I always knew that the original Morris Minor MM, which went into production in 1948, had low mounted headlights. And that the Series II, which came out in 1952, had high mounted headlights. But what I didn’t know is that MM’s were fitted with new fenders and high headlights starting in 1949 for export to the US, where regulations did not allow the low ones.
The brown convertible on the bottom picture is a very rare 1949 US export version. Apparently only three survive; two are derelict and this one has been restored. It was being offered for sale in 2017 for $18,000.
So it was US regulations that was the original impetus for these fenders and high headlamps, and apparently Morris thought they looked better and were soon adopted for all Minors starting with a run of four door saloons in 1951 September 1950 and the rest of the range starting in January 1951.
You learn something new every day, even minor little tidbits like this.
Large-scale and/or well-funded manufacturers could afford to make special designs for the US export market. Smaller ones could not. Think of all the European cars that bore unique headlights for the US market, i.e. most of them.
On another website, I learned today that the TR8 was intended pretty much solely for the US market; very few were sold in the UK. Of course, the TR8 was mostly just an engine-swapped TR7 and not really a unique model.
There’s extremely few example of imports back then that had to have their headlights changed for the US back then, other than just the type of actual head lamp (sealed beam). The only other one I can think of was the Fiat 500, which had to have these larger bug-eye units.
Yes, you’re correct. I was thinking of 1968 when lots of European cars were forced to change. And again in 1973(?) when MG had to lift the B and Midget to meet headlight regulations.
They didn’t lift the B and Midget for headlight regulations; it was for the new 5 mile bumpers, obviously, which had a designated height. A number of other cars had to have their suspensions lifted a bit to meet that regulation.
New US headlight height regulations in 1973 also meant that the headlamps were too low. Rather than redesign the front of the car, British Leyland raised the car’s suspension by 1-inch (25 mm).
So who are those smaller manufacturers that couldn’t meet the 1968 headlight regulations?
Again, my apologies. I misunderstood and misspoke. I don’t think any manufacturers or even models were eliminated because of the ’68 safety regulations, no.
There were some other European cars on that list. A number of Renaults, for example, which in the home market had a single smaller-than-7-inch round headlamp on each side.
Citroën imported the Mehari to USA for a couple of years and they had to raise the headlights so they intruded on the front of the hood.
Here’s another even smaller tidbit, though a tasty one I reckon.
It’s well-known that Issigonis – who hated the raised light pods, btw – had earlier taken a dislike to his own completed prototype “Mosquito” from 1943, and therefore in 1946/7, cut it down the middle lengthwise before moving the two halves apart until the proportions improved to his liking. The designers then had to restyle it a bit to accomodate this new width (a substantial 4 inches). Thus the Mosquito buzzed off and the familiar Morris Minor we know appeared.
What I didn’t know is that some parts such as the valance and bumpers had already been signed off, and so, as you can see on this early MM, the bumpers had to be cut and have a fillet added in the middle. It must have been quite some pre-order, as the car didn’t get one-piece bumpers till sometime in mid-1950, when the stock of splitties was finally exhausted.
And if you look closely at the bonnet of the car, you’ll see a fillet of extra width, slightly lower, running the fully up the middle of the panel. It stayed that way until production ended in 1971.
Some wrinkles you are just born with.
[Tiny correction: all Minors got the highlights that Issigonis said “vandalized” his design in 1950. The Series 2 of ’52 was the change to get rid of the Morris sidevalve and box and replace it with the Austin OHV and its box].
but the bumpers were already pressed thats why theres a gap in them, assembly in NZ didnt stop until 74/5 for the van, which by the way came as a Morris or Austin Minor.
According to aronline.uk (and other sources):
The Minor MM, launched so memorably at the Earls Court Motor Show in 1948, was originally sold as a two-door saloon or Tourer, with grille-mounted headlamps, until the four-door saloon was introduced in September 1950. These had their headlamps mounted in restyled front wings, and the change was adopted by two-doors and Tourers from January 1951.
I assumed the 1951 date coincided with the switch to the Series II, but it appears it was sooner than that, but not all the versions got the high headlights in 1950.
