Morris Minor Owners Club

Is anyone still driving around in a V4 converted Minor? I believe they were popular back in the day before Fiat T/Cs and front member notching?

As I understand it the Essex V4 were extremely heavy and the Taunus ones 100 lb less so. But did they shake themselves apart or are they reliable? Saab seemed to know how to extract good horsepower from the Taunus ones.

I've seen a few youtubes of the old V4s and they sound so great - to me at least.

Back in the late sixties I had a Corsair 2000, possibly the worst car I've ever owned. You'd be hard pressed to describe the engine as 'smooth-running', it was no where near as fast/powerful as you might have reasonably expected (it was pitched against the Rover 2000 and Triumph 2000 after all) and it had a dipsomaniac's thirst for petrol.

That would have been the heavy Essex V4. I remember someone having a V4 capri when they were worthless and they would pull one plug lead off and the whole car would shake. I think that drove/was pushed into the scrapyard for £20 (1980s)

Anyone ever fit the Cologne /Taunus V4? Perhaps that wasn't in anything sold over here apart from Saabs.

I don't think of the V4 as smooth running but sound great nonetheless. Here's an extreme version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K6ba-ROFfw

dp wrote: ↑Wed Jul 08, 2020 11:35 pm Saab seemed to know how to extract good horsepower from the Taunus ones.

The engine in the 96 is indeed good and from what I remember the car nips along quite nicely..

There are a few Tanus/Cologne V4s kicking about in this country...

People bring over Transit Feurwehrs and almost immediately change to an English engine variant to provide a bit more poke

Thanks guys