Vintage Minor Register

Just a quick post to tell you of my new purchase, a 1930 Semisports. I had been getting increasingly frustrated at not having a mobile Minor as the rebuild of the saloon is taking so long. Through some research I had tracked down and made contact with several Minor owners in Kent and Sussex, one of whom had this car. After a while he told me he was wanting to part with it after 26 years of driving ownership. I fell for it and bought it. The car has an interesting history, being registered early in 1931 in Antrim (hence the registration). It then surfaced at a dealer in Belfast in 1970 and was bought by a young man who rebuilt it to race in VSCC events. (I believe he still races in events today.) It then went through several dealers and at one point lost it's registration. Mike Thomas of Horam, past Secretary of the Morris Register and now PRO found it in a dealer with no documents, took a chance and purchased it. He had to put it on an age-related plate, but after a three year struggle he got the original back. Since then it has been regularly run to shows etc, including Thoresby Hall, Brighton, Ardingly etc.

The car has its original body frame, number 327, but the colour has changed over the years and it has also lost it's hood and sidescreens. At one point in the sixties it was reputed to have a rudimentary metal hard top! My aim now is to slowly get used to the car, sort out a few niggles, and drive it. One day I might redo the fabric, but I have plenty else to do before then!

That then is a potted history thus far. I have much more, (including a letter from a lady VSCC scrutineer in the 70s), but I can add more later.
The photos should be self explanatory, and include on of it being raced in the late 70s.

Regards to all, Mike.

Mike,

This is excellent news - congrats!

This is the ex-Keiran White car, and there is an interesting story surrounding it (and I seem to have interesting stories about most surviving Minors!). About 25 years ago, when living at RAF Brize Norton, I had a local friend named Peter Vasher who had a gorgeous Rolls 20. He also had the sad remains of a 1929 fabric saloon (chassis M3273) that he was rebuilding as a Semi-sports. Thinking that IA 9142 was the sole survivor, he traveled to Kilkenny, Ireland to measure up the car and he made his body from these drawings. Peter eventually sold the car and it is currently with Paul Veenboer in Holland and still going strong. Peter spent time in India working on various RR's and whilwe there found a Hawker Hurricane Mk. 1 (R4118/G-HUPW) that he restored and now flies. Peter also wrote a fascinating book on the airceraft and its restoration. His wife Polly owns the very early Hundred Pound Minor OG 8580 (chassis number SV107) which is displayed at the NMM Beaulieu.

But I digress. IA 9142 has had a mod. done to it - the right hand dash board cubby has been deleted at some point and this mod. was faithfully copied by Peter into his car which rermains to this day in that configuration. Paul Foulkes-Halbard also owned this car at one point.

Ian,

Thank you for this interesting snippet. I am starting to piece the history of the car together, partially aided by some old correspondence. The car was indeed owned by Kieran White, who appears to have restored it to race in VSCC events, mainly at Oulton Park. (I intend getting in touch with him and have his details, I believe he still races, a Lagonda Rapier!) Fortunately the car still retains it's original frame and bears the body number 327. The earliest picture I have of it, attached, shows it I believe as purchased by Kieran in around 1970. You can see it was then blue! I have some invoices from his rebuild, and some correspondence, including a lengthy letter from Rosemary Burke. This is undated but seems to be from the late 70s in which she says that Kieran 'was lucky to have found such an original car'. In it she refers to her own saloons and two seater, saying, 'I much prefer open-car motoring in a Minor to any modern car'. She concludes by saying that she hoped to see Kieran in the scrutineering bay at Oulton Park. I believe that the picture is not of Kieran driving at Oulton Park, but a friend. I have a lot of research to do in order to find what events it ran at.

Amongst the paperwork is also a letter from a James Peacop from 1978 saying that Rosemary Burke had passed Kieran's details onto him. The gist is that he owned a 1930 open Minor, and the chassis from another, and seeing pictures she showed him of IA9142 he thought he might like to build a replica. He followed this up with another letter later that year requesting dimensions and further photographs. Interestingly he also refers to his 1932 Jensen bodied McEvoy Special!
Can you throw any light on these events, and do you know if this replica ever got built?

Incidentally I am aware of Paul Foulkes-Halbard's ownership. The car might have been on display in his museum at Filching Manor at one time. It was during this time that the number plate nearly got lost, but later he did at least eventually give Mike Thomas the original log book, but only after Mike had spent three years recovering the original registration!

Regards to all,
Mike.

Looks like a nice car for sure!!

Ian, this appears to be a steel bodied Semi... is that correct..??? i thought they were all fabric..????

