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The Morris Minor was not developed in the main drawing office at Cowley, but in a little self contained workshop in an isolated corner of the factory with a small body shop attached. It was developed without the confidence of the senior management of the company and probably without Lord Nuffield (William Morris) being aware of its development.
The car was originally designed to have a flat-four side-valve water cooled engine. The engine was to have cylinder barrels that could be readily removed - somewhat on the lines of a certain German car! Experimental engines were built by Morris Engines of Coventry and fitted to some of the prototype cars but were never fitted to production car. The first prototype was called the Mosquito and was completed on the 1st September 1943 and was coded EX/SX/86
Affectionately known as the Moggy Thou, over 1.6 million were eventually made at the manufacturing plants at Cowley in Oxfordshire, and exported to all four corners of the globe, until production ceased in 1971.
The Morris Minor can be categorised into three common variants or models.
The first was the Series MM with the old Morris sidevalve engine.
The Series II was the second and the first to have the famous overhead valve A-series engine.
Then came the "Morris 1000" with the 948cc A-series engine and single piece curved windscreen.These were dubbed Series III.
In 1963 the Minor received the 1098cc A-series engine and also the name of Series V. So what happened to the Series IV? Well there never really was a Series IV, but unofficially this went to the run of 350 Minor Millions. These were 948cc "Minor 1000s" specially built to celebrate the first British car to reach one million units produced.
The Minor was built by William Morris (Lord Nuffield) of the Nuffield Organisation. This sprawling business included (amongst many, many other firms), Wolseley, the SU carburettor company and Morris Garages, or MG. Its designer, Alec Issigonis, was later knighted and went onto design other famous vehicles including the Mini.
The first Minors had the tried and tested 918cc side valve from the Series E Morris Eight. However, Issigonis had originally intended the Minor to have a 800cc and 1100cc flat four (horizontally opposed), water cooled engine. This is why there is so much space in the engine bay, making the Minor an easy car to maintain.
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