The Morris Minor premiered in 1948 to be Morris’s entry level car for a domestic and international market and was an immediate success. Its construction was on a unibody design, utilizing torsion rod front suspension with a traditional leaf sprung rear axle. It was small, affordable, offered good reliable performance, and proved to be well built. Following its introduction as a passenger car, a range of models were introduced, with a 2 door and 4 door saloon, a convertible tourer, a woody wagon Traveler, a commercial van, and a pickup variant all being produced. After Morris Motors merged with Austin in 1952, the car was modified to use the much more advanced Austin A-Series derived drivetrain, as found in the Austin A30, which was Austin’s equivalent for the same market segment, and in 1956, the Morris 1000 was introduced, using a 948cc engine and with several design improvements and updates, after which the car was produced in a largely unchanged state aside from a larger 1098cc engine, until 1971. In 1961, BMC built the 1 millionth Morris Minor and to comemorate the milestone, a limited number of Morris Minor “Million” cars were produced, all painted lilac with white interiors and with special badging. This example was one of the first classic cars I bought. I purchased the car locally as a running, but otherwise fairly rough car in need of restoration. Although originally black, it had been painted maroon yet had rust issues and other problems that hadn’t been properly addressed. After buying it, I started a largely rolling restoration on the car, having the rusty floors repaired and the car completely repainted. I recovered the interior, replaced or replated all the chrome parts on the car, rewired it, replaced all the rubber seals and gaskets, as well as sorted other mechanical issues throughout the car. Front brakes were upgraded to disc brakes based on those from an Austin Healey Sprite. The engine bay was largely left alone at first, but I sourced a second engine to rebuild and had it rebuilt with oversized Mini 998 pistons, higher compression, and a high flow head from a later model Austin Healey Sprite, with the goal of gaining a bit more power from the engine, which originally had only 35 horsepower, so, although the gain is likely not much more than 6 or 7 horsepower, it is significant for a car that originally had a 0-60 time of 31 seconds and a top speed of 62 miles per hour. The Morris Minor does drive surprisingly well given its very pedestrian character and it is easy to see why it was as successful a car as it was. The higher torque coupled with a final drive of 4.55:1 means that the Morris Minor functions perfectly well as a city car and though not suited for highways, it does cruise along very comfortably at 55 miles per hour. A friend who also owns a Morris Minor as well as a 1937 V12 Packard limo was complaining that his Morris Minor gets more positive attention from everyone who sees it than the Packard ever does.