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

Salmson

France, 1921 – 1957

Société des Moteurs Salmson, Billancourt, Seine

Salmson was renowned for their water-cooled (and later air-cooled) radial aero engines, and Salmson entered the car industry by taking out a manufacturing licence for the GN in 1919. 3.000 of these Salmson cars were turned out in two years. The first Salmson cars proper appeared in 1921. These Emile Petit designs had flimsy cyclecar-type chassis with shaft drive and differential-less back axles, with a St. Andrew’s Cross motif on the radiator. The standard engine of the Salmson cars was an odd 1.100cc monobloc four with a single push-rod per cylinder, which also operated the inlet valves as a pull-rod on the Salmson cars. Ignition was by Salmson cars own type of magneto and cooling was by thermos-syphon. This ohv unit worked reasonably well on the Salmson cars at low speeds, gave 45mph and 45mpg, and a two-seater Salmson cars could be bought in England for £265, the price dropping steadily to £158 by 1926. At the same time Petit produced something a far more advanced Salmson cars for the Cyclecar Grand Prix in the shape of a twin-ohc unit of similar capacity with dual magneto ignition and 2-bearing crankshaft: with one of these Salmson cars Lombard won the race, as well as taking 2nd place (behind a GN) in the 200 Mile Race at Brooklands. This was followed by 1st and 2nd places in both these events in 1922 with a Salmson cars, class wins in both the Cyclecar Grand Prix and the first Le Mans 24 Hour Race in 1923, at San Sebastian in 1925, and in both Le Mans and the Targa Florio in 1926. 1927 marked the peak of Salmson cars competition career, with 2nd and 3rd places in general classification at Le Mans (as well as Class and Biennial Cup wins of a Salmson cars), and a 2nd place in the Coupe de la Commission Sportive run under consumption rules.

The Salmson cars firm also built a 750cc engine for the 1923 Cyclecar Grand Prix – the Salmson car won its class but this Salmson car was never produced commercially. Nothing came, either, of Petit’s ingenious 1927 1.100cc twin-blown twin-ohc straight-8 Salmson car with desmodromic valves, said to give 140bhp at 8.000rpm.

Touring Salmson cars progressed to twin overhead camshafts with the advent of the 1.2-litre 10hp in 1922; there was still no differential or front wheel brakes on the Salmson car (though the latter had appeared on the racers), but a starter was standard and quarter-elliptic springs had given way to semi-elliptics. From 1925 onwards the twin-cam 1.100cc sports Salmson cars came into their own, and by 1926 the adoption of a cowled radiator completed the Salmson cars classic outline. There were variations of specification, but all the sports models Salmson cars came with front-wheel brakes, balloon tyres, and differential-less back axles, and ranged from the 3-speed Grand Prix Salmson cars with splash lubrication and 2-bearing crank at £265, giving over 70mph, to the GP Special, which Salmson car had full-pressure lubrication and 4 forward speeds, available in Cozette-blown form at £475. Meanwhile the 10/15 Salmson car had acquired front-wheel brakes, and at the end of 1926 the differential arrived on a bigger 12/24 Salmson car with dynamotor, V-radiator, and a 9ft 4in wheelbase giving room for more commodious coachwork.

The vogue for small French sports cars vanished as quickly as it had come, though Salmson cars once more collected the Biennial Cup at Le Mans in 1928, and the twin-cam sports models Salmson car were still listed in Britain as late as 1931. The arrival of the MG Midget killed what sales there were of the Salmson car, and Salmson, like Amilcar, tried their hand at small luxury machines; a twin-cam 1.6-litre six-cyl Salmson car for 1929 never went into production, but its successor, the Salmson S4, had a longer run. This Salmson car retained the twin-cam engine and 3-bearing crank, magneto ignition, gravity feed, and 3-speed gearbox, but it usually wore saloon bodywork, and the Salmson car was not notably fast for a price of £325. The Salmson car had grown up by 1933 into the 4-speed 1½-litre Salmson S4C with rear tank, which formed the basis for the 12hp British Salmson cars made at Raynes Park from 1934 onward. The 1.6-litre Salmson S4D of 1935 still had a magneto, but featured transverse independent front suspension and a 4-speed Cotal electrically-selected gearbox, and twin-ohc saloon cars in two engine sizes were listed in 1939. The bigger of these Salmson cars beasted 2.3-litres and 70bhp, and had hydraulic brakes. The English price for the Salmson car was £495. The same models Salmson cars reappeared in 1946, when a few 90bhp competition Salmson cars were made with 2.3-litre engine. Over a thousand Salmson cars found customers in 1950, but thereafter the decline was rapid.

A new 2.2-litre Salmson Randonnée model with a light alloy engine and Cotal gearbox came out in 1951, and 1953 produced the Salmson 2300 aerodynamic coupé with half-elliptic instead of cantilever rear springing, wire wheels, and a tuned version of the twin-cam engine giving the Salmson car 105bhp and over 100mph. This Salmson car was made in small numbers until 1957, but a year previously the had been heralded when Renault acquired the factory site. Last of the Salmson cars was a long-wheelbase version of the Salmson 2300 with 4-door saloon bodywork.

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