Morris' 1948 Postwar Line - Updated with Side-Views

In 2019 I posted "Morris 1948 Badge Engineering -- And More!" but did not include my preferred use of profile views to illustrate my points.  Today's post attempts to correct that deficiency.

The October 1948 Earl's Court automobile show's exhibits included a new set of cars from Morris Motors.  These were the entry-level Morris Minor, the larger Morris Oxford, the six-cylinder Morris Six, along with two cars from Morris' Wolseley brand, the Four-Fifty (4/50) and Six-Eighty (6/80).

Although these models differed in size and engineering details, the latter four just mentioned shared much bodywork, and even the Morris Minor shared some of it.  More on this in the captions below.

Gallery

1949c. Morris Minor 2-door saloon - photo via Classic and Sports Car
The Morris Minor was a two-door model until 1950, when a four-door version (shown next) was offered.  Its wheelbase was 86 inches (2184 mm).

1952 Morris Minor Series II 4-door saloon - car-for sale photo
The front fender design seen here was also on Morris Minors starting during 1950 due to American regulations regarding headlight height.  The body profile is the same as the 2-door's, as is the window profile.  The main structural difference besides the additional door is that the front door is narrower here.

1953 Morris Oxford - photo via Simon cars
Wheelbase was 97 inches (2464 mm).  Longer wheelbase, longer car, but the body and window profiles are quite similar to that of the Oxford.  So are the rear fenders and trunk (boot) lid shapes, though these too are not exactly the same.  The front fender is different.  The body structures in the area of the cowling seems the same.  The similarities mentioned here make me wonder if some sheet metal and other structural stampings were either used outright or were adjusted.  Otherwise, what was the point of having such similarity in the designs other than the important consideration of manufacturing economy?

1951 Wolseley 4/50 - car-for sale photo
The wheelbase here was 102 inches (2591 mm).  Added length seems to be forward of the A-pillar and for wider doors.  The front fender design differs from the Oxford.  So does the hood (bonnet).  Otherwise, the cars are similar.

1950 Morris Six - Anglia Car Auctions photo
Wheelbase is 110 inches (2591 mm).  Added length is forwards of the cowling.  The rear window detailing on the car pictured here is not standard -- the vent window should be the same as that shown in the previous image.

1948 Wolseley 6/80 - unknown photo source
Wheelbase and basic body are the same as for the Morris Six.  The main difference is the grille.

Magnettes and Four Forty-Fours

I last wrote about the MG Magnette Saloon (sedan) here, and think it's time for an update.  Now I compare the Magnette to the Wolseley 4/44 that shared the same Gerald Palmer body design.

Wolseley 4/44s were produced 1953-56 and had a 1.25-litre motor, whereas the first-series (ZA) Magnette, also made 1953-56, had a 1.5-litre engine that gave it the somewhat better performance of a car with a sporting nameplate.  Production of 4/44s was 29,845 and ZA Magnettes 18,076.  The nearly identical (aside from the Varitone version) ZB Magnettes saw a production run of 18,524 over 1956-58.

The main style differences were front and interior trim.

Basic design was a variation of early-1950s British, where traditional grilles were mated to conservatively modern post- World War 2 bodies.  I rate Magnette and 4/44 styling as pleasant, but not exciting.  No serious defects, however.

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MG Magnette ZA - Riche Automobile Restorers photo
The grille is a curved version of the MG-TF sports car's.

Wolseley 4/44 - for sale
The Wolseley had a slightly longer, straighter hood and a traditional vertical grille.

1955 MG Magnette ZA - for sale
The main difference here is the chrome strip that curves up over the front wheel opening.  ZB Magnettes got a horizontal chrome strip much like the one on the Wolseley below.

1954 Wolseley 4/44 - auction photo
Palmer's larger Wolseley 8/90 series featured through fenders, whereas the 4/44 shows a distinct rear fenderline, perhaps a better solution to the slab-sidedness of many postwar cars.

1955 MG Magnette ZA - for sale
Rear design composition is a set of cascading curves -- roof, trunk, rear fender.

1954 Wolseley 4/44 - auction photo
Very simple design from this viewpoint, and no brand distinction other than labels.

Kaiser and Wolseley 6/90 Compared

A while ago I wrote about Gerald Palmer's Riley Pathfinder / Wolseley 6/90 design, noting a similarity to the postwar Kaiser design.  In today's post, I explicitly compare the 1954-59 Wolseley 6/90 to a 1948 Kaiser Special.

The Kaiser was a larger car, having a wheelbase of 123.5 inches (3137 mm) versus the 6/90's 113.5 inches (2883 mm).  It was designed around 1945, being the first American production car with flow-through slab-sided fenders.  Palmer's design was developed about five years later, so he had been able to evaluate many flow-through American production designs and Italian coachbuilt styles.

In essence, the Kaiser was heavy-looking and its lines were unrefined, whereas the Wolseley was more sleek, more attractive.  Its smaller size was greatly helpful, too.

That said, there were similarities, as can be seen in the images in the Gallery below

Gallery

1948 Kaiser Special - Mecum auction photos
The overall design can be characterized as "rounded," in spite of the flat fender sides.

Wolseley 6/90, Hertforshire Police vehicle
The Wolseley's radiator grille is tall, traditional, unlike the Kaiser's horizontal grille and rounded hood prow.

Kaiser's passenger compartment greenhouse seems massive, especially from this viewpoint.  That is due to its roofline that's fairly high above the window frame tops.  Even more important is the bulky C-pillar that's emphasized by the comparatively small backlight window.

Wolseley 6/90 - factory image
The Wolseley's greenhouse is noticeably lower than the Kaiser's, its roofline is flatter, and the C-pillar is much thinner.

The Kaiser's looks would have been greatly improved if the after part of the roofline curved downwards more gracefully.  The fenderline is set below the beltline, which reduces visual bulk slightly, the open rear wheel opening also helping.  There is no side ornamentation.

Wolseley 6/90 - car for sale
Here the fenderline and beltline coincide, but being a lower car than the Kaiser, the sides don't seem as bulky.  The chrome strip on the front side and another on the beltline add to visual length.

1955 Riley Pathfinder - for sale
Here is a Riley Pathfinder, sharing the Wolseley's body.  It has smaller backlight and wider C-pillar.  That, plus the lack of a fender chrome strip, makes it even more similar to the Kaiser.  I noted this similarity in a link above.

Similarity factors: Their fender shapes are simple and similar.  Plus the limited and absent (for Kaiser and Riley) side ornamentation and large wheel openings.  Finally, their side proportions (lengths of hood, greenhouse and trunk) are similar.

Gerald Palmer's Riley Pathfinder + Wolseley 6/90

Gerald Palmer (1911-1999) was one of the most important post- World War 2 British automobile designers (Wikipedia entry here).  He was responsible for the Jowett Javelin that I wrote about here.

He later moved to the Morris group where he designed the subjects of this post, the Riley Pathfinder, produced 1953-1957 (5,536 units built) and the Wolseley 6/90 produced 1954-1959 (11,852 units).

The bodies were nearly identical aside from their grilles.  But the Riley was powered by a four cylinder motor whereas the Wolseley's engine had six cylinders, so this might be considered a marginal case of badge engineering.

The images below are factory sourced or are of cars listed for sale.

Gallery

A 1955 Riley Pathfinder in this and the following two images.  At its 1952 origin, the styling was dated by American standards, but modern in its British context.  Aside from the prewar-style grille, the design features nothing but postwar elements, albeit in simple, conservative fashion.  Fenders are of the slab, flow-through type.  The windshield is of curved, one-piece glass.  Headlights are mounted at the front of the fenders.

The rear window is large and also curved.  The passenger greenhouse is nearly as wide as the car: note that the fender does not project very far from the beltline.  The trunk (boot) lid has a simple shape.  The tail light ensemble is dainty while the bumper is substantial.

Side view.  A subtle touch is the fenderline.  Starting at the B-pillar, it slightly rises and peaks above the rear axle line.  Compare to the fenderline of an otherwise somewhat similar car in the following photo.

Here is a 1947 Frazer.  It and its Kaiser stablemate were two of the earliest American cars with postwar styling (the other was the 1947 Studebaker).  Here the fender is a flow-through slab, but is dropped farther below the beltline than the Riley's.  The fenderline is simple, lacking the subtle curve that Palmer included.  The passenger greenhouse is similar to the Riley's, though the windows are smaller and the windshield is formed by two pieces of flat glass.  Palmer surely was aware of Kaiser-Frazer styling and might have been inspired by some of the features.  However, his design is better proportioned, better shaped, more subtle and, in sum, more attractive.

A publicity photo of what is probably an early Pathfinder.  It lacks the chrome trim along the fenderline seen in the previous images.

Side view of a 1957 Wolseley 6/90.  The main differences from the Pathfinder are the chrome strip across the fender and door and the sculpted wheel opening surrounds.

Front quarter view.  Front-end difference from the Riley include the grille, hood (bonnet) and bumper.

Seen from this perspective, we find a wider back window and different tail light assemblies.

Morris 1948 Badge Engineering -- And More!

What follows is not "badge engineering" (different brands of cars with minor appearance differences) in the narrow sense.  It is definitely the use of major body components by two brands and various models.  And in one instance regarding appearance, there is true badge engineering.

