Vintage Minor Register

The 'Genome' was the name given to a spreadsheet containing body and other details of all the OHC SWB Minors that was generated about ten years ago by going through the production Progress Books held at Gaydon. Working with Gaydon, we have managed to come up with a plan to complete the work - for the LWB OHC chassis and all of the SV chassis. The task will take a few months to complete and probabluy start in the New Year, but will provide a very powerful research resource - as did the original OHC Genome when it was created. As with the OHC data, we will gather the FULL build data for every surviving LWB OHC and SV Minor that we have recorded in the chassis register, plus those OHC cars that have been added to the chassis register over the last ten years.

As a reminder, the existing OHC Genome may be found in the Members' Area of the website.

The work to complete the Genome is now under way. We will be starting with the SV cars. We will record the body style fitted to every chassis built, and we will be recording the full build data for all the known surviving SV cars for which we have the chassis number on record. Of the 492 SV cars currently on the chassis register, we have chassis numbers recorded for 237 of them.

If you own a SV Minor, take a moment to check the chassis register in the website Members' Area and verify that the chassis number is recorded. If it is not, then please let me know the number so that we can obtain and record the full build data for your car. Thanks to Gaydon for permitting us this privileged access to their records.

We now have the SV Genome completed for the first 18,300 chassis, and there are some fascinating vehicles recorded - and a few surprises. It will take some time to analyse this huge amount of data, and then I'll report fully in M 141. Meanwhile, we now have the full build data for all known surviving SV Minors with known chassis numbers between SV101 and SV18300. If your car falls within this range, contact me and I will let you have your build data.

Ian,
Data on 802 would be good.

Regards,

Philip

Here you go Philip:

Chassis 802
Engine 1240
Erected 9.2.31
Tested 9.2.31
Body shop 10.2.31
Final test 10.2.31
Despatched 11/2/31
2-seater

Ties in with first registration date of 6.3.31 as TF 4293.

Thanks Ian,
Don't suppose they went into body colours. Mine is blue with black wings, according to Harry's book the early ones were grey, can't find any evidence of grey paint on the bits that have dropped off so far but would like to establish original colour for total restoration next year.

Regards,

Philip

Philip,

Unfortunately, colours of individual cars were not recorded in the Progress Books.

The colours for all of the 1931 season SV models was grey with red Karhyde interior. You can find all of the SV Minor colours in the Gren Strickland archive in the Members' Area, and the OHC colours can be found at http://www.vintageminor.co.uk/tech/index.htm#Body.

Ian

That piece of information is incorrect. For the last two months of their short production lives, both the S.V. Coachbuilt Saloon and £100 Two-seater were also available in blue, as well as in their launch colour of grey. The source for this info is the Morris Owner magazine August 1931 edition page 736, which was first published on Friday 10th July. I have read elsewhere (but now can't find the reference source) that blue was an option from the 'early summer' as dealers couldn't shift the grey cars. There are a number of small ads in the motoring mags of July and August 1931 with new £100 Minors being priced for as little as £85. So almost certainly a lack of sales and dealer pressure brought about a change of heart at Morris Motors.

Thanks for that Chris - very interesting.

Also interesting to see the fabric saloon quoted as black - a battleship gray fabric saloon would be interesting! I'll update the Strickland archive!

Ian

Delighted to announce the we will be extending the SV Minor Genome next month - hopefully at least to the end of SWB production. We will also record full build data for all known SV chassis, so if your chassis number is not recorded in the chassis register in the Members Area, this would be a good time to report it to the Register. Once we have build data for the full SV SWB production run, we can then run some very useful statistics across the model.

Would body numbers help?

Philip

Philip,

We record body numbers wherever known in the Chassis Register, but, sadly, they don't feature in the Morris Progress Books. However, they do in the Wolseley Progress Books which is a huge benefit because if you have a Wolseley body (like I do on my Minor fabric saloon) you can look up the chassis that was originally fitted with that body - see the piece in M 142.

So mif anyone can idnetify a body number on their Minor and don't se it quoted in the online Chassis Register, please let me know and I will add it for the record.

TIA,

Ian

Thanks Ian,

Body no. 10355, fortunately it's stamped on the soundest bit of woodwork so can be carried forward on restoration. Do the body numbers bear any relationship to chassis numbers? Don't seem to as my chassis no. is 802, unless there is some abstruse arithmetical progression to connect to a difference of 9553, any Einstein's out there?


Regards,

Philip

Philip,

I only have a handful of SV Minor body numbers recorded, and yours is the first 2-seater number to surface, so I can't yet answer your question! With the scutle tank saloons, bodies were common to the OHC and SV lines in 1931, so there is a complwerte mix across the fleets.

Can I ask you to confirm that the body number on the 2-seater is stamped on the left side sill forward of the bench seat?

Any more SV 2-seater body numbers out there?

Ian,

Yes left hand sill in letters about 1" high, round about where the passengers left foot would go. Have had a count on the genome and my car is the 360th 2 seater which rather scuppered an idea that they may have numbered bodies from 10,000 on, all others up to mine were saloons apart from 5 vans. Interestingly bodies of various types seem to have been made in small batches varying from 15 to 50 at a time, could have been availability of bodies or demand.
Regards,

Philip