Monday, 13 March 2017

The Classic Morris Minor Car Story / VIDEO: \*Great * * Five * Star */


Alec Issigonis and the History of the Morris Minor



Issigonis' design included the same ideas he had proposed for the Ten before the war: Independent suspension and rack and pinion steering plus the continued use of unitary construction. In the case of the Mosquito Issigonis was inspired by the Citroën Traction Avant, a car he greatly admired, and he proposed using torsion bars on each wheel, as on the Citroën rather than the coil spring system of before. The French car, launched in 1934, had also been an early example of rack and pinion steering.

Nearly every feature of the Minor serves the joint aims of good roadholding and maximum interior space. For example, Issigonis specified 14-inch (35.5 cm) wheels for the Mosquito. These were smaller than any other production car of the time (the existing Morris Eight had 17-inch (43 cm) wheels). These small wheels reduced intrusion into the cabin space and minimised unsprung mass for better ride comfort and stability. The wheels themselves were placed as far as possible in each corner of the Mosquito's floorpan for the same reasons. The same went for the placement of the engine, far towards the front of the engine compartment. With most cars of the time having a front beam axle, this forced the engine to be mounted behind the front axle line. While this meant that with only a driver on board the weight distribution was fairly even, when laden with passengers cars often became severely tail-heavy, leading to unstable handling and oversteer. The new Morris' independent suspension meant there was no front axle, allowing the engine to placed low down and far forwards. Putting the Mosquito's engine in the nose meant that when lightly laden the car was nose-heavy, leading to superior directional stability and when fully laden it achieved nearly equal weight balance, so handling and grip remained good regardless of the load carried. Placing the engine forward also maximised cabin space.

The engine itself as proposed by Issigonis was also radical, being a water-cooled flat four unit. One of Miles Thomas' few restrictions on the Mosquito project was that it had to have an engine that would not fall foul of the British horsepower tax, which actually taxed cars via a formula relating to their engine cylinder bore. At the same time Thomas wanted the car to appeal to the all-important export markets, which had no such restrictions and generally favoured larger-engined cars. Issigonis' solution was the flat-four engine which could easily be produced in two versions - a narrow-bore 800cc version for the British market and a wide-bore 1100cc version for export. Both versions would use identical parts save for the actual cylinder blocks (which could still be produced on the same machinery) and the pistons. The flat-four layout reduced the overall length of the engine, further increasing potential cabin space, and reduced the car's centre of gravity for improved handling.

A Morris Minor love story
Martin Wainwright
Tuesday 18 November 2008 16.30 GMT









No comments: