Morris Minor Owners Club

I'm pretty much with Alain on this.
On the motorway I tend to cruise at about 60 and confine myself to overtaking lorries.
Trying to "make progress" in a minor rarely makes any significant difference to how long a journey will take and is much more stressful.
Just relax and enjoy the drive .

Aye - but being stuck behind a moped - which is limited to 30 mph by law - just bunches up other traffic behind you - and causes much annoyance and frustration to others. Let's face it - a moped is a thin device - and can usually be safely negotiated leaving a good margin even in the face of on-coming traffic unless the road is particularly narrow - or the moped is hogging the centre of the lane !
I pretty much pass everything - if i catch up with it - then I must have been going faster in the first place. Equally - anything catching me, is encouraged to go past at the very first opportunity. When I used to tow racing cars/caravans around - any queue building behind me and I would be straight into the next lay-by to let them through. Mind you - it didn't happen very often!

Thanks for your replies everyone!
I'm not bothered about overtaking for the sake of it, but don't like holding up other traffic behind me, as bmcecosse says, cause much frustration and then someone is more likely to do something silly!
Good idea about leaving a nice long gap in front, will do that in future and enjoy the drive.
The moped in question was hogging the road a bit, and it was a fairly windy road. Didn't realise they were limited to 30, thought it was a particularly annoying rider!

bmcecosse wrote:Thanks for that - not heard of Burgess - I'm sure the cam must have been changed to get that power. The big single SU is ok for 'torque' - because the rising piston effectively makes it a 'small' carb when that's all the airflow the engine wants. The twin 1 1/4s will be much down on power - try if you want of course. Quaife diff hmmm - expensive! I'm sure your car will do well over 90 if it has 78 (or 80) bhp. Of course - some RRs read much higher than others.....

Incase you haven't already Googled him, here is Peter Burgess - http://www.mgcars.org.uk/peterburgess/.

I have to rectify a fault with the clutch on the car, so when the engine is out, I shall check out the cam. I take the point about constant depression carbs and that experiment would come only after checking out the cam. Certainly my father's 1275 Midget has much more low end pull (The carbs can always come as spares for that), though the Midget is a good couple of hundred weights lighter.

I've used a few rolling roads over the years and Interpro seemed much in line with the others. My MG Midget gave 106 on one and 107 on Interpros...or it may have been the other way round. One one visit to Interpro, they had one of the Marcos sports racers - the LM type things. That would have needed to be well strapped down!!! I hope it didn't have Holley carbs, as I don't think Interpro are too clever with those.

With regard to the issue of overtaking, I feel that it is imperative to overtake safely and give enough room to whatever you are overtaking. The number of people who overtake me, when I am on my bike and approaching a blind brow beggars belief (If I am at the brow and I can see it is clear, I will wave them on). As I said before, I think a lot of them assume that I am as unfit as they are and more of a pedestrian than a road user. Many of them seem unable to use the gearbox and attempt to stagger past in top gear. Thankfully I cycle almost entirely on quieter roads.

Well, the 50cc peds are limited to 30. However you can get mopeds upto 250cc which should be able to do the speedlimit (you need a full bike license to ride those mind, not be a spotty 16 year old with a CBT)

Well, the 803 series II with it's badly spaced gear ratios doesn't really allow me do any overtaking, but I love it all the same!

I always pull over if there's a lot of cars behind me, but I find most drivers respect the fact that the car is an older one and very rarely do they beep at me or get frustrated.

First Minor I drove was a S2. Yes it was slow but not slow in the way that a JCB or tractor would be slow.

My guess is that (Apart from in cities) Australia, being a much larger country, with fewer people, enjoys less congested roads. As to road manners, who are we in the UK to judge ?

Some of the biggest dozers are the drivers of moderns, out for a drive in the country, crawling along, with their eyes anywhere but on the road . If you want to really look at the scenery stop. The first time I went to Austria, I picked up a hire car from the airport (First time in a LHD and first time driving on the right!!) and set off. I hit the mountains in what is called the "German corner" and I soon decided to stop before I caused an accident. The scenery just took by breath away and I decided I had to make a choice; drive or look at the scenery.

Then there are the sunny evening cyclists, who think its OK to ride a bike whilst over the limit . Came accross one lot, dawdling along, three abreast, right accross a B road . As a keen cyclist, this sort of thing dismays me, as it tends to bring cycling into disrepute. Some of the evening strollers have also to be watched.

To be fair, I think that most classic owners do take their brains with them when they do out for a drive in the country.

The problem with the S2 is not so much the engine size but the gear ratios - third gear especially is pretty useless - it is too close to 2nd and if you drop a gear from 4th it really revs. Worst things is hills.....you end to run out in third, then 4th is too low so back to third...then to 4th etc. On a motorway you really feel like a 5th gear would be useful!

Hi G,

Well I'd have to say yes with more power thou

It can be annoying when you have to scream the **** out of it to get past something equally slow!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DRQcyllbIo&feature=user

Just for you

James

A good straight and a slight downhill slope and the old MM will overtake quite happily. The trailer on the back helps to push it along. It's surprising what you can do with 27bhp and a little bit of anticipation.
It has numerous podium finishes on the traffic light grand prix simply because the other driver does not expect me to drop the clutch the moment the lights turn green