james may

[les]

You can tell a lot from a name.

[IaininTenbury]

There WAS a prototype front wheel drive Morris Minor. Jack Daniels (one of the original design team) drove it daily.
However this was built well AFTER the first Minor entered production and had nothing to do with the flat four prototype ideas of some years earlier. The fwd car was probably built about 1951/52 and lessons learned from it were carried on to the Mini of course which was later designed by the same team.

I know... prob a case of don't let the facts get in the way of a good story!

[IaininTenbury]

The four inch stripe on the bonnet is more of a design feature than as a result of widening the car by 4". After all - we don't see it anywhere else on the car - roof/bootlid/floor pans etc etc - which would have taken much more expensive modifying than worrying about the bonnet pressing!

Or it could be a case of just the bumpers and bonnet tooling were made first or they felt they couldn't get away with modifying the roof tooling as they did with the bonnet and made new.
The four inch moulding certainly doesn't appear on any of the prototypes so probably just a clever way of getting round the problem...

[Mark Wilson]

I wondered why and in what context Brian May (obviously a talented presenter in many ways )

You can tell a lot from a name.

Have I made the right connection?

[les]

Issigonis----- British doesn't automatically spring to mind!

[davidmiles]

why not overanalise things, doesn't do any harm and you can learn a lot from it, for example, the roof was re- drawn by Reg Job who in Paul Skilleter's book Morris Minor quoted as having said this about the roof pressings on the original car.
"well, I thought, I'm not going to alter all this lot...All I had to do was put some flat in the middle, that's why it's straight there, on the minor; there's no curvature in the middle of the car.
"it was easy for the body tooling to be revised to include this additional 4 inch of neutral metal in the roof pressings, while the bonnet was given a raised centre moulding to accomodate the extra inches, and bootlid simply given a wider skin"

The only parts then constructed were the bumper blades, that were cut and a fillet welded in the middle to add 4 inches, so really early cars have a three piece bumper blade.

[liammonty]

why not overanalise things, doesn't do any harm and you can learn a lot from it, for example, the roof was re- drawn by Reg Job who in Paul Skilleter's book Morris Minor quoted as having said this about the roof pressings on the original car.
"well, I thought, I'm not going to alter all this lot...All I had to do was put some flat in the middle, that's why it's straight there, on the minor; there's no curvature in the middle of the car.
"it was easy for the body tooling to be revised to include this additional 4 inch of neutral metal in the roof pressings, while the bonnet was given a raised centre moulding to accomodate the extra inches, and bootlid simply given a wider skin"

The only parts then constructed were the bumper blades, that were cut and a fillet welded in the middle to add 4 inches, so really early cars have a three piece bumper blade.

I think you misinterpreted my comment David

[LobbyLudd]

I wondered why and in what context Brian May (obviously a talented presenter in many ways )

You can tell a lot from a name.

Have I made the right connection?

It was that time he played in Queen that he was even more talented ??

[davidmiles]

James May was right about one thing in the cars of the people last night, have pickup, can do, Though not his exact words. Here I am, the shorter one, with Cam my daughters boyfriend, removing a broken down fridge, to the council recycling centre, that has blighted the outside of their student house for...far too long.[frame][/frame]

[Chipper]

The four inch stripe on the bonnet is more of a design feature than as a result of widening the car by 4". After all - we don't see it anywhere else on the car - roof/bootlid/floor pans etc etc - which would have taken much more expensive modifying than worrying about the bonnet pressing!

If you actually measure it, you'll find it's nowhere near 4 inches!

[LobbyLudd]

The four inch stripe on the bonnet is more of a design feature than as a result of widening the car by 4". After all - we don't see it anywhere else on the car - roof/bootlid/floor pans etc etc - which would have taken much more expensive modifying than worrying about the bonnet pressing!

If you actually measure it, you'll find it's nowhere near 4 inches!

Its exactly 4" on the raised bit , then it slopes out each side to make 4 3/8ths " On the Minor 1000 ?????
Are you measuring another car perchance

[TFM150K]

Get a new ruler, Chipper, my raised bit is four inches too (and it's getting blooming cold out there).

[les]

The four inch stripe on the bonnet is more of a design feature than as a result of widening the car by 4". After all - we don't see it anywhere else on the car - roof/bootlid/floor pans etc etc - which would have taken much more expensive modifying than worrying about the bonnet pressing!

If you actually measure it, you'll find it's nowhere near 4 inches!

Perhaps they didn't widen yours!

[davidmiles]

in that case Chipper has a Mosquito..