When the first Morris Minor debuted at the Earls Court Motor Show in London in 1948, no one could have predicted that the company would go on to build 1.6 million of the diminutive cars by the time production ceased in 1971.
The Morris Minor range comprised five main body styles: A two-door saloon, four-door saloon, two-door tourer (convertible), wood-framed Traveller estate, and light commercial van/pickup variants. Developed by famous British designer, Alec Issigonis, the range evolved through Series MM, Series II and the Minor 1000, becoming the first British car to sell over a million units.
Various four-cylinder engines were used, beginning with the agricultural 918cc side-valve engine as used in the Series II Minor pictured, to overhead valve pushrod derivatives ranging in size from 803cc to 1098cc.
Performance was obviously not even a minor (sorry!) consideration. Top speed for the Series II was claimed to be a bone-shaking 100km/h, and you needed a sundial to measure the 0-80km/h time (28.2 seconds).
As with most of the other models we’re covering here, Carl had a contribution to share.
“My first car was one of these,” he remembers as we inspect the olive green GCMM example.
“It was the same colour, but I did a lot of work on it. It had a 1000cc overhead-valve motor and I put MG1600 valves in it and ported and polished the head. It went pretty well.”
But as far as reliable and affordable motoring were concerned, the Minor was hard to beat. Ironically, it was a further development of the mini car concept from the same company that eventually saw the Minor range discontinued.
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