Andrew Elwood’s Minors

I was about nine years old when I first caught the Morris Minor disease whilst being told about both my grandfathers’ Minors. One being a black 1957 four door saloon WZ 2044 and the other an almond green 1966 four door saloon 9827 OZ. In 2000, when I was 14 we started looking around for a Minor. After viewing three, we purchased KPC 994C in Castledawson.

KPC994C, being a 1965 4-door Saloon in Trafalgar Blue, was dispatched from Cowley on 2nd of November 1965 to a dealer in Aldershot, England. It spent most of its life in Essex, until it was brought over to Northern Ireland by its tenth owner in 1996. It sat in his garage until we purchased it in 2001.  This meant among other things… seized brakes! The car needed some work after the long storage but we only intended to keep the car for a short period of time but after 8 years and joining the MMOC in 2001 we still have it.

In 2006 the disease grew, when a man that I knew through work showed me his Minor that he had restored 15 years previously and never really drove since, which again meant seized brakes!  I purchased the car after a closer inspection and again the car needed some work after the long storage.

The car is a 1966 two door Saloon in Dove Grey. After obtaining the heritage certificate, I found out that the car was dispatched from Cowley on 2nd of November 1965 to W.H. Alexander in Belfast, registered in April 1966 and given the County Down registration number 2715 SZ which it still carries. When I read the heritage certificate, the date of dispatch seemed very familiar, so I looked up the certificate for KPC and found that both cars were dispatched from Cowley on the same day!

I don’t know what it is about Minors but, to me they are still very addictive!

Andrew Elwood, Morris Minor Owners Club Northern Ireland