1948 Morris Minor Classic Cars

The Morris Minor, like the Mini, is one of those cars that everyone recalls. It all started in 1942-43, when Morris Motors’ Alec Issigonis first sketched out his ideas for a new post-war small car. Egged on by the vice-chairman, Miles Thomas, his small team designed the ‘Mosquito’ around a squat unit-construction body shell, which was to be powered by a new type of flat-four cylinder engine. Post-war shortages and a lack of capital caused delays, the new engine was swept away in favour of an ancient side-valve unit, and the entire shell was widened at the last minute, but the Morris Minor which went on sale in 1948 was still an intriguing proposition. At a time when most British cars looked narrow and old-fashioned, the new-shape Minor was arresting, had torsion bar front suspension to provide great handling, and rack-and-pinion steering to provide precise direction.

The fact that the top speed was little more than 60 mph, and that the styling was not to everyone’s taste (Lord Nuffield himself is supposed to have likened it to ‘a bloody poached egg’) made no difference. For the next two decades Nuffield (and later BMC) sold Minors just as fast as they could be made.

From 1952 Series II Minors got a new overhead-valve engine, but no more performance, and from 1956 they became Morris Minor 1000s, with a more powerful 948 cc engine. The last Minors of all had 1.1-litre engines, but by that time they had become institutions, and no-one really measured the performance.

Minor styling changed little over the years, although the headlamp position was raised in the early 1950s, and bow windows front and rear) were part of the Minor 1000 package of 1956. The splendid roadholding, the rather boomy exhaust note, and the way it acquired and kept its ‘district nurse’s car’ image all remained constant.

Morris Minor

Years in production: 1948–1971

Structure: Front engine/rear-drive. Monocoque body/chassis

Engine type: 4-cylinder, side-valve.

Bore and stroke: 57 x 90 mm

Capacity: 917 cc

Power: 27 bhp @ 4,000 rpm

Fuel supply: One horizontal SU carburettor

Suspension: Independent front, beam-axle rear

Weight: 1,735 lb

Top speed: 62 mph

Daimler Dart SP250 1963, Pure C-Spec Model Classic Cars Sale

Daimler Dart SP250 1963, pure C-spec model.
2.5L V8 engine, with twin chrome exhausts.
Very rare, only 256 pure C-spec models were produced and only 1453 right hand drive cars were manufactured.
Beautiful Ivory body work with red Connolly leather interior and matching carpets, it has been in our family ownership since 1977 and remains in original condition but has been beautifully restored. To find a car that has original features is very rare.
Its mileage since restoration is about 2000 miles.
Hard top which matches the ivory body work.
Soft top and tonneau cover in red Connolly leather which matches the leather upholstery.
Other items include original black leather tonneau cover.
Original Daimler Dart SP250 Manual.
Original Daimler Dart SP250 factory owner's handbook.
Original Daimler Dart SP250 supplement for accessories and extras manual.
Original Radio.

Location: Crediton, United Kingdom

Price      : $61,940

1965 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III Classic Cars Sale

Make	Rolls-Royce
Model	Silver Cloud
Year	1965
Category	Prestige
Colour	See Photo
Transmission	Automatic
LHD / RHD	RHD
Convertible	No
Location	Towcester , United Kingdom
Private / Trade	Trade
Car ID	161676
Lot 155 Registration: CCC 356C Chassis Number: SJR43 Engine Number: SR21J Number of cylinders: 8 CC: 6320cc Year of Manufacture: 1965 Estimate (£): 17,500 - 22,500

Call on+44 (0)1926 691 141

Chevy Choupe 1930 Country Classic Cars

Chevy Choupe 1930 Country Classic Cars

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Ford Model T 1927

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Cord – L-29 Phaeton

Porsche 911-1964

1948 Land Rover Classic Cars

Here is a classic case of the stop-gap project which soon outgrew its parent. Before the Land Rover appeared, Rover had been building a comparatively tiny number of fine middle class cars. By the 1950s they were building plenty of more Land Rover 4x4s, and the cars were much a minor part of the business.

Immediately after the war, Rover found itself walking a gigantic former shadow factory complex at Solihull, and needed to fill it. (A shadow factory was an aero-engine factory established in the coursework of the rearmament of the 1930s.) Faced with material shortages, it could not build plenty of private cars, and chosen to fill the gaps with a newly-developed 4x4, which it would base unashamedly on the design of the already legendary Jeep from the USA.

Early Land Rovers shared the same 80 in/2,032 mm wheelbase as the Jeep, and the same basic four-wheel-drive layout. The Land Rover, however, was much more versatile than the Jeep, in that it was built in myriad different guises, shapes and derivatives, and it used aluminium body panels, which ensured that it was virtually rust-free. Apart from the fact that it was not quick or powerful, (though time and further development would solve those issues) the Land Rover could tackle  any job, climb  any slope, and ford  every stream, which made it invaluable for farmers, contractors, surveyors, explorers, armies, public service companies in fact  anyone with a necessity for four-wheel-drive traction, and the rugged construction which went with it.

Classic Cars Lotus Elite

Years in production: 1958-1962

Structure: Front engine/rear-drive. Fibreglass monocoque body/chassis

Engine type: 4-cylinder, single-overhead-camshaft

Bore and stroke: 76.2 x 66.6 mm

Capacity: 1,216 cc

Power: 83 bhp @ 6,250 rpm

Fuel supply: Two horizontal SU carburettors

Suspension: Independent front, independent rear

Weight: 1,455 lb

Top speed: 118 mph

First shown in 1957, but not obtainable until a year later, the new two-seater Elite coupé was irresistibly beautiful. Although Lotus was still a tiny company, Chapman had laid out a automobile which pushed know-how to the limit. In particular, they decided to make the Elite without a separate chassis, using a fully-stressed fibreglass monocoque body which would only include steel sections for a few local reinforcements.

Not only was this fabulous machine to be powered by a race-proved overhead-camshaft engine from Coventry-Climax, and had four-wheel independent suspension, but it was achingly beautiful, and was amazingly light in weight. No-one, it seems, was ever likely to confuse the Elite with any other automobile, for its tiny, smooth and always curving lines had no rivals. Looking back in to history, its only actual drawback was that the door windows could not be wound down, but had to be removed to provide better ventilation.

In engineering terms, though, adding lightnes often adds cost , and there was no doubt that the Elite was always going to be a expensive automobile to make and sell. The fibreglass monocoque body shells proved to be difficult to make in numbers, major bought-in items like the Coventry-Climax engine were expensive, and owners soon found that a great deal of maintenance and loving care was needed to keep the new sports automobile walking.

Refinement was not then a word which Lotus understood and the Elite was a crudely equipped and completed machine at first; the inside surroundings was noisy, for there was small try to insulate the drive line and suspension fixings from the monocoque, which acted like a fully matured sound box. 

As the years passed, the Elite's specification changed, with the power of the engine gradually being pushed up to 100 bhp (which brought the top speed to over 120 mph, brilliant for a one.2-litre automobile), a ZF gear-box adapted and (for Series II cars) a different type of rear suspension geometry specified.

Special Elites, when prepared at the factory, were outstandingly successful class cars in GT racing, even appearing with honour in major events such as the Le Mans 24 Hour and Nurburgring Six Hour events. Years later Colin Chapman admitted that the Elite had never made profits for Lotus, which may describe why they was happy to phase it out in 1962, ahead of the arrival of the backbone chassised Elan. Nothing can ever detract from the gracious style and inventive engineering which went in to the automobile. A total of 988 Elites were made.