New car, well new to me

[Dave_S]

NIce one Chas. Never had a Minor, but had many Minis in my teens and twenties.

Currently, as well as the 4x4s and cars, I've an old MT350 in the garage that gets used once in a while, I probably spend more time tinkering with it than riding it TBH, but always puts a big smile on my face riding it.

Some things just do that for you.

 

[Chas]

Frank,

Never mind the Minor - let's see better pictures of that 'Cricket Bat' Norton .

Bob.

+ 1

 

[Chas]

BTW I still regret selling The Phoenix.

 

[Shayne]

It was the right thing to do Chas , the next chapter will be fun for different reasons but thats all it is another chapter in the same book and nobody wants to reach the last page of a good book

 

[frank rabbets]

After 3 years of admiring my neighbours inter Norton, one day I was there and he gave it to me. Could not believe it. I was 15 years old. We didn't bother with paper work or number plates back then. "T

oo many snags, what a drag".
Made in 1933.

 

[Shayne]

Same happened to me , i was younger than 15 and it was a 320cc Bultaco "if you can fix it you can have it" . I did and he sold it

 

[Chas]

They don't make 'em like that anymore, more's the pity.

 

[BobMurphy]

Ah, its a bit later than I thought from that first oblique picture. Lovely bike.

Would be worth a pension nowadays .

Early 1960s a friends father declined to buy a Morgan Aero Sports because £30 was too much . . . .

Bob.

 

[Rob Cowell]

I think the older model (the first minors) were 850cc in the split-screen models prior to the 1970 facelift - I don’t know when they became the Morris 1000 with the 998 cc engine. I guess Wiki will have all the details of model changes. I had a 1955 Austin A30, that was an 850cc till I put a 1071cc Midget engine and box into it, along with disc brakes and all the Midget trans - rear axle and so on. I had a Vauxhall VX490 brake master cylinder & servo which was unheard of in 1970 when I did all the conversions. It also had 6” wide BFG mag alloys which gave it some stance, and it would out perform my mates 1071 Mini Cooper which thrilled me no end.
Happy days. Enjoy your Moggy Chas, hope you never need the hazard waning lights...

The first Minors were side-valve engines. There definitely isn't an inline 850 (848) A-series. The A30 had the same 803 engine as the Minor. Could they have been called 850 at the time, before the 848 was a thing?

 

[clivehorridge]

I have to confess Rob, I typed 850 in error, you’re spot on. The first thing I did to my A30 was replace the worn out side-valve with a 998 rescued from a crashed A35 van.
It took some doing too, the transmission tunnel in the A30 is tiny compared with the A35, so I cut the whole thing out and replaced it with a similarly cut out tunnel from an A35 bolted in with 1/2” AF bolts at 3” centres ... the midget engine & trans install came later...

 

[Chas]

Update on the Moggy, it now has more comfortable bucket seats, I've also got twin SU carbs to be fitted along with a three branch exhaust manifold, a set of Minilight Sport alloy wheels which will be fitted once I have chosen some tyres for them. I have a few bits and pieces knocking about in the garage which will be added in time.

 

[chadr]

Saw this in Julian's FB feed - looks great, especially with all the mods! Will be much more suitable to London now with that setup.

Enjoy!

 

[TonyP]

Just checked and Chas has not been on here since Oct 21, any idea if he is ok?

 

[clivehorridge]

He’s regularly facebooking, although I don’t usually..
Aura has seen recent posts from him…