There are simply not enough cars in your driveway. You like your automobiles in pairs. You want nothing more for Christmas than an English runabout with a transmission in the trunk. Better still, is you’re the one who has been longing for a duet of Morris Minors since Morrissey and Marr were together on stage in Manchester. There has never been a better time then now. Alan Rutter of Al’s Rapid Transit fame has unearthed not one, but two of these standard Morris beauties and put them up for sale. It would be your mission to make them run. These two stylish econoboxes could represent the perfect opportunity to start that Morris Minor spec racing league. It might also be time to blow the dust off that wire-feed welder in the garage and fab up some scrap metal along with one (or both) of the four-pot 37HP engines into some sort of English car themed Tilt-a-Whirl style carnival ride. You know, for the kids.
Because winter time is Bondo time. Two 1959 Morris Minors at Al’s Rapid Transit
The obvious answer is a turbo-charged Rover V8 powered hill climb car.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUu5eJPEigw
You’ve got to love the classic Issigonis design. Too bad these are priced too high for LeMons.
One of these would be perfect for my modernized ancient econo-box idea. While musclecar guys may choose to put LS1’s and new Hemi’s in their older Camaros or Mopars, I want to do it differently. I want to build a practical, fuel efficient economy car using the shell of an older one with all the mechanicals of a newer one. It would yield a very usable car that could be serviced with common parts, but with the coolness of the older car’s shell. Probably the best drivetrain would be a VW TDI with a manual trans as it offers the best mix of fuel efficiency and performance while also offering god reliability. However, my heart is set on a Trabant when I finally go through with this, which will be when money falls from the sky, or I am given a complete Trabant to build from…
Myron, if you buy both, you’re getting a $500 discount on whichever one you wanted to run in LeMons, and I’m sure you can find $500 worth of parts you don’t need. I’ll bet some rabid Morris enthusiast would offer you that for a single hubcap! (wink, wink)
Jim-Bob, I like your thinking, although I’d lean towards a turbo DSI Ecotec, to get economy and still appease my inner hoon.