A Thirties motoring icon …
There are other iconic Morris Minors, the Red and White Skinner hill climb specials, the ‘Turn left…’ 1933 Tourer and RC 300 the McEvoy Minor prototype, but none challenge the stature of JO 764, the development car for the £100 Minor model.
Producing the first £100 car had become a cause célèbre for the U.K.’s volume car manufacturers of the period but the economic uncertainties following the October 1929 Wall Street Crash dampened enthusiasm to launch such a model despite the public interest generated by talk of a new car in this ground-breaking price category. Morris Motors had launched their Austin Seven rivalling Minor models in the autumn of 1928 and sold over 12,000 of them in its first year but its overhead camshaft power unit proved costly to manufacture and was troublesome in service. Sales improved further for the 1930 model season but remained behind those generated by the all-conquering Seven. It was during the spring or early summer of 1930 that a decision was taken by the Morris Motors board to design and build a cheaper to manufacture, side valve engine utilising as many common parts as possible from the earlier OHC unit. By the late summer, a Christmas launch of the new pared-down and re-engined car had been planned, while the motoring press speculated about the secretive activity taking place behind closed doors at Cowley. The company’s founder William Morris had spotted the opportunity for a publicity coup by building a utilitarian version of the Morris Minor using the side valve engine, thus enabling him to market this new model at that all-important price point of just £100.
The Morris Minor S.V. Coachbuilt Two-seater (as it was officially described) was announced on 19th December 1930 and the prototype (JO 764) was seen for the first time in public at Stewart & Ardern’s (Morris Motor’s London main dealer) New Year’s Eve staff party. Throughout early January 1931, the model received much attention both in the motoring and national press. It was JO 764 that was loaned to the publications, photographed and then tested by their journalists as production examples of the model didn’t begin to roll off the Cowley production lines until early February. It was in JO 764 that William Morris was pictured, and it was that car that also featured in all of the early publicity material released by the company.
There was just a solitary £100 Morris Minor prototype and that car was registered in Oxford on 11th December 1930 as JO 764. The car’s subsequent history up to 1992 is covered in the Harry Edwards article to be found under the blue button above, while the story from that point onward is told in the remaining three articles detailed above and the images to be found in the galleries below. What cannot be over-emphasised is the role that restorer Mick Roberts has played in the car’s resurrection and long-term survival prospects, therefore those of us interested in the pre-war motoring scene and Morris Minors in particular owe him a huge debt of gratitude. (Photos 2,3 & 4 in the top gallery courtesy of Motorsport Images, all other photos either © Chris Lambert or Mick Roberts)
