The Rarest Minors?

[cammy]

I don't know if this is relevant to thenuber plate overkill mountings and whether they went into production but I have an information manual (Harry Edwards 4th edition 1999) that shows a 1933 sv 5cwt van with speakers on the roof and this appears to have this bumper arrangement.

[Toby]

I hate to revive this old chestnut, and I must admit that I don't know my minors that well, but I've just heard of a 4 door saloon that isn't a family 8, 33 or 34 model... are there many of these about?

[prharris25]

Presume then Toby that it is a Family Minor with the SV engine ? That is what OY 7539 was when I bought the remains of her from a Thimbleby & Shorland auction !

[Ian Grace]

In other words, there was never a 4-door body fitted to a SWB chassis, but not all LWB 4-doors saloons were called Family 8's. The nomenclature surrounding these LWB cars has never been clear cut - are they Minors or 8's...

Toby, why don't you e-mail Jon Dewar back and see what he can tell you. A chassis number would help, but I doubt whether he tracks such things, but fi you ask, perhaps he would ask the owner - by snail mail?

[prharris25]

Fascinating one is this. To the best of my knowledge the ohc lwb cars had Morris Eight on the radiator badge whereas the sidevalve lwb cars had Morris Minor on the badge. The handbooks for the ohc cars were entitled Morris Family Eight.
I have never seen a dedicated handbook for the lwb sv cars...was there ever one? or did they share the swb book?
I have always seen these later cars referred to simply as Family Minor...but never Family Eight.

[David Whittle]

To my mind the rarest and probably the most desirable Minor is the 'factory 100/100 competition' car, so I'm somewhat surprised to be saying this, considering its valves and camshaft are in completely the wrong place!

100MPH in a Minor! Amazing.
100MPG in a Minor! Still amazing and yes I know it was not by an engine that would do 100MPH (it probably would not do 25MPH)
Only problem being engine life was also measured in the 100s - I believe a few hundred miles and it was only fit for scrap! Shame!

What a pity they did not do the same stunt for introduction of the OHC cars, as I'm sure a well-finished supercharged OHC racing Minor would last very well and still be with us today!

[chris lambert]

Valves and camshaft in the wrong place? Should they be somewhere else then? Surely not a hint of preference or another word beginning with 'P'

[David Whittle]

Valves and camshaft in the wrong place? Should they be somewhere else then? Surely not a hint of preference or another word beginning with 'P'

Paranoia perhaps! Pedantic maybe!

I have little experience of side valve engines, other than my 250cc BSA C10 motorcycle which was charming, but had less performance than my Honda 50!

Just think how nice the later Morris 8s could have been with a 3 bearing version of the OHC engine, a sort of detuned P type MG for the family man! To expensive I'm sure!

[Ian Grace]

I recieved a note from Harry yesterday about SV fabric saloons - he sent me a page from the March 1931 Morris Owner Magazine introducing the SV saloon and fabric saloon. Two photos - one of each. The fabric saloon pic is the same one as further back on this thread, with the triangular bumper brackets. Very likely to have been a prototype. Interestingly you can see the shine on the bonnet of the coachbuilt saloon, but the fabric saloon bonnet is dull, indicating that it was of the leather-grained steel variety. Harry has NEVER come across a surviving example in his 40+ years as MR registrar. I suspect that they made a handful of these, so there may be one out there somewhere. What a find that would be! I know of only two OHC 1931 season fabric saloons (both have grained bonnets), but of course they were available from August 1930, whereas the SV fabric saloon was only available from February to July 1931. Having said that, Peter Caldwell's car was laid down as late as 15/6/31, and Mike Hobday's was laid down 14/4/31. There is a chance that someone has one, and simply told Harry that he has a 1931 SV Minor saloon...

[Ian Grace]

This 1934 season van also has to be in the running for the rarest surviving model. It is the only 1934 season - rounded edged van I have come across. This is a clipping from the Autumn 1991 MRJ. I'll be asking Harry for more details.