Factory 1275 Traveller

[jaekl]

I recently mention this vehicle earlier today in another post and then today someone sent me a link to it being for sale. I was wondering if anyone one in England was aware of it.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1967- ... 2018-12-01

[Chipper]

Interesting. Wonder if they made any others? I wonder where the 100 mph Smiths speedo was sourced from - AFAIK, Mini Cooper 'S' ones went up to a heady 120 mph.

The poor old front suspension eyebolt bushes look well past it, but the rest appears to be in pretty good shape...

[firedrake1942]

The offside glovebox lid will have people salivating. They are like hens teeth and only fitted on LHD export vehicles.

[Chipper]

Well, it fetched a pretty fair sum, of $11,050 (£8,680)...

[Blaketon]

Interesting. Wonder if they made any others? I wonder where the 100 mph Smiths speedo was sourced from - AFAIK, Mini Cooper 'S' ones went up to a heady 120 mph.

I think the Mini Cooper (Not the S) speedo went up to 100 (I have a Mini Cooper book and will have a look).

I reckon a 1275 Traveller could have delayed my father buying a foreign car (VW Type 3 Variant). He had a Mini estate and was looking for something a bit bigger. At the time, the Ford Escort had not long replaced the Anglia and he bought a 1.3 estate. Whilst it handled and went well enough, it was as durable as a sand castle. It lost oil pressure if you held 70mph for very long (There wasn't much in the sump) and the gearbox became noisy (Equally well lubricated). The back axle was noisy from the start. Until he fitted better leads, it broke down in the rain. I am sure that if he had bought a Minor Traveller, he wouldn't have later described that as the worst car he ever owned and I often wonder whether, had the Traveller been given a 1275 engine, he might have bought one (About 45 years before I got mine)?

That leads on to whether, if a Marina had ever replaced the Traveller, what he would have thought of that. The Marina was slated but when my father owned an MG, in the mid 1970s, it needed a fuel pump under warranty. He was given a Marina 1.3 as a courtesy car and I expected him to call it rotten. I was surprised when he said it was fine and went well. I think the 1.8s were a bit front heavy.

[SteveClem]

When I started work in 1974 both of my colleagues had Marinas. Nice big practical cars. Trouble was we were located next to the coast in Northumberland and the salt spray caused serious corrosion within a year or so. It looked especially bad on the white saloon!

[Chipper]

Aye, it does make you wonder why BMC didn't produce a 1275cc Minor, when there had been many successful period conversions done to show the way forwards, and yet BMC quickly upgraded the Austin/Morris 1100 to 1300...

I can only suppose it was due to issues reported with axle tramp, etc. with even the 1098cc Minors, that they decided a mighty 1275cc may be too much for the chassis, yet that didn't stop them making the Riley 1.5 with 68 bhp (similar to that of say, an MG Midget 1275) based on the same chassis.

[philthehill]

The Minor was dated and on its way out when the 1275cc engine appeared; also the Minor did not fit into the BMC/BL plans for the future.

[ManyMinors]

The Minor was dated and on its way out when the 1275cc engine appeared; also the Minor did not fit into the BMC/BL plans for the future.

Exactly so. Revamping a Minor with the 1275 engine and other upgrades would simply have created competition for their own front drive 1100/1300 which sold in much larger numbers anyway. Plus the traveller must have been more labour intensive and costly to build of course.

[Blaketon]

Oddly enough, aside from the LCVs, the Traveller was produced after the saloons.

Axle tramp could be controlled with radius arms and I am sure that it was simply the fact that the car was fading away. Mind you, I don't know of any similar cars, where dealers were asked to build new ones from parts. I know there were the Ledbury Maestros but I'm not sure whether these are as a result of demand or did someone think it was a viable business opportunity? I don't know that any were built from parts, post production but when the Z Type MG Magnette was dropped, lots of people didn't like the Magnette Mk3 (My uncle being one who was saving up for a Magnette and managed to get enough together to buy a ZB).

The 1100/1300 was the best selling car of the 60s (As a young child I remember there were loads of the about) but I don't think the estate version was that roomy. It was more of a hatchback than an estate. I believe that the hydrolastic suspension was upset by weight in the boot and that the front of the car would rise as a result.

I understand that the Riley 1.5 grew out of a possible Minor replacement and I am aware that they were nose heavy, with a B Series up front (Rather like the Marina 1.8 ).

[ianmack]

I don’t think the Ledbury Maestros were due to high demand. I believe they came about from the availability of parts after production ceased, possibly knocked down export kits which no one wanted.

At the end of Maestro production I was involved in the transit arrangements for a batch of new Maestro vans which were proving hard to sell. They were originally destined for eastern Europe and after much dickering and cancelled orders were eventually sent to a buyer in South America, or maybe it was the other way around.

I don’t think anyone was ever trampled in the rush to get a Maestro.

[ManyMinors]

I don’t think anyone was ever trampled in the rush to get a Maestro.

Or the last Morris Minors actually. Many unsold examples remained after the end of production - particularly the Travellers. Production ended in April 1971 but quite a few were not sold/registered until months later - hence the "K" registrations which didn't begin until August of that year.
Although we all love our Morris Minors, most buyers of brand new cars are not looking for something very dated and old fashioned

[ianmack]

My ‘70 saloon was made in July but not registered until October so they weren’t flying off the shelves at that time but to be fair the model had lasted 22 years by then, and had sold well for most of them.

The Maestro was a turkey from day one. The only appreciation of them I ever heard was that criminals liked the MG turbo version because it was quite quick and yet unobtrusive because it was ‘just a Maestro’.

[Blaketon]

Some people nevertheless liked their Minors, as I know some where built from parts to order (I believe because customers didn't want a Marina). The fact that the Owners Club formed so soon, after production ceased (And before the classic car scene got going), proves that.

My late next door neighbour wasn't what you would call a car enthusiast. In his lifetime, he had owned numerous cars (Always doing his own maintenance) and I recall him saying that the best was a choice between his VW Golf Mk2 (He had a Mk3 and a later Golf) and his two Morris Minor 1000s. I owned a Mk2 Golf GTI and as an overall car, perhaps it was the best I ever owned (Not the fastest or even the most roomy but just a good combination of many things). It was easy to work on and very reliable, just like my Traveller (I never had to delve into the wring, which might have changed my opinion), though it was faster than the Traveller (Even with 80bhp - which is adequate anyway). However I wouldn't swap my Traveller for another Golf and although it would have denied me the experience of owning other cars, I wish I had "Discovered" Minors years before.