They were all fabric but had quite a bit of steel underneath. The scuttle top and tail sides were steel, and the rear deck was perforated steel. In this photo, it looks like shiny/polished fabric to me. (Keep the great photos coming, Mike! Any chance of bring it to Prescott? I'd love to look it over.)

Interesting that the later M's were steel, but that was well after the end of Minor production.

Here's a pic of the Bed-Pan showing the correct paneling prior to covering - except I did the tail and scuttle in ali instead of steel. Ronald, you may recognise the seat spring units - your father's handiwork! Mike, if you would like a copy of my Semi-sports CD, just let me know.

Mike,

If you haven't alraedy discovered, I think the 'James Peacop' you speak of is most likely the man who regularly races an MG 'M type' special in VSCC meetings and most recently a Frazer Nash Special. Perhaps he built the M type instead? I think his father owns the McEvoy. IA 9142 looks like a great car - Might we see it on the race tracks again - preferably beating Austin 7s?

James

Editted:
sorry, Alex races the M type and the Nash. His father Jim owns the McEvoy as Ian points out below.

James,

Jim Peacop is Alex Peacop's father. Jim has owned a gray 1930 tourer for decades - ET 6065 - used to campaign it regularly in the VSCC in the Rosemary Burke days. In more recent years, ET has suffered - son Alex robbed it of its engine for his hot M project. Jim also has the McEvoy of course. He runs the Middlewich Motor Museum. Meanwhile ET languishes tired and engineless in his museum - I made an offer for it a while back, but was unsuccessful. As for the McEvoy, there is debate over whether it was originally a Mac or a Jensen.

Here's Jim in ET on Lanthwaite Green on a VSCC Lakeland back in the seventies when I first started visiting trials:



Ian

Regrettably I won't be getting it to Prescott, it will barely get to the top of my drive at the moment! It basically needs some serious fettling, which will take a while. I am about to do a compression test on the engine, can anyone tell me what sort of figures I should be looking for?

Interestingly the body retains its metal scuttle top and perforated steel tail top, but the metal has simply disappeared from the tail sides and the fabric is just stretched over the frame. I can only imagine that this was done for lightness. One day I would hope to return the body to its correct state. Ian, I would be very interested in your cd and will e-mail you about it.

Meantime I have started work on the steel body of VG3260, getting all the paint off prior to some serious metalwork.

Regards to all, Mike.

Mike, you have a fantastic project on your hands - I'll get a CD (actually a data DVD) burned and in the post tomorrow. It contains all the images I took of the Bed-Pan over its 14 year rebuild. Needless to say I'll be doing likewise with the McEvoy. I also ahve plenty of dimensioned drawing of the various Semi-sports specific bits - I'll see what you need. Does it have its original leather grained bonnet?

Ian, thanks for that. Yes it does have it's original bonnet, how did they do that? I have assumed that the metal went through a stamping or rolling process before being formed, but your comment has got me wondering whether that is correct. Have you got those compression figures?

On the subject of textured steel I am building a little hut in the garden and have some modern steel cladding for the roof (the kind of section you see on modern industrial buildings).I cannot think why but the new pvc coated galvanised steel is leather textured! So however the effect was achieved it is possible the same process is still in use.

Well if I need any more I'll know where to look! The compression figures came out to 65psi for each cylinder with maybe 1/2 psi variation, so that looks OK. It looks as though the gearbox will have to come out for some work on the clutch. What is the usual culprit for oil on the clutch? (The answer I'm hoping for is for clutch seals rather than engine!!)
Mike.

The leather grained steel is correct for all 1931 season fabric Minors - so that includes all Semi-sports and the 1931 season fabric salons. A piece of this steel was found in Roy Hogg's van - one of the bonnet supports had been made of it in the factory! I've sen very similar stuff on the sides of modern cookers! Morris either bought it in or had it rolled at Cowley.

Oil in the clutch - most likely coming from the gearbox along the input shaft oilway - there is a service sheet for modifying this - I think you'll find in in the Members' Area. Other sources are the rear main, of course, and also possibly the cylinder block main oil gallery rear end plug which is in behind the flywheel and needs to be done up tightly or it weeps.

Always interesting to see my dads name bought up in topics on here..

I can remember the bonnet support on the van.... and also the bonet on the semi sports we had that i think Tony Gamble still has.... the texture on modern tin roofing is far less prominant than the minor bonnets...........

I remember Roy telling me that the original bonnet that came with KJ 607 was in poor state, so he threw it away! But he was incredibly lucky in that he found another leather-grain bonnet at Beaulieu some years later, and it is this one that Tony now has with this car. Not THAT was a great Beaulieu find!