Morris - Morris Minor (prewar)
The Morris Minor was exhibited in 1928, and available from 1929 built as either a tourer or a fabric saloon. What became the Morris Minor had originally been the work of the Wolseley company, which had gone bankrupt before their small car was finished, and was part of the assets purchased by William Morris in 1927. The Morris Minor was built to compete head on with the Austin Seven, so they had to try and do a better job! The Morris Minor had amore advanced overhead camshaft four cylinder engine with the advantage of a larger 847cc capacity. The Minor chassis was a shrunk down car with conventional springing. There were initially teething problems which were gradually designed out, and remember that it was this Minor that was the basis for the MG M Type. For 1931 a 2 seater option "Semi Sports" was added . Late 1929 was the Wall Street Crash that led to huge hardships, which really started to bite around 1932. So for 1932 the more expensive to produce overhead camshaft engine was discontinued, and replaced with a side valve of the same capacity. For 1934 the cars were altered considerably, which was the final year of production for the Morris Minor, until the Minor name was revived in 1948.
Tyre size for the original prewar Morris Minor was 3.50x19, with the later Morris Minors having 4.00x19 tyres. For the earlier cars, remember that the same chassis as was used on the MG M type, which used the 400x19 tyre size. Blockley were the first company post war to make these tyre sizes, in correct triple stud pattern, but also in a quality not seen before or since, which many have since tried to emulate. It's significant to note that the Blockley 350x19 is correct in its details, with the smaller tread blocks to it's 3 block pattern just as they were in period, unlike the tractor like treads others have made trying to copy what we are doing! Our 3.50x19 and 4.00x19 tyres are made to look exactly as they were in period, so the cars can look truly authentic, and work perfectly, while our low prices are only because we sell direct to the end user or restorers, cutting out the Classic tyre wholesalers mark-ups. See full details of these earlier prewar Morris Minor tyre sizes at the links below:
