The Roaring Season

Well I only just noticed myself as I have never seen so many photos of the Morrari in one place!

In fact, the Morrari looks to have been a 50-51 car (not 53 as I mentioned earlier) - the 'short' bonnet was actually discontinued in 1951. So it was quite a rare body really.

Of course Greg is free to do what he likes, and the yellow peril he has there looks a bit sad and needs a new lease of life. But if he wants to get it dead right... Mind you, tracking down the correct 1950/1 body shell would probably be harder than getting an original low light!

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/MORRIS-MINOR-1000-BODY-INTERIOR-/270804048435?pt=AU_Cars&hash=item3f0d2dda33 IS this the right model Nuffield

nuffield wrote:Well I only just noticed myself as I have never seen so many photos of the Morrari in one place!

In fact, the Morrari looks to have been a 50-51 car (not 53 as I mentioned earlier) - the 'short' bonnet was actually discontinued in 1951. So it was quite a rare body really.

Of course Greg is free to do what he likes, and the yellow peril he has there looks a bit sad and needs a new lease of life. But if he wants to get it dead right... Mind you, tracking down the correct 1950/1 body shell would probably be harder than getting an original low light!

So the entire front end on the Morrari was actually off another car? So the bodywork is effectively from two different cars?

Steve Holmes wrote:So the entire front end on the Morrari was actually off another car? So the bodywork is effectively from two different cars?

Its possible Steve that perhaps it was made up with panels from different sources,remember Morry panels were still sought after at that time

Thanks Bob, yes that makes sense.

105angria wrote:http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/MORRIS-MINOR-1000-BODY-INTERIOR-/270804048435?pt=AU_Cars&hash=item3f0d2dda33 IS this the right model Nuffield

Thats a four door anyway, but, if you look, its got the 'long bonnet' which the Morrari didn't have. The 'long bonnet' extends right back to the gutter on the A-post, whereas on 1948-51 cars the bonnet stopped about 3" short, leaving a section of the scuttle/bulkhead exposed. This section carried a short length of the side coach line and I suppose they made the bonnet longer to cover this area as it was cheaper to manufacture.

Steve Holmes wrote:So the entire front end on the Morrari was actually off another car? So the bodywork is effectively from two different cars?

Not entirely - just the wings and grille and they could have been 'new old stock'. Remember that the 'highlight' wings were the result of a balls up at Morris where they overlooked/forgot the upcoming Californian lighting regs - this was a quick, cheap fix for export cars only so involved no important/structural panel changes. UK cars, on the same structure, stayed 'low lamp' for another year after export models were changed.

The differences are simply 3 panels - the wings (which swap over perfectly; fitting onto the same inner wing and abutting the same chrome 'hockey stick' trim around the grille) and the grille panel itself (that fits within the chrome trim). The new grille had the same number of slats but the headlamps were replaced by sidelights. The 'highlight' headlamps were actually a larger diameter too. You can switch a 'highlight' to a 'low light' (or vice-versa) quite easily - as long as its the right year. The Minor underwent a heavy facelift in 1956 when it became the Minor 1000 and actually got different wings (not so you'd notice it) and a new grille, which aren't interchangeable as on the older cars.

Was the underbonnet structure of the Morrari completely new anyway? By the looks of it, it probably lost the original chassis legs, bulkhead, inner wings etc anyway, so they could fit whatever nose onto it they wanted.

As I said somewhere earlier on here ,something sticks in my mind about the body being shifted around to fit the wheel base ,maybe this was achieved with the sub body and mudguards,as you say nuffield

Well its been a while since we have posted on here about the Morrari but after the NZ Motor Racing Festival earlier in the year and the Leadfoot Festival last weekend - we are VERY keen to actually get started on this project. Dads away at the moment and I have been busy with the NZ Hot Rod Magazine but once he is back we are going to sit down and have a talk about commencing work on the project.

Thats great to hear Greg. We will expect to see it at the Denny Hulme Festival at HD in January 013!! Something to wile away those winter evenings out in the shed. We've done all the talking on here......now it's action time.

was looking on trade me for an old ferrari squallo chassis, nearly as rare as a lowlight morrie

Greg Stokes wrote:Well its been a while since we have posted on here about the Morrari but after the NZ Motor Racing Festival earlier in the year and the Leadfoot Festival last weekend - we are VERY keen to actually get started on this project. Dads away at the moment and I have been busy with the NZ Hot Rod Magazine but once he is back we are going to sit down and have a talk about commencing work on the project.

Thats awesome to hear Greg. What a neat project this is going to be.

Still trying to track down a good drawing of the Ferrari chassis. We have found cutaways and various sketches. Would be great to find a drawing that showed the entire chassis. Would also love to find photos of the inside of the Morrari too.

Greg, I'm sure you have seen the photo of the stripped Hoare/Fow Ferrari. A good pic of the chassis. Is on page 2 of 'the other GTO' thread, posting No29. probably is a different chassis altogether but must be similar in a lot of ways.

Slowly been studying Ferrari chassis pics etc - would dearly love to find anymore pics on the Morrari as well so any leads are appreciated. We want to recreate this car as closely as we can in a feasible and realistic manner. Thanks

Not sure if these are any help?

Thanks Pallmall, those are EXCELLENT pics!

My Taraschi Formula Junior was built in 1959 and has a ladder chassis in a similar style to the Ferrari. You are welcome to have a look at it to see how the Italians fabricated these sorts of chassis back then.

RogerH wrote:My Taraschi Formula Junior was built in 1959 and has a ladder chassis in a similar style to the Ferrari. You are welcome to have a look at it to see how the Italians fabricated these sorts of chassis back then.

Thanks, we would like to meet up and view your car. Would you mind emailing your contact details to me at mailto:?subject=&body=

Bob H has mentioned that his memory tells him the body was moved around to fit the wheels,in post#45, that photo shows the rear wheels towards the front of the wheel arch while the front wheel looks to be toward thre rear of the wheel arch. None of the other pictures show this as clearly as the 45 posting.