There is nothing new in the current (2010) trend towards smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. As circumstances change, so do wants. Our featured car is a 1938 Morris 8 tourer that claimed 6.3 litres/100 km or 45 miles per gallon in the old money. That's well below the latest Holden Commodore with it's lean and green SIDI engine that claims 9.3 litres/100km.
We are also launching a new angle on our old classic car stories with the Morris 8 by using one image of the car as it appears on a postage stamp. As car enthusiasts we have taken up stamp collecting using, naturally, the theme of world cars. While this may seem a little mundane we find it a lot cheaper than the real thing and you don't need a garage. Right now we have a few hundred cars in our collection. Our first image is from the Congo Republic on a stamp released in 1996.
The Morris 8 was a response car with Morris playing catch-up against Ford's Model Y, and to a lesser extent Austin 7. The Model Y was designed not for Americans, but for markets outside the US, in particular Britain and Europe. There was no large straight eight or in line six lurking under the modest bonnet, but a 933 cc, 8 hp Ford sidevalve engine. The Y was launched, indeed produced in England from 1932, which is a significant year. The same year Ford launched it's first V8. The two cars could not have been more contrasting.
So, the introduction of the tiny engined Model Y to replace the Model A in Europe was a clever move from Ford – a coup that paid instant dividends. In a five year period around 175,000 were produced. The impact of this was major inroads into the sales of competitors in the UK such as Hillman, Singer, Austin and Morris. The market for 8hp cars in Britain was buoyant and Ford's modern-looking Model Y stole around 50 per cent of the segment.
So it came to Morris to respond with the Morris 8. The cars look similar, but the Morris features a curved door which totally changes to look from that of the Ford with it's straight line. The Morris was powered with a similar size side valve engine of 918 cc capacity, three-bearing crankshaft and a solo SU carby directing fuel. Power – all 17.5 kW of it - was run to the rear wheels through a three speed gearbox with synchromesh on second and third.
At launch the car came out in two body styles: a saloon and an open tourer. Top speed on the tourer was 93 km/h. Although our featured is noted as a 1938 model we suspect it may be a 1937 model first registered in 1938. The Series 1 Morris 8 featured a chrome grille surround and spoke wire wheels. When the 1938 Series 2 was launched two of the changes were a move from spoke wire wheels to `Easiclean' wheels and a painted radiator surround. As can be seen our featured car has both the chrome surround and wire wheels.
These changes brought the Morris 8 into line with other Morris cars. However, the running gear remained the same. The Series 1 Morris 8 returned Morris to Britain's number one manufacturer with sales of more than 164,000. The Series 2 added a further 54,000 sales. The Series 1 car came as a two and four door sedan and a two and four seat tourer (convertible).
The shorter two door tourer had a shorter wheelbase of 2057 mm compared to the longer 2286 mm used on the sedan and long wheel base tourer. The cars were 1384 mm wide, 1524 mm high and had a 25 litre fuel tank. World War 2 interrupted all but vital civilian production and in 1945 when manufacturing resumed the Morris 8 was replaced by the Series E Morris. |
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