Vintage Minor Register

A lovely looking (in my opinion) 32 Minor Special with a 33 rad. Listed as a classified ad, you can buy it today for £9650. Find it here:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Morris-Minor-Tour ... 286.c0.m14



Chris

Good Lord! What a fine looking machine. Wouldn't look out of place at Prescott!

I wonder what the thinking behind its construction was - competition? Hefty price, but looks like much was spent on its construction. A peep into the future perhaps?

I'll get the chassis details.

A very good looking minor. I would prefer the 1932 radiator. With all these minors for sale without bodies - how much would it cost to build a body like this one? If our man in Stoke wants £1500 for a bodyless minor that cannot be bad can it? Her indoors has already said NO WAY!!!. hIGHLANDER.

In the post-war years, several companies produced special bodies for the Seven chassis. The Hamblin Cadet was one, and I had a friend in Bradford-on-Avon who had one back in the seventies - built on a Ruby chassis, I seem to recall. Perhaps someone needs to design a cheap but stylish body with simple cycle wings for the Minor and knock out a batch of twenty or thirty of them to further save cost. A great many chassis could then be economically returned to the road to give pleasure, possibly saving them from being broken for spares and thereby preserving them for a possible future when building accurate replica bodies becomes financially viable. One of the reasons why so many Sevens are restored these days is because, as Chris Lambert observed at Beaulieu last weekend, new bodies are plentiful for Sevens, but there is not a single source for Minor bodies (except M Type bodies!) - because there is no demand.

Similarly (as I suggested a while back on another thread) it would be wonderful to see a batch of Hundred Pound two-seater bodies run off by someone, for the same reasons. But again, no demand.

Are those 450 x 17's its sitting on?

At the threat of being drummed out of the VMR would a replicar "ulster" body fit a minorchassis? As Chris has stated there are Austin 7 bodies off the shelf - chummy and Ulster. I have always wanted an Ulster as there were a good looking sports car. I may be out of touch but I think an ulster body is £750 ( even if it twice as much £1500) would the pair fit? You would have to re-shape the bonnet. I have thrown the firework in - lets hear the bang!!!! Highlander.

Alister,
I bet it could be adapted, but perhaps not easily. With M Type bodies costing £3K plus to buy off the shelf, if there was a £300 or £400 addittional 'conversion' cost on top of the £1500 outlay for an Ulsteroid body it could be worth considering. Now the prettiest Seven I have ever seen was the Arrow bodied version I saw at Beaulieu last weekend. Has anyone got a photo of the Arrow Minor?
Chris

Alister, Chris,

I think the problems with fitting an Ulster body would be broadly the same as fitting any 7 body on a Minor chassis, and are based on the fact that the 7 has an A-frame chassis, while the Minor has a (proper!) ladder chassis. I do have a photo of a Hundred Pound Minor body on 7 chassis though! Also remember that the floor of the Minor is wood, and can be easily adapted, but the 7 floorpan is steel.

As for the Arrow, Chris, there was an article on the Minor Arrow some time back in the VMR Mag. I have the original pics if you can't find it. It still seems to me that someone should be able to design a smart but simple period looking sports body for the Minor chassis which could be run off in a batch for a realistic cost, or made as a one-off to drawings. Look at the number of 7 specials that have been made on this principle. Remember the B&Q special? You would have to make sure it didn't look hideous and was street legal re wings, lamps, etc., but you could surely come up with something with no compound curves that looked decent. Cheap, simple aero screens, no hood, cut down sides so no need for doors, etc. Skimpy ash frame covered in light alloy, which is easy to work with and great for performance. Maybe a project for Olly Rose and his Dad on Olly's SV chassis, Jon now runs JR Engineering and could probably knock out a batch? They would be equally suitable for OHC and SV (SWB) chassis - adaptable for front or rear tank - and would be a lot of fun. Maybe not as good looking as this special for sale here, but costing far less to put together.