MORRIS MINOR TO STAY IN PRESENT FORM
FROM OUR MOTORING CORRESPONDENT
An announcement by the British Motor Corporation yesterday assured the continuance in its present form of the Morris Minor four-cylinder car.
To offset rumours to the contrary, B.M.C. said that the Morris 1000 was to continue in production for some long time to come. The rumours have been current for best part of a year-first that the small Morris was to be restyled and renamed the “Major”, and more recently that it would appear with transversely mounted engine and front-wheel drive, as a larger version of the Mini-Minor.
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“To stay in current form” can be taken very literally. After 1962, they changed the colour of the speedometer face, changed some electrical switches, and – er –
The switches and the change in the colour of the speedometer face occurred in
1964.
In 1962, the Minor received the 1098cc engine (with a 90 mph speedometer).
In 1963, the car received the tandem wipers and larger, amber, indicators.
AFAIK the change to a black speedo occurred at the same time as the 1098 was introduced. I had ATE233A in early 1963 which certainly had a black face!
No. The black face arrived in October 1964, along with key start and the dashboard with toggle switches and the central embellisher.
The 1098 engine was fitted from October 1962. At that stage, the interior was the same as the preceding 948, with pull switches and the silver type speedo, the latter subtly upgraded to read up to 90 mph.
Perhaps the car which you bought had a special feature.
One extremely tough car that is loved by enthusiasts today. I saw one get blown into a barrier in London during the great storm of 1987 and the barrier came off worse. Far more than the Mini, the Morris Minor was Britain’s first affordable car and well loved by people who have owned one.