of the parts span the entire 3 series of production of the Minor Tourer from 1948 – 1969.

The split screen is from somewhere between ’48 and ’56
but the grill is post ’54.

Not sure what’s under the bonnet, at least an eye popping 30 hp 803 cc which comes in at 49cui.

The ‘Morris Minor’ badge is almost certainly Series II.

And when we look at the back we see those big tail lights match the side lights at the front, definitely post ’62.

We know from the 8th series ‘VG’ licence plate on the boot this car was probably first registered in Norwich and it appears to have been replaced one piece at a time ever since then.

Hope today’s edition was a breath of fresh air, thanks for popping by, looking forward to putting tomorrows edition of Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres together, don’t forget to came back now !

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More bodywork with an ash frame – Morris Minor 1000 Traveller

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The Morris Minor was conceived by Sir Alec Issigonis, best known as the father of the revolutionary ‘Mini‘ and entered production in 1948.

There were 3 series of ‘Moggie thou’ this particular 67/68 model is one of the third series, distiguishable by a single piece windscreen and officially known as Minor 1000.

Powered by a 4 cylinder BMC A series 1098 cc / 67 cui motor the car could achieve 77 mph.

The two door Estate/Stationwagon version was introduced with the second series of the Minor in 1952.

Minor Travellers like the later Mini Traveller featured a varnished ash framework, the same timber as used internally by Morgan.

At the time production of Morris Minors was discontinued each vehicle was estimated to be losing the British Leyland Motor Corporation around £9.

One might be forgiven for thinking the door lock was an afterthought, but I can remember public awareness campaigns on television advising us to lock cars at all times in the late 1960’s early 1970’s long before the crime of ‘joy riding’ had been thought of.

I have driven a couple of Minors and they are very easy to handle at a sedate pace, they do not feel anywhere near as solid or purposeful as a VW Beetle, great for tootling around country lanes all day but not so comfortable on an Autobahn as the Beetle was.

Minors have featured on a number TV series the Traveller probably most famously on ‘Heartbeat’ a series about the Police in Yorkshire set in the 1960’s. There is even a Corgi die cast available complete with Sergeant Oscar Blaketon figure.

For the serious Moggie Thou fan there is also a 1:12 scale model available complete with opening doors !

Thanks for popping by today’s sedate edition of “Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres”, hope you’ll join me tomorrow for more, don’t forget to come back now !

Please note :- I do not in anyway endorse, or have any commercial interest in the products or distributors highlighted in today’s feature, I am merely passing the information on as an enthusiast of all things motoring, I have no experience of handling these products nor have I used these vendors. I recommend anyone interested in these items or distributors do their own thorough investigation into suitability, reliability and particularly prices of both products and vendors before making any purchasing decisions.

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A badge engineered van – Austin Minor

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In 1968 as British Motor Holdings merged with Leyland Motor Corporation to form British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC) the Austin Minor Panel Van & Pick Up was introduced to replace the Austin A35 Panel Van & Pick Up, the design of which dated back to 1956.

Ironically the Austin Minor Panel Van was a badge engineered Morris Minor 1000 apart from the bonnet badge, crinkled ‘Austin’ grill and ‘Ausitn’ steering wheel boss the Austin Minor Panel Van is identical in every respect to the Morris Minor a design that originally dates back to 1948 !

This particular vehicle was registered somewhere between 1968 – 1969 and so was one of the early Austin Minors which are also distinguished ‘AA’ prefix to its chassis number rather than the ‘MA’ featured on the Morris Minor Van.

Manufacture of the Austin and Morris Minor Vans ceased in 1971 as the whole Morris Minor range was replaced by the exciting modern and thoroughly maligned Morris Marina.

Slightly off topic congratulations to Jimmie ‘I don’t sign autographs’ Johnson on taking his fifth consecutive Sprint Cup title after a fascinating race at Homestead Miami last night.

I imagine I am not alone in wondering why the title was not awarded to either the driver who won the most races Denny Hamlin or the driver who had the seasons, including the Chase, highest average finish (my driver) Kevin Harvick ?

