From The Classifieds: 1948 Morris Minor

From The Classifieds

Independent torsion-bar front suspension, rack-and-pinion steering, wheel-at-each-corner platforms and monocoque construction might not sound too special today, but they were revolutionary in 1948 when Alec Issigonis' Morris Minor first appeared.

A resurrection of a boxy, fabric-clad small car first seen in 1928 and produced until 1934, the 1948 Morris was developed under the direction of then-fledgling designer Issigonis and went through various generations, all based on the original design, to the final version that was sold in the UK as late as 1971.

In its day, the original Minor was something of a standout. In terms of its handling and packaging it was the first car to bear the Issigonis trademark that reached its climax with the introduction of the 1959 Mini Minor, which revolutionised small car design in ways that are acutely evident even today.

The Morris Minor, originally developed under the name 'Mosquito', was designed to maximise interior space through locating the engine well forward, something made possible by the independent front suspension, and maximising passenger space between the car's wheels-at-each-corner configuration.

In the interests of maximising passenger space, Issigonis also initially wanted a Volkswagen-style horizontally opposed four-cylinder engine for the new car but, despite being part of the development programme, this was ultimately rejected by the Morris company in favour of an older, conventional 918cc side-valve four-cylinder engine direct from the superseded Morris Eight.

Interestingly the Mosquito became the Morris Minor not long before its launch to the public at the Earls Court motor show in 1948, reputedly because Morris Motors' director, Lord Nuffield – who was evidently no Issigonis fan, nor of the project – disliked the term.

Late in the Mosquito programme, Issigonis also actually widened the prototype's body by 102mm, mainly to improve the car's visual proportions, but this helped in other ways too, increasing interior space and further helping the car's already excellent handling.

From the original two-door sedan to a four-door, then a two-door convertible and later a two-door Traveller 'woody' wagon, the Minor evolved to a raised-headlight style, later adopting a new 803cc overhead valve 'A series' four-cylinder engine shared with the tiny Austin A30, along with a new gearbox (with badly chosen gear ratios).

An intermediate Series II version with a new slatted grille and a redesigned instrument panel was followed in the late 1950s by the further-revised Minor 1000 with a larger, curved windscreen, and a significantly bigger rear window to go with new mechanicals – which included a larger 948cc version of the A series engine and a new close-ratio gearbox with a linkage extension locating the shift lever closer to the driver.

In the UK, the final Morris Minor was given an even larger 1098cc A series engine but that version never came to Australia.

For all this, it’s not surprising that of all Morris Minors, the Low Light is the hardest model to find today.

That's why this dark-green 1948 example from the Melbourne suburb of Bentleigh East that appeared recently on carsales.com.au caught our attention.

The owner says the car has been restored, but features the original interior and has a reconditioned engine that has not yet been run in.

The owner has put $6500 on the car, which will be sold without a roadworthy certificate.

An early example of the Alec Issigonis genius that makes many other affordable cars of its time look positively archaic…

See previous carsales From the Classifieds