Marque: Morris - Company History & Models - Cars By Brand
Morris
Morris (started by William Morris - Viscount Nuffield) was an extremely successful firm during the late 1930s. Its well-liked products included the affordable Morris Eight (unusually for a small car of the time, featuring hydraulic brakes), plus the mid sized Ten and Twelve, also the much larger but similarly styled Fourteen, Sixteen and Eighteen. The War temporarily finished car building for public…
Morris Minor 1000 Traveller
Fast Facts
- Produced:
1953-1970 - Engine:
803cc S4 SV 30bhp @4800 rpm/948cc S4 OHV 35.0 @4750 rpm /1098cc S4 OHV 48bhp @5100 rpm - 0-60 mph:
25secs (1098) - Top Speed:
77 mph (1098) - MPG:
38 mpg (1098)
The Morris Minor ‘Traveller’s Car’ debuted in October 1953, fitted with the saloon’s 803cc engine. In October the following year, the Minor gained a horizontally barred front grille and a centrally mounted speedometer. Timber framing famously structural. The 948cc ‘1000’ models are externally recognisable by their single piece windscreen launched in 1956 and the Traveller is mechanically unaltered until 1961, when it finally lost its semphaphore trafficators. For ‘62 it gained the lusty 1098cc engine –full key starting for the 1965 model year, too! Early Travellers came with ‘De-Luxe’ leather trim and all later Minors could be had with a column lock and reclining front seats. British Travellers were discontinued at the end of 1970, marking the end of an era. A good one is still hard to beat as a classic workhorse that’s full of charm. Fitting Marina discs and a 1275 cc engine makes this great car even better.
Morris J4 ‘59-‘74
Fast Facts
- Produced:
1959-1974 - Engine:
1622cc - 0-60 mph:
20 secs - Top Speed:
79mph - MPG:
30mpg
In the pre-Transit era of British panel vans the Morris J4 was considered the state of the art LCV. It’s forward control styling gave a load capacity of 160 cuft while the load space represented some 60 per cent of the van’s overall length. And it became a familiar sight in red for the GPO or as a Black Maria a la the cover of Abbey Road. The pick-up variant was offered for the building market; in the 1960s they were always seen on motorway construction sites. The payload was increased to 10cwt in 1961 with the J4-M10 and this was replaced by the 14cwt 180J4 and the 20cwt 200J4 in 1968. Known as an ‘Austin- Morris’ from 1969 onwards, the J4’s forward control styling became increasingly less popular in the 1970s because it offered minimal crash protection and servicing could be time-consuming. So it wasreplaced in 1974 by the more conventional, trusty, Sherpa that carried on well into the 1990s as the Leyland DAF 200/400.