Wishing you all a healthy week, as I look forward to preparing tomorrow’s edition of ‘Gettin a lil’ psycho on tyres’, don’t forget to come back now !

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Nothing can extinguish the Olympic Flame – Rochdale Olympic Phase I

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This comes under the category of cars I had not heard of before I took the picture.

Rochdale Motor Panels and Engineering were beased in Rochdale, Greater Manchester between 1948 and 1973, best known for making fibre glass bodied kit cars .

In 1959 they designed the glass fibre monocoque for the Olympic the only other such monocoque at the time was the Lotus Elite. After a factory fire the car went into production in 1960.

The Olympic was designed by Richard Parker to take a variety of engines including the twin cam 1.5 litre 91.5 cui Riley, Morris Minor, MGA and Ford 109E, unusually for kit cars of the time it featured wind down door windows.

With the Riley engine the car was capable of 0-60 mph in 11.9 secs and could reach 102 mph.

It is estimated that 250 of these vehicles were built of which 100 survive.

Remarkably the Olympic flame is still kept alive by a group of enthusiasts who own the original moulds making it technically possible to build a new Rochdale Olympic.

Hope you enjoyed this Mancunian edition of Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres, don’t ferget to come back now !

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On the Origins of Brands – Riley & Wolseley

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Today I am looking at two storied brands Riley & Wolseley born out of industrial diversification which were woven into that DNA of the nationalised merger British Motor Corporation in 1952.

From 1961 – 1969 they marketed top end 3 box versions, featuring wood veneer dashboards, of the Mini known as the Elf and Hornet respectively.

In 1896 William Riley jr purchased the Bonnick Cycle Company of Coventry which was born out of the cycling craze that swept England in 1890 and renamed it Riley Cycle Company.

Williams son Percy secretly built his first car, featuring an engine with the the worlds first mechanically operated inlet valve, in 1898 aged just 16.

Percy who also patented the detachable wheel went into business with his brothers forming the Riley Engine Company in 1903 supplying motorcycle engines and in 1905 they built their first car.

During restructuring in 1918 Riley car manufacture was transferred to Riley Motor Manufacturing which went into receivership in 1938 and was absorbed into the Nuffield Organisation along with Morris and MG, which in 1952 would merge with Herbert Austin’s companies into the nationalised BMC.

By 1947 Riley had ceased manufacturing it’s own designs and became a top end brand for shared designs in the Nuffield and later BMC organisations.

The Riley brand is easily identified by its blue diamond badge originally designed by Harry Rush with the strap line ‘As old as the industry, as modern as the hour’, was discontinued in 1969 and currently belongs to BMW.

Between 1961 and 1969 30,912 Riley Elfs were built.

In 1896 Herbert Austin working for the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Company made a copy of a Leon Bollee vehicle that he had seen in Paris. By 1899 he had built a Voiturette that went into production in 1901 with Herbert Austin in charge of the Wolseley car division that had by now been spun off as an independent concern.

In 1905 Herbert Austin left to set up his own Austin Motor Company.

After several mergers and changes of ownership the Wolseley Motor Company came into existence in 1914 in the hands of Armstrong Siddeley. At this time operations were started in Toronto and Montreal which became British and American Motors after WW1.

In 1918 Wolseley started a joint venture with Ishikawajiama Ship Building and Engineering for the production of Wolseley models under license, in 1947 this venture became Isuzu.

In 1927 William Morris (Lord Nuffield) purchased Wolseley outbidding his rival Herbert Austin and General Motors using his own money.

Woseley became another top end brand for shared designs after WW2 and would become part of the merged BMC a combination of the assets of William Morris and Herbert Austin who between them had been responsible for the rise of much of the British motor industry.

The brand disappeared in 1975 the last model being a wedge shape forerunner of the Austin Princess which was in production for just 7 months.

Today the brand is owned by Nanjing Automobile Group along with the assets of the MG Rover Group. The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Company is today known as Wolseley plc.

28,455 Wolseley Hornets pictured above were built between 1961 and 1969.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s post, don’t forget to come back now !

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