Morris Minor Owners Club

Carried over from the post regarding magneto spanners.

Having 'e' mailed Eric McKaige below is the reply and photos he sent me.

"Hi Phil,
Thanks for your email.
Yes I have such a beast. The car has done 14 thousand miles since new, most of those with the Stage 3 engine in it. It has a TA MG gearbox that is to slow for it. I discovered later it was going to be fitted with a ZF gearbox. The conversion was done in 1960. The engine bought direct from Coventry Climax, the gearbox brand new from MG and the adapter plate from Lotus. I have the dyno test results as each engine was dyno tested before being sold.
I still have the box that the engine was shipped in.
The car used to boil a lot and was only used for 1/4 mile sprints and the odd hill-climb.
It ran on methanol at 14 : 1.
I solved the boiling issue with a thematic fan. It is now on 10 : 1 on 98 octane.
The car was built up by my Godfather, who was also a Bugatti owner and a very meticulous engineer.
Would be interested in others with Climax engines. I also have a 777cc Climax engine similar to the ones used by Chapman at Le Mans in 1957.
Ill dig out some photos.
Thanks again
Chester (Eric)."

Johngrigg
This may be the car you saw on the hoist at the Morris Minor Company, Melbourne.

It certainly fits your description.

Phil

I like the novel extending out of the radiator/grille panel and front bumper! Presumably, that was to squeeze in the radiator for what was presumably a longer engine...

Phil the Hill
Yep that's the one. I can relate to the comment about the TA gearbox, I drove a T A once and remember it as having the worst gearbox I have ever experienced. There may have been some synchros in there some where but I never managed to find them!
JohnG

philthehill wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 10:19 am Johngrigg
This may be the car you saw on the hoist at the Morris Minor Company, Melbourne.

It certainly fits your description.

Phil

The owner of Morris Minor Australia, Thorpe Remfrey went halves with me when we bought the car. I have known Thorpe for years, at one stage we both owned Austin Healeys. The car came from my Godfather’s deceased estate. I used to play in it as a kid. I was a founding member of the MMCCV Victoria and always had my eye on the car.

Chipper wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 1:02 pm I like the novel extending out of the radiator/grille panel and front bumper! Presumably, that was to squeeze in the radiator for what was presumably a longer engine...

That was an idea to help stop the boiling issue. A larger and wider radiator was fitted hence the extension.
It didn’t totally solve the problem, but when I fitted a thermo fan, the problem went away.

johngrigg wrote: ↑Mon Apr 06, 2020 1:15 am Phil the Hill
Yep that's the one. I can relate to the comment about the TA gearbox, I drove a T A once and remember it as having the worst gearbox I have ever experienced. There may have been some synchros in there some where but I never managed to find them!
JohnG

The gearbox is a TA MG box. It was bought brand new, and still tight, not having done much work.
For sprint work, you can’t help crunching gears, but hill climbs it seems to work fine.
As it has been with the car since 1960, I’m not going to change it.

Chester
Glad to see that you finally managed to get on board.

On a different tack - what is the small single seater in the background? - it looks to be Austin Seven (or similar) based.

Regards

Phil

philthehill wrote: ↑Fri Apr 10, 2020 8:26 am Chester
Glad to see that you finally managed to get on board.

On a different tack - what is the small single seater in the background? - it looks to be Austin Seven (or similar) based.

Regards

Phil

The car behind the Morris is a 500 cc Australian built special called the WGM. Matchless engine G80, Norton gearbox. Front wheel drive, first car in Australia fitted with disc brakes. 1952. Competed in 1956 AGP at Albert Park.
Car built using mostly aircraft parts and practice. Bungee cord suspension, steering system ex trim tab controls of Liberator bomber.
Car on other side of Morris is a Speed 25 Alvis. Also have a 12/50 Alvis, Napier, Bentley, Delage, Darracq, MG A.
Can send more pics of 500 if interested.

Chester
More pictures of the special would be appreciated - at least for me anyway. Sounds like a very interesting car.

Found this on the web:-

http://500race.org/marques/wgm-special/

The Rob Roy hill climb course has links with Prescott speed hill climb where I have competed many times in the past with my Minor.

Did you ever come across Murray Rainey who was a successful Australian 500cc exponent.

http://500race.org/people/murray-rainey/

Regards
Phil

Phil, I see that Murray's daughter Joy's obituary appeared in the press a couple of weeks ago. She too was a very successful racing driver.

Myrtles Man

Yes she was; and she drove the most powerful of cars on and off the track.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/ ... e-leading/

And we must not forget that she drove a Morris Minor 1000, Registration Number WOF690J from London to Sydney with partner Trevor Hulks.

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24120/ ... egory=list

Phil

I met M. Rainey at Geelong Speed trials a few years ago. He presented me with a trophy. He was very interested in the 500. He would have been a good driver as I can’t drive it and I had to sack my brother in law because he put on weight and like me, couldn’t fit in it.
I think Joy was with him, can’t remember.
I have some pictures of the car taken in the 1950s. I’ll look them out.

What a lovely thread - thanks for sharing all the info, photos and links. All very interesting.

Plin

Glad to know you are enjoying the thread.

Here is another facet of Morris history for you to read and hopefully enjoy.

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arch ... ves-morris

http://willowby.co.uk/morris.htm

Whilst not in the vein of Morris Minor 1000s it was a very potent car (and still is).

I have seen this car in action on several occasions in the past when driven by Ashley Cleaves and he did not hang about.

In past and many years ago I was part owner of a Morris 8 Special that had been highly modified. Unfortunately never got the chance to drive it other than in and out of the garage. It and we parted company when we lost the garage it was kept in.

And keeping up the theme of Morris specials.

https://drive-my.com/en/test-drive/item ... ecial.html

Have a look and listen at this:- The Triangle Special. This started life was the £100...100mph...100mpg Morris.

http://burlen.co.uk/news/loud/

http://burlen.co.uk/news/sundaydriver/

I undertook a small amount of work on the car when it was owned by Andrew Harding & before it was purchased by Burlen.

The engine is a straight eight flat head Hudson.


Phil