Last updated on August 17, 2024
Today’s car is a 1960 Morris Minor 1000 Traveller owned by Nancy Howe. This Minor Traveller was assembled from 3 donor cars. Nancy’s father gave her the three cars when she was 15 and said to disassemble them and reassemble from the selected pieces into one working car. The three cars were made up of two 1959s and the one 1960 Traveller that was the main frame and used in the build. The 1960 had aluminum beach chairs attached to the floor for the seats when she received the car. It is powered by one of her father’s original engines that is period correct for the car. Nancy says that” it goes very slow, but it always goes.” What a great job Nancy!
I photographed this 3 door wagon beauty at the Cruise At The Beach Classic Car Show, held at the Redondo Beach Marina, CA that is held every Friday night through the summer. The car is finished in creamy white with a varnished ash wood frame, a warm tobacco colored interior, and chocolate brown carpeting. It is powered by a 37 hp, 948cc, OHV BMC A-series in line four cylinder engine, with a single SU HS2 side draft carburetor, mated to a 4-speed manual transmission with a 4.55:1 rear end. Slowing this beauty down are Lockheed drum brakes in all 4-corners. It has rack and pinion steering with independent torsion-bar front suspension, something quite advanced when it was introduced in 1948. In the rear is a live axle with longitudinal semi-elliptic leaf springs and lever shocks.
The Minor Traveller sold 215,328 units between 1953 and 1971, and it would only be survived by the commercial pickup and vans, which were built in small numbers in Australia until as late 1975 as CKD kits. In 1959 17,482 and in 1960 16,804 Travellers were built. The MSRP was between $1,500.00 – $1,800.00. The published top speed of 71 MPH with a 0-60 mph time of a blistering 33.2 seconds.
The Morris Minor, that this was based upon, was designed by Sir Alec Issigonis and introduced in 1948. In 1960 Morris Minor was the first British car to ever reach a production rate of one million. The Traveller differed from the monocoque construction of the passenger cars variants in that the wooden frame on this car is actually structural so that the aluminum panels are attached to the wood not the other way around, if you lose the wood you lose the car!
What makes the traveller special to me is its looks and size. The wood was structured to look like the American woody, but still is unmistakably British, with the split rear doors and the sliding side rear windows. Just cool. What a great car to take to British car shows, Cars and Coffee events or just cruising to the local Farmer’s market to pick up a few things on your way for a day at the beach. Thank you for riding along. Frank
