Car : Morris Minor
Year : 1929
Engine : 4 cylinders in line
Bore and stroke : 57×83 mm
Cylinder capacity : 847 cc
Gears : 3 forward
Brake horse power : 20
Maximum speed : 50 mph
Wheelbase : 6 ft 6 ins (1.98 m)
Suspension : front and back : semi-elliptic leaf- springs
Whilst starting off designs for a ‘Baby’, he still did not neglect American-style large cylinder capacity engines, for which he claimed the English market was ripe.
From 1923 onwards he experimented with a series of 6-cylinder engines, and in 1928 his first six went into production as the 2.4-litre Isis. With the Oxford, the Cowley, and now the Minor, William Morris had offered the public what he maintained was the logical fruit of a sane, farsighted industrial policy. After 1928 things changed. He now had to adapt to what the market demanded. His enlightened administrative abilities enabled him to ride the 1929 slump without great loss, and by the constantly balancing costs against profits, his company became the largest not only in Great Britain, but in the whole of Europe.
William Morris, Viscount Nuffield, died in 1963. In 1952 the merger of his firm with Austin had given rise to the British Motor Corporation. He did not live to see that other great industrial operation–the grouping into a single entity (1969) of Austin-Morris and Leyland, to create British Leyland, now one of the major car manufacturers in Britain.

Comments are closed.