A rare two-seater Morris Minor of the 1930s.
David emailed these photos over, on behalf of a friend, wondering if I recognised the car shown here. I've been reading up a little on the first Morris Minors of the late 1920s/early 1930s, so was pretty sure that the car shown was a Morris Minor Semi Sports, which indeed it is. All three photos show the same Morris, registration VU 925, which is a Manchester number. This ties in nicely with the first photograph, which has a note attached to it saying that it was taken in the Knutsford area of Cheshire, in 1946. As with many cars in those days, when both money and raw materials were in short supply, the tyres are displaying a remarkable lack of tread. I wonder what happened to the offside headlamp?
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The second two photos show the Morris on a camping trip, and looking like it had traversed some muddy roads to get to it's destination. The colour seems to have change too, or perhaps faded somewhat. Note all the camping gear strapped to the "boat tail" Semi-Sports bodywork, and the fabric covered rear body covering that was a feature of the Semi Sports Morris Minor, which on this car was looking quite worn at the time of the photographs.
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The Morris Minor first appeared in 1928, designed to take on Austin and their 7 model in the battle for small-car sales. As well as being a practical little car in it's own right, and able to carry four occupants in reasonable comfort, it also paved the way for the first MG sports car, the Midget, which was to be the first in a long line of sporting machines badged as MG. The Minor was initially available as a four seat saloon (photos of which can be found here) or a tourer.
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Sporting versions of the Austin 7 were proving very popular, and the Morris company were keen to grab a piece of the action for themselves, especially as the Minor-based MGs were also enjoying the limelight in motorsport. William Morris wasn't over enamoured with entering his cars in competitive events, but could see benefits in increasing the exposure of the marque this way, so decided to come up with a sporting little car that would sit between the basic saloon, and the raffish MGs. The result was the Minor Semi Sports, an open two seater with boat tail coachwork, using the running gear of the saloon & tourer, and making it's debut in 1930. The coachwork, from the scuttle back, was covered in fabric, accentuating the sporty nature of this new car.
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Return to Old Vehicle Photos Page 8. An owner's recollections and photos of a similar OHC Minor, owned in the 1960s, can be found in the motoring memories section.
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