Morris Minor Owners Club

having fobbed off my austin to my dad to play with, i am looking for the next project.

i want something
- before '73
- the luxury of a saloon
- the ability to whip the roof down and enjoy the wind in my hair
- with parts not to hard to get hold of

and finally, for it to be relatively cheap to run/insure

i have thought about a moggy convertable, but i have the yellow peril as a run around and want something a little different

I've always fancied one of these..

[frame][/frame]
Peugeot 504 Convertible

I expect they rust worse than a moggie though..

It's the "Little different", "With parts not to hard to get hold of" and "Cheap to run/insure" that are causing problems.

If it weren't for the first, I'd say Minor convertible. As this is not sufficiently “Different” and in view of the other criteria, how about a VW Beetle or a Triumph Herald/Vitesse?

If it weren’t for the other criteria, a Riley RMC would be nice (But they aren’t cheap cars to restore and parts availability and cost is not in the Minor league). The MG YT would be a bit easier in these respects but they are not cheap.

" the ability to whip the roof down and enjoy the wind in my hair "

Ah yes, I remember hair........

I thought the Austin was destroyed in a garage fire ??? You really can't hope to beat a Spridget, or just possibly a Spitfire although it's very definitely second best to the Spridget ! (Ducks down to avoid the bricks........)

the austin has survived, but dad wants a play thing so he has got that now.

i was thinking of a frogeye again. i was ideally hoping to find something within the bmc range, but i might even branch out into triumph's.

Frogeye! Luxury! bit of an oxymoron

true, a frogeye is about as far away from luxury as you can get. i was thinking maybe an austin 7 or an mga

bmcecosse wrote:I thought the Austin was destroyed in a garage fire ??? You really can't hope to beat a Spridget, or just possibly a Spitfire although it's very definitely second best to the Spridget ! (Ducks down to avoid the bricks........)

Bricks??? More like some nice lumps of Welsh steam coal!

Seriously, the Spit is just as much fun as the MG, but is made from a different set of bits!

TR7 is great value for money car - but not Tax Free unfortunately. You will need deep pockets if going for an MGA.........

StaffsMoggie wrote:

bmcecosse wrote:I thought the Austin was destroyed in a garage fire ??? You really can't hope to beat a Spridget, or just possibly a Spitfire although it's very definitely second best to the Spridget ! (Ducks down to avoid the bricks........)

Bricks??? More like some nice lumps of Welsh steam coal!

Seriously, the Spit is just as much fun as the MG, but is made from a different set of bits!

Steam coal, now there's a rarity .

I always felt the Midget was a better car for those who wished to enter competitions, as I think its handling is a little more predictable (It is a tad lighter). The Spitfire was better appointed and had the benefit of the overdrive box option (My 1500 has the Spitfire engine and that fired me on to fit the overdrive box). The Herald and Vitesse use pretty much the same chassis as the Spitfire and GT6 and are closer relatives to them than the A35 is to the Spridget.

If you've thought of a Frogeye then that should be the one, Its got to be what you want! I don't think I could get enthusiastic about something I hadn't personally wanted for some time. Maybe that's just me. Good luck in your search.

You want something with saloon comfort, soft top, reasonable spares price/availability - Sunbeam Alpine? I freely admit that it would not be my first choice but it would seem to tick all of your boxes

cadetchris wrote:having fobbed off my austin to my dad to play with, i am looking for the next project.

i want something
- before '73
- the luxury of a saloon
- the ability to whip the roof down and enjoy the wind in my hair
- with parts not to hard to get hold of

and finally, for it to be relatively cheap to run/insure

i have thought about a moggy convertable, but i have the yellow peril as a run around and want something a little different

How about a 1972 Citroen 2-CV??, I personally like these cars, but can understand why others may not.

luxury soft suspension, roof comes down, pre 73, not sure about the parts situation for pre-72, but you could get a pre 73 car from France and fit a 602CC engine- parts should be easy for those. And it would certainly be quite a bit different to a Minor!

http://www.2cvgb.co.uk/index.php?page=2cvgbOffer

I'm tempted myself for a future project!

From the club website:-

"Can you still get parts for the 2CV?
Yes. For a non-British car, the parts support in the UK is very impressive. You can get pretty much everything you'll need, from brake pads to almost all body sections. 2CVGB has a Spare Parts Organisation (SPOG) which aims to plug the gaps when parts are no longer available. Another benefit of the club!

Our forum has a technical section, where we help out fellow members. The above is only a very brief insight into the information we hold. When it comes to 2CVs, we're the club you need to join."

I'll second the 2CV idea, bags of character, tough as old boots and easy enough to work on once you get used to their quirks.
I was a member of the owners club many years ago and their idea of an overseas trip was going to Moscow!
They have 24 hour races;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fToMeY3W ... re=related

And you can buy a new chassis;
http://www.2cvcity.co.uk/2cv-chassis

Not very fast, top speed is 62mph from memory but they are designed to be run flat out for hours on end.
I had a 2CV for a while and, unless it was freezing, I would flip the front part of the roof open for the old wind in the hair motoring.

Land Rover?
Ah, yes luxury was on the list wasn't it... Ticks the rest of the boxes though.

Re Spitfire / Midget, on personal experience I'd go with the Spitfire. Much more roomy and the decent mk3 Spit I had use of handled much better than the 1500 Midget a friend had some years back, though prob not a representative comparison - best of the Spitfires and not the best Migdet maybe...

I love my Spitfire almost as much as my Minors, so I'd be sugesting one of those if you want to learn about another engine. If not your back to the spigets....

erm... Series 2a 88" ?? Plenty of fun and the wind in your hair in summer and hardtop in winter if you've got a 1/2" spanner.

Once upon a time I ran a Series 3 88" 2.25 Diesel with Range Rover diffs (motorway diffs). Truly excellent off road, reasonable on road, but useless trying to get up big hills. Later on I had a 2a 109 with a Perkins 3 litre Tubo'd 4 pot + overdrive. At a genuine 70mph it was far more terrifying than ~120mph in a Minor!

Thirded for a 2CV. Around town there's no real difference in speed to a modern, it's just on dual carriageways where the lack of acceleration can be an issue. I used one as a daily a few years ago - they are so simple there really is very little to fail. And, as said above, new galvanised chassis are available and aren't too expensive. After all it just looks like a ladder with most of the rungs missing. They have gone up a lot in price recently though - even in France. Also consider the Dyane; bit less scene tax on that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2RKB8XF2Ug