I love them until I sit in them

[mikec4193]

Hi Morris Minor folks

I have been fiddling with these cars off and on since Covid hit....love love love the looks of them...parts suppliers are great (the money exchange rate does make it very costly to purchase and ship parts)...I am very thankful that there is aftermarket support all in place for guys like me...I had a Datsun truck in 2025/26 that I saved and there is no real aftermarket for them..

The cars themselves seem like very cool little cars...I think I could fit 2 of them in my shop and still have room to tinker on them...

Then I sit in the drivers seat...holey cow...I get so claustrophobic I have to open the door to not have that feeling...

I was told that when these little cars were first built they were considered a big car compared to the pre-war stuff...

So I will be selling my current project I picked up in June of 2026. I got it to a point where I think it would run but I have no desire to drive.

Makes me feel like I am in a sardine car I guess...never been in a sardine can but my dad used the term back in the day for being in a tight place...

I will be continuing on my rat rod project but that I will probably never drive it either.

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How do you guys drive them and not feel all closed in?? That steering wheel is literally right on top of the windshield...

Just wondering out loud...

MikeC

[jaekl]

You said you had Beetles. Aren't they are worse? The seat to door post can be tight and Benson and Hedges had to put a bubble in the windscreen for their mm extra cigarettes. The later steering wheel is farther from the screen.

[geoberni]

Yes, the windscreen in the MM/SII really is close, I've had mine 9 years and I still bang my fingers on the 'screen if attempting a wave of acknowledgement to another classic....

As to interior size, best you never even consider a Classic Mini.....

[Bill_qaz]

Have you sat in a later series 5,with seat mounts on the rearmost set of holes and a std minor but adjustable option seat.
Having owned an original Fiat 500 it seems roomy by comparison but all UK cars of the era are small compared with American cars.

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[Mr Spigot]

...... all UK cars of the era are small compared with American cars.
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UK cars of any era are small compared to American cars! We hired a car to take 5 of us to a family wedding in the US a couple of years ago and it was like driving a bungalow! Having just returned from New York, the majority of cars are enormous SUVs and 6 lane highways abound.

[mikec4193]

I have actually thought about building a Mini...over the UK you guys have Mini-Stox I think they are called...they are very very intriguing to me...I would love to build one...not sure I would want to drive it...but building one I think it would be fun...

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[myoldjalopy]

Why not get an early 50's Morris Oxford? Its like a big version of the Minor!

[mikec4193]

Why not get an early 50's Morris Oxford? Its like a big version of the Minor!

Not sure how the parts supplies are for those cars...I am in the USA...

That is a good thought...

[mikec4193]

...... all UK cars of the era are small compared with American cars.
IMG-20260131-WA0005.jpg

UK cars of any era are small compared to American cars! We hired a car to take 5 of us to a family wedding in the US a couple of years ago and it was like driving a bungalow! Having just returned from New York, the majority of cars are enormous SUVs and 6 lane highways abound.

Driving over here is total insanity now...Driving a little in 1950s Morris Minor it is suicide for sure...I am asking to get my butt run over by some big honking SUV or jacked up pickup truck...

The last old car I drove on the road here was 1968 VW Bug and it was frightful to say the least...

I need to stick to rebuilding them and let the brave folks drive them...

MikeC

[moggiethouable]

Or move house to some country retreat with narrow lanes and less traffic.

[Bill-H]

When they were first designed, they were four inches narrower than the subsequent production models - the 4" wide strip down the middle of the bonnet and the infill plate in the middle of the front bumper on the earliest ones attests to that, imagine how you'd feel driving one of those!
Most roads in Europe at that time and many even now in the UK are quite narrow, and the cars designed and built for the common man after WW2 were small, Austin A30/35, Standard 8 and 10, Morris Minor.
Even to the current day there are many quite small cars built and sold around much of the world. I drive a Suzuki Ignis as my 'everyday' car and it is shorter than a 2 door Morris Minor and although 4" wider, that 4 inches is taken up with thicker interior materials so the passenger compartment is no wider inside than my Morris Traveller.
Some of the country roads around where I live are often less than 12 feet wide with banks and hedges on either side and you need to pull in to a farm gateway to allow oncoming cars to inch past you. Driving a big vehicle would be a hinderance on many journeys.
Never feel claustrophobic driving mine as I'm used to smaller vehicles and at £7.70 per UK gallon (thats over $10 a gallon), I would rather have the 60+ miles per UK gallon than an excess of empty space around me inside a big car.

[myoldjalopy]

Of course, the bigger you are, the smaller the car feels!

[moggiethouable]

My two-penneth on the size for what it is worth.
When Dads first car was A Morris Minor convertible I was of course much smaller, but the waves of nostalgia still compensate for my larger girth and still apply.
They compensate for the fact the car was produced when generally people had less, producing a smaller boot, we also ate less, I was narrower then and we travelled shorter journeys, hence the smaller fuel tank.
I still catch my hand on the windscreen when acknowledging someone with a wave from the steering wheel, my elbow feels confined against the door but leg and head room are abundant.
Parking a smaller car is easy as is reversing in to narrow spaces, the brief then of course to produce a small family car that was economical, reliable, easy to maintain and light to drive.
So, when I get in it I know what is coming, including the stranger that waved and even saluted as I passed him on my way to Tom Roy just the other day.
When I get in the big modern I know that the journey, apart possibly from the odd kamikaze driver intent on destroying me, will be uneventful, in the Morris however there is always someone who wishes to chat when I park or just smile or wave as I pass.
That makes the close windscreen and drivers door more than acceptable, well it must do, as I have spent a small fortune rebuilding it over the last 15 years and have no intention of parting with it.

[philthehill]

Try driving a Austin A30/35 - even more compact inside than a Minor.

[svenedin]

I've never felt unduly constrained in my Minor but it is a later Series V. Parking such a small car is a lot easier even though the steering can be hard work at low parking speeds. On those narrow country roads I do feel rather vulnerable when SUV's the size of tanks come speeding round bends at me taking up far more than their share of the road. The SUV drivers seem to show nothing but contempt for the little Minor, not. caring in the slightest that they have nearly forced me into a hedge or ditch. Issigonis did a extremely good job of maximising cabin space. If you look at some quite grand cars of the same era, the cars may be much bigger but the cabin space is often quite cramped.

Stephen