Canadian 1949 Lowlight Morris Minor
TEMPTING FATE TOURS LINK - / @temptingfatetours
First of all, let’s tackle the story behind this car, because it’s one of the most interesting about it. The current owner, John, is a well-respected motoring writer and in march 2015 he wrote a piece for the British Saloon Car Club of Canada about 1949 Morris Minors.
You might think it is strange that an American is waxing lyrical about the joys of an early Morris Minor, but John has been around Morris Minors his entire life and still owns his father’s 1960 Traveller.
Years pass and then in 2020, John received an email from a lovely man in Canada. He told John all about his parents low light 1949 Morris Minor and how after his Father’s passing he’d kept the car and toyed with selling it, but hadn’t really got around to actually doing it. The pair then exchanged emails and John realised this car, the car we’re in today, was something special: it was not only a rare survivor but had an astonishing correct and documented 19,000 miles from new.
But Steph, how rare is the car, I hear you ask? Well, first of all, lowlights, the name given to the cars when the lights are lower in the wing compared to the highlights, similar to mine; were only sent to Canada for one year. It is believed around 3,000 were sold and only a handful, fewer than 10, survive today.
By the way, in case you didn’t know this already, Nuffield didn’t make very many Morris Minors in the January to June period of 1949 because they incorrectly predicted the larger Oxford would be more popular and hadn’t tooled up to meet the surprising demand for the Morris Minor.
After 1949, the exported Minors were all of the highlight variant, which was a direct result of the American regulations of the time which required the 7 inch sealed beam units higher in the wings. However, if you ever look at an early 1949 Morris Minor in America, you’ll see it’s already a highlight not a lowlight - this is because Nuffield made special wings for the American market only.
This meant they lost money on each car and quickly realised to make it worth their time, all the cars would need to be the highlight wing design - so essentially - American legislation shaped the look of one of Britain’s most popular cars of all time.
The full story of the car and its back story is all on John’s channel, Tempting Fate Tours, but in short, a deal was struck and John agreed to buy the car and bring it to New York State in America, where he lives.
All was going well until lockdown restrictions kicked in and it meant John’s plans were all put on hold. A generous 1949 Canadian Morris Minor owner offered to help look after the car until things got a little easier with transport and travel and he then looked after the car for John until 2022.
At this point, John and his friend Tom made the 500 mile trip to pick the car up and after nearly three years of patiently waiting, John got to drive his beloved new 1949 Morris Minor that we’re sitting in today.
John didn’t stop there with his antics and earlier this year, shipped the car to Europe whereby he undertook the Minors on Tour trip which took us across the Netherlands and into bits of Germany and he’s now been enjoying travelling the UK in it - meaning this humble little 1949 survivor has probably visited more countries than any other Canadian lowlight.
The car is strikingly original and even appears to bear the original ignition coil. However, the benefitted from a respray circa 40 years ago. This was not due to the car being rusty, but because of paint technology for the maroon used in 1949 - the paint would go chalky. It’s not something you see on every colour from this era and in fact, it was such a problem it led to the maroon colour being reformulated two years later because Morris had a considerable amount of warranty claims on the paintwork.
The car still has the original 918cc engine which John cheerfully tells me will eventually work itself up into the 50 mile per hour section of the speedo but he’s never seen 60.
To conclude, this car is a more than just a car, it’s a stunning historical piece and we are incredibly lucky to experience it here today.