I have to assume that it wasn’t that several years worth of bumpers were already pressed prior its form being finalized, which frankly makes absolutely no sense, but that they simply delayed changing the tooling to spread out costs, which were already higher than expected. Tooling up for a little filler panel was undoubtedly a lot cheaper than to retool for the whole bumper/valance panel.
I agree that the high-light version is the attractive one. But I wonder – do I find it more attractive because it is objectively so? Or because that is the one I am used to seeing (along with similarly styled American cars which also had higher lights)?
No, the low headlamp original was just miserable-looking. Thank God for U.S. regs !
If they hadn’t already tooled up for the original headlights, the Minor would have probably had smaller versions of the Morris Oxford MO wings instead of the poached egg yolk look.
Given the compete new range they unveiled in 1948 the Nuffield Organization must have spent big on new tooling, so using up the stocks of MM low wings for the home and other overseas market made sense.
This website is always making me look stuff up. The Morris Oxford MO:
Well, I like the low-headlight original. To each his own.
My British Grandmother had one of the sad-faced Convertible models for a few years around 1948-49, possibly purchased new and about 16 years later, now living in Canada, my Dad briefly had a happy-face 1000 cc , but it was too under-powered for his daily work commute and gave way to a 1964 Chevy Biscayne.
Raising the headlights had a detrimental effect on the aerodynamics and dropped a couple of mph off the top speed. The lethargic 918cc sidevalve had its work cut out, and was the reason 4 doors were not offered until later on, the weight of the rear doors also badly effected it!
Me being me, I’m curious just what exact, specific regulations the low-headlamp version ran afoul of. It couldn’t have been a US Federal/national regulation, as none existed prior to 1/1/68. So it would have to be headlamp height requirements in one or more states, as that’s how vehicle equipment was regulated prior to the Federal regs coming in: state by state. There was some crude, minimal standardisation facilitated by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators and the Society of Automotive Engineers, which is how things like red brake lights and standard-size sealed-beam headlamps and seat belt anchorages came along, but I don’t think much effort was put toward commonising headlamp minimum height requirements.
It only would’ve taken one state, too, and a single state can still throw a wet blanket on an automaker’s plans. A single state’s regs recently forced Audi to reduce the performance of the US version of their laser-powered high beam booster even more than the Federal reg already required, for example.
Like several other early postwar British cars, the original Minor’s headlights were smaller than 7-inch (I want to say 5 inch, but I’m not sure). Would these original lights’ smaller size also have been an issue in the US? Austin (A40) and Vauxhall (Velox/Wyvern) also went to 7 inch lights around 1949-50, but at least they were in the ‘right’ position already.
The only headlamps allowed in the US were one 7″ round sealed beam per side or, starting in ’57 in some states and ’58 in all states, two 5-3/4″ round sealed beams per side.
That’s what I thought. Hmm. So maybe it could be the size of the lights rather than their oft-blamed location that prompted the front end revision? Interesting!
I think probably not. The British vehicle industry made extensive use of 7-inch round headlamps with the same fitment as the US sealed beams, on numerous vehicles as sold all over the world. The low-mount headlamps in the first pic in this article look to me as though they could be 7-inchers (and yep, browsing through a few Morris parts specialists’ cattledogs confirms it).
It sticks in my mind that Howard Darrin ran into similar problems with the original Kaiser Darrin design, and was not happy about raising the fenders to meet some regulation.
50 years ago, I worked on a friend’s Morris Minor with a flathead. It was titled as a 1954. The title could have been wrong or the flathead was a replacement. The car was nicely maintained, but by then it was was or 13 years old. It was slow.
Id known about the headlights, and much prefer the higher ones. The low ones just look funny.
I was not expecting the CC Effect to assert itself quite so quickly or, uh, assertively. This pulled up at the coffee shop I was sitting at, about an hour ago. Those are regular licence plates on it, not collector plates (which come with exceedingly strict vehicle condition and equipment originality requirements in BC). When the owner got back in it, it started immediately and seemed to run perfectly.