DATABASE: MORRIS MINOR (1948-1971)
The post-war Morris Minor became a legend in its own lifetime. Like the RM Rileys it had become a sure cert for future classic status by the late ’60s, having escaped all attempts to redesign or kill it off during its long production run.
Almost from the start it was denied some of the advanced technical thinking originally intended for it, and nor was it developed to that end over the following 23 years. Falling sales after the mid-’60s made that plain enough. Yet it wasn’t until the Minor was axed that people realised what they were missing – a familiar friend that put wheels under families, aunts, uncles, the postman, midwife, shopkeeper and farmer in a no-frills package that was easy to service and repair as long as you kept the rust out of it. Thanks to BMC’s deliberations, the Minor never achieved the Beetle’s world presence except in Commonwealth countries. But a lovable shape, an output of 1.6m units and a good dose of benevolent hindsight was enough to embed it in the British psyche for ever.
No wonder that only five years after it was discontinued, the Minor, to the delight of all unashamed sentimentalists and practical-classic enthusiasts, began to be catered for exclusively by Charles Ware’s Morris Minor Centre in Bath. It began a precedent that saw Minor specialists setting up all over the country over the last four decades, to cater for the commonsense classic’s every possible need. And that, happily, is where the Minor has caught up with the Beetle in the quest for immortality.
Nowadays, whether you want your Moggy restored as original or uprated with Rover K-series power, five-speed boxes, Spax dampers and five-link rear suspensions, the sky’s the limit. But the seeds of that individuality were sown in the dark days of war over 70 years ago.
IN THE BEGINNING…
‘The hallmark of one designer rather than a committee’ is one of the more valid definitions of a true classic, and barring a few compromises suffered along the way, the Minor ticked all the right boxes as the inspired creation of Alec Issigonis.
Turkish-born but of British nationality, Issigonis, who had never seen a car until he was 12, arrived in Britain in 1922 to study engineering. At Humber from 1934, he was involved with suspension design, principally the Rootes ‘Evenkeel’ IFS, which led to an attractive appointment with Morris Motors in 1936 to devise a coil-and-wishbone setup for the Ten Series M. This was used instead for the 1947 MG Y-type saloon, but meanwhile war intervened. Issigonis became involved with armoured car and amphibious tank designs, but may also have been looking at a new small-car project as early as 1941. Certainly by the end of 1943, authorised by Nuffield vice-chairman Sir Miles Thomas, chief engineer Vic