The subject matter is variations on Morris Motors' first postwar design.  The primary model was the best-selling Morris Minor that I wrote about here.

The postwar Minor began as a two-door saloon (sedan), and it wasn't until around the end of 1950s that a four-door version appeared.  That version used the body shown below.  However, abaft of the forward edge of the C-pillar, two-door and four-door Minors used the same 1948-vintage stamping.

Using the body discussed above, from the cowling aft, front ends and wheelbases varied depending upon the motors used.  Those cars were the Morris Oxford MO (97 inch, 2646 mm wheelbase), the Morris Six MS (110 inch, 2794 mm wheelbase), and two Wolseley models, the 4 cylinder 4/50 and six cylinder 6/80 (respective wheelbases 102 inches, 2591 mm, and 110 inches, 2794 mm).  Note that the Morris MS and Wolseley 6/90 have the same wheelbase: these are the badge-engineered models.

Gallery

1948c. Morris Oxford MO
The smallest of this set.  Note the stubby front end and the shaping of the fender extension over the front door.  This fender design is that of the Morris Minor.

1948c. Wolseley 4/50
The 4-cylinder Wolseley carries a high hood and grille that visually define the brand.  The section of the fender overlapping the front door is shaped differently from the Oxford's.

1948c. Morris Six MS
Two views of the Morris Six.  It's hard to see here, but the grille's design differs from the Wolseley's, being more curved, less severe. The fender line here is the same as the Wolseley's, not the Oxford's.

1948c. Morris Six MS
Aft ends of all these cars were essentially the same.

1948c. Wolseley 6/80
The top of the line shown here is this six-cylinder Wolseley.  These were popular police cars in England.

1954 Wolseley 6/80 for sale photo

Badge Engineering the BMC 1100 (ADO16)

I wrote about some badge engineering of the original ADO15 Mini here and about the larger, later ADO16 Morris 1100 here.

Like the ADO15 Minis, the later (starting 1962) ADO16s appeared with several brand nameplates.  Mechanical differences aside, from a design perspective we find a case of "badge engineering" -- largely superficial detailing differences intended to denote brand identity as cheaply (in tooling costs) as practical. The Wikipedia entry dealing with the ADO16 lines is here.

Besides the higher-volume production Austin and Morris ADO (British Motor Corporation's Amalgamated Design Office) 16s, that platform was used for the lesser BMC brands MG, Riley, Vanden Plas and Wolseley.

Gallery

1963 Austin 1100

1962 Morris 1100
Morris and Austin 1100s featured different badges and grille bars, but otherwise looked the same.

MG 1100
Use of a version of MG's traditional grille required some slight changes to the hood and front sheet metal.  The car shown in the press release photo also sports a two-tome paint job.

1965 Riley Kestrel
The Kestrel's side chrome strip is the same as the MGs.  Front end changes accommodate a slightly stylized traditional Riley grille plus the side "whisker" treatment carried over from the earlier Mini-based Riley Elf.

1967 Vanden Plas Princess
This more sombre appearance was intended to denote a top-of-the-line, dignified 1100.  Aside from the side strip being painted, the Princess got a slightly different hood, grille and lighting treatment.

1967 Wolseley 1100
Wolseley's changes are more in line with the Riley's.  Yet again, BMC stylists were allowed hood stamping adjustments.  The grille openings and light placements are nearly the same as the Kestrel's, again minimizing tooling expenditures.

Some Badged First-Generation British Minis

Today's Mini brand is from BMW.  But the 1959 original Minis were products of BMC, the British Motor Corporation, that was the result of a merger of Austin and Morris. Some background is here and here.

The first Minis, produced 1959-1967, were the Morris Mini-Minor and the Austin Seven, the latter a long-time Austin model name.  Two years later, BMC launched Mini-based cars for two of its lesser brands.  These were the Riley Elf and Wolseley Hornet.

Although there may have been some mechanical differences between these various Mini-based brands, from a styling perspective it seems to have been a matter of what is called "badge engineering" -- cheaply implemented superficial differences intended to preserve brand identities.

The original Mini concept was successful in its day, but in the long run BMC, Austin, Morris, Riley and Wolseley all disappeared from the automotive scene.

Gallery

1962 Austin Mini-Cooper

1964 Morris Mini-Cooper
By far the most popular versions of British Minis were from Morris and Austin.

1961 Riley Elf
The Elf received a small bustle back and extended fenders.  The hood and lower front fender cuts lines are carried over from Morris and Austin.  A small version of a traditional Riley grille was added, along with "whisker" openings as part of the lower light ensemble.

Wolseley Hornet
Wolseley Hornets received treatments similar to the Elfs, the grille being characteristic of Wolseley.  One difference seen on the car illustrated here is the smoothed front fender -- the angled sheet metal join is missing.