Morris - Morris Minor (prewar)
The Morris Minor was exhibited in 1928, and available from 1929 as either a tourer or a fabric saloon. This project was one that had been ongoing with the Wolseley company, which had gone bankrupt and its assets purchased by William Morris in 1927. The Morris Minor was built to compete head on with the Austin Seven, so they had to try and do a better job. The Morris Minors 4 cylinder more advanced overhead camshaft engine had the advantage of more capacity at 847cc and it's chassis was a shrunk down car with conventional springing. There were teething problems which were gradually designed out, and remember that it was this Minor that was used to make the MG M Type. For 1931 a 2 seater option "Semi Sports" was added . Late 1929 was the Wall Street Crash that led to huge hardships, that although felt at the time, did not really start to bite until 1932. So for 1932 the more expensive to produce overhead camshaft engine was discontinued, and replaced with a side valve of the same capacity. For 1934 the cars were altered considerably, which was the final year of production for the Morris Minor, until the Minor name was revived in 1948.
Tyre size for the Morris Minor: The earlier Minor was quoted with 3.50x19 tyres and the later Morris Minors with 4.00x19 tyres. For the earlier cars, remember that the same chassis as was used on the MG M type, which used the 400x19 tyre size. Blockley were the first company post war to make these tyre sizes, not only in correct triple stud pattern, but also in a quality not seen before or since, which many have since tried to emulate. Also note that the Blockley 350x19 is correct in its details, having the smaller tread blocks to it's 3 block pattern as they were in period, unlike the tractor like treads others have made trying to copy what we are doing!
