Frazer-Nash

GB, 1924 – 1960

(1) Frazer Nash Ltd, Kingston on Thames, Surrey, 1924 – 1925

(2) William G. Thomas & Frazer Nash Ltd, Kingston on Thames, Surrey, 1925 – 1926

(3) A.F.N. Ltd, Isleworth, Middlesex, 1926 – 1960

After Captain A. Frazer Nash left GN Ltd, the company he had helped to found, he at first made orthodox family Frazer Nash cars with shaft drive and water-cooled 4-cylinder engines of Deemster extraction. However, only a handful of light cars were made before Frazer Nash reverted to type. His new Frazer Nash car of 1924 was based largely on the GN, retaining its dog-clutch gear-change, separate chains for each of the three forward speeds, solid rear axle, hard quarter-elliptic suspension and high ratio steering. After the Plus-Power engine, Frazer Nash adopted the sv water-cooled 4-cylinder 1½-litre Anzani unit, giving 40bhp. Thus the GN’s combination of simplicity, strength, modest price, low weight and high powere were combined in a still brisker sporting machine. The Frazer Nash, together with the Aston-Martin, was Britain’s nearest answer to importe sports cars in the Bugatti Brescia class. It was so popular that the Frazer Nash remained in production, basically unchanged for 15 years, even though clutches and chain drive had been outmoded when the Frazer Nash was first introduced.

The principal alternations were to the power unit. A Meadows engine of the same size, but with overhead valves, and giving 50bhp, supplemented and then replaced the Anzani from 1929 and four forward speeds were provided on the Frazer Nash. Alternatively available from 1934 was the 1½-litre single ohc Frazer Nash engine, known as the Gough after its designer. This unit normally delivered 60bhp, but was also available supercharged in the Frazer Nash Shelsley or Frazer Nash TT replica chassis which had cantilever front springs. The Frazer Nash model names applied to the chassis, which could be fitted with any engine. Thus some Frazer Nash Shelsleys were equipped with the twin ohc 1.675cc 6-cylinder Blackburne, which was a smoother, more flexible unit.

It was clear that such a fundamentally primitive design could not last for ever, however efficient. H.J. Aldington, who had gained control of AFN Ltd in 1929, sought an alternative by importing the German BMW from 1934 – the BMW Type 319 engine was used in the chain-driven Frazer Nash chassis. The last Frazer Nash of the old pattern was made in 1939, but the Frazer Nash name re-appeared 8 years later attached to a thoroughly up-to-date car. Its power unit was developed jointly by AFN and Bristol, using the pre-war BMW Type 328 engine modified for higher output. In the Frazer Nash the 2-litre cross-push-rod operated ohv unit developed from 75 to 135bhp, depending on the stage of tune required. It was installed in a tubular chassis with transverse leaf independent front suspension and torsion bar rear suspension. There was a normal synchromesh gearbox and live axle. The Frazer Nash car was light – the chassis weighed 1.176lb – and held the road extremely well. The Frazer Nash High Speed Model of 1948 was developed into the Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica which gained a 3rd place in that race in 1949, as well as being the only British car to win the Targa Florio, in 1951. From 1953 a De Dion-type rear axle was used in some Frazer Nash cars, including the Frazer Nash Competition Model. When BMW began making a 2.6-litre V8 engine, this was put in the Frazer Nash Competition Model and in a new two-seater coupé, the Frazer Nash Continental. This was very expensive at £3.751. Only the BMW unit was available from 1957, increased to 3.2-litres in 1959. This was the last year at which Frazer Nash cars were seen at the Earls Court Motor Show and production of Frazer Nash ceased soon after that.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; TRN

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Morris

GB, 1913 to date

(1) W.R.M. Motors Ltd, Cowley, Oxford, 1913 – 1919

(2) Morris Motors Ltd, Cowley, Oxford, 1919 – 1970

(3) Austin-Morris Division, British Leyland Motor Corp Ltd, Cowley, Oxford, 1970 to date

W.R. Morris (later Lord Nuffield), an Oxford cycle and motor agent, launched his Morris-Oxford light car in 1913. This Morris car was made from proprietary parts, the engine being a 1-litre T-head four by White and Poppe. At £175 the Morris car was one of the best of the true light cars (as opposed to cyclecars) and over 1.000 Morris cars had been sold by the end of 1914. A larger model, the famous Morris Cowley, arrived on the scene in 1915; this Morris car was assembled from American components, the engine being by Continental. After World War 1 Morris cars marketed two 1½-litre L-head sv fours, with power units by Hotchkiss of Coventry; the Morris Cowley differed from the Morris Oxford mainly in its more austere equipment and the absence of a starter. In an inflationary climate, Morris cars was brave enough to reduce the prices of its Morris cars(a Morris Cowley two-seater cost £465 in October 1920, £299.10s a year later, and £225 in October 1922) and ensured a steady flow of Morris carproduction by acquiring his suppliers, such as Hotchkiss, Wrigley (transmissions) and Hollick and Pratt (bodies).

