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.
I wish people could still buy cars with wood sides. I loved my Jeep that had (fake) wood sides.
ReplyDeleteThere are still alot of folks running around with the wood framed Morris Minor Traveller, we used to have a station wagon called a Ford Cortina Estate back in the mid sixties than had optional imitation wood panels on the side I am sure this was an idea imported from a larger US Ford :-
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ford_Consul_Cortina_estate_timber_effect_1963_ca_1500cc.JPG
Around here, people use old pickup trucks until the beds rot out and then replace the bed with one made of wood.
ReplyDeleteQuaint - very cute!
ReplyDeleteCertainly the wood rots, right? I mean, did they treat the wood so it wouldn't weather?
It's Fraxinus Excelsior Chief, a proper European hard wood which when varnished should last a very long time, Morgan have been using it in their cars for decades as have many other manufacturers in the past, Volvo used it in the production of their OV 4 back in 1928 for example :-)
ReplyDeleteSo long as your not using soft woods like Douglas fir for example the wood should be all right until something mechanically terminally fails and if your environment is particularly harsh you can always re varnish it every couple of years as one might hard wood window frames :-)