The Morris ‘bullnoses’ were soon best-sellers backed by a nation-wide service organization of Morris cars, and in 1925 Morris outsold all his competitors with 54.000 Morris cars. From 1924 to 1926 the staple Morris cars were the 1½-litre Morris Cowley and the 1.8-litre Morris Oxford, both with 3-speed gearboxes and the wet-plate clutches which persisted on some Morris carmodels right up to 1939. The Morris Oxford acquired front wheel brakes in 1925, and they were available as an option on Morris Cowleys a year later. 1927 Morris cars produced the flat radiator and also a venture into the export market with the unsuccessful Empire Oxford Morris car of 2½-litres, which had a 4-speed box and worm drive. Equally unsuccessful was a plan to market Gallicized Morris cars built in the Léon Bollée plant at Le Mans.

Meanwhile Cecil Kimber had produced the first of the Morris-Oxford-based MG sports cars, and a new name had been born. Morris had made a few six-cylinder Morris cars in the early 1920s, but his first serious attempt in this direction with Morris cars was a 2½-litre ohc model for 1928, the engine of this Morris car inspired by the Wolseley 16/45, a make which had come under Morris control the previous year. 1929 saw another ohc Morris car, the 847cc Morris Minor at £125. Never a best-seller, the Morris car none the less served as the basis for MG’s Midget. The 1930 6-cylinder Morris cars had hydraulic brakes, extended down the range until they were universal by 1934 on all Morris cars, and in 1931 Morris managed to offer a simplified sv two-seater version of the Morris Minor for £100. The early 1930s proved very difficult for the Morris car company, which had no obvious best-seller and too many different models of Morris cars. Sliding roofs and electric fuel pumps by the Morris-owned S.U. concern were innovations for 1932 and 1933 Morris cars pioneered the semaphore-type traffic indicator in Britain. That year Morris cars sv 1.3-litre Morris Ten-Four came out as an answer to Austin’s Ten and Hillman’s Minx. All 1934 Morris cars had synchromesh and the bigger sixes the added refinement of a free wheel.

The best-seller Morris car came at last in 1935 with the 918cc sv Series I Morris Eight, which retailed at £132.10s for a fully-equipped Morris car saloon and helped reach their first million Morris cars by the summer of 1939. In a bigger category were the Series II Morris carmodels with modern styling, 3-speed gearboxes, and built-in jacking systems, ranging from a revised Morris Ten-Four up to a 3½-litre 6-cylinder Morris Twenty-Five at £280. These Morris cars were contemporary with the Series I, though introduced some months after that Morris car. All 1938 Morris cars except for the Morris Eight had push-rod ohv engines (already applied to Wolseley and MG). Later that year Riley was absorbed into the Nuffield Morris car empire. Two 1939 winners were a revised Series E 8hp with a 4-speed gearbox and headlamps faired into the wings of the Morris car, and the 1.140cc ohv Series M Ten, which introduced integral construction to Cowley and this Morris car was made after World War 2 by Hindusthan in India.

Only the 8 and 10 Morris cars were made in the first post-war years, the first really new Morris car for ten years being the 1949 Morris cars designed by Alex Issigonis. Of these the MM series Morris Minor used the old 8hp sv engine, but boasted integral construction, rack-and-pinion steering and torsion-bar independent front suspension and set a new standard in popular car handling. A million of the basic design Morris cars had been sold by January 1961. Its companion Morris carmodels, also chassisless, and with independent front suspension were a new sv 1½-litre Morris Oxford and the 2.2-litre ohc Morris MS Type Six.

The amalgamation of Nuffield and Austin to form the British Motor Corporation in 1952 resulted in a gradual process of rationalization. First the Morris Minor went over to Austin’s 803cc ohv A30 engine in 1953. The Series II Oxford Morris car and its less powerful companion, the Morris Cowley, of 1954 had Morris hulls, but their engines were also ohv Austins. In 1955 the Morris carrange was completed by a new Isis using the 2.6-litre BMC 6-cylinder unit – this Morris car was discontinued in 1958. In the late 1950s some Morris cars were made and sold in Australia under the Morris car name which were in fact more closely akin to other makes in the BMC group. The 6-cylinder Morris Marshall was really an Austin A105, while both the Major and its Austin counterpart, the Lancer, were based on the Wolseley 1500.

With the arrival of the Farina-styled 1½-litre Morris car saloons in 1959, differences between Austin and Morris cars had been reduced to house colours and radiator emblems. The front-wheel-drive Mini (1960) was shared between the two makes and though its bigger stablemate, the 1100 of 1963 with Hydrolastic suspension, was initially a Nuffield monopoly Morris car, the inevitable Austin variant followed a year later. In the case of the third front-wheel-drive model, the 1800, Austin were ahead of Morris cars in introducing it by nearly eighteen months. The 1968 Morris car range comprised the fwd Mini, 1100/1300, and 1800 as well as the conventional 1.600cc Oxford and the indestructible Morris Minor 1000, now with 1.098cc engine and still selling close on 60.000 Morris cars a year. This sole survivor of independent Morris car design did not disappear until the end of 1970. Minis became a separate make that year. From 1971 Morris car versions of the 1100 and 1300 disappeared; the name was reserved for the Marina, an orthodox rear-wheel-driven family saloon with Minor 1000 front suspension, semi-elliptics at the rear, and drum brakes on the simpler variant Morris cars. Push-rod 1.300cc and 1.800cc B.L.M.C. 4-cylinder engines were used, and the original 2-door coupé and 4-door saloon were joined by a station wagon Morris car in 1973. The largest fwd cars were still available with Morris car badges – there was a version of the 6-cylinder 2200 in 1972.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com