Morris Minor Monthly - Dedicated to the Morris Minor

" RUSSELL’S ROUND UP THIS ISSUE IS another ‘Globe trotting edition’ that features Morris Minors in Holland, Malta as well as the USA, plus some event reports from Norway & Australia. We also keep you updated on the home front too, with a nice working traveller that Mandy has been to see, this is a very nice home rebuild by Colin Deakins. Our ‘staff car’ write-up comes from René in Mexico, his traveller was sold in Mexico by Automotriz Inglesa de Mexico.S.A. during August 1958. These cars were shipped to Mexico as CKDs and assembled by Willis Mexicana, they were then painted in nonstandard BMC shades, and his traveller is close to Clipper Blue, although this colour was only used from January 1959 by BMC. The Minors featured in this edition reside in really quite contrasting climates and range from the frozen artic of Norway to very humid Mexico in South America. I asked Mandy to take some more images of me for the editorial pages and as usual she starts snapping when I am either eating or drinking, remember the last one I was chomping on a shortbread now she’s court me drinking a cuppa, nice mug though. My current weight loss is still going in the right direction and its now over a stone and 1/2 as I write this, so no biscuits with the tea! It gives me great pleasure to welcome new contributor Austin Williams, he pens his first of what I believe will be many features for us whilst studying journalism in California, in this one he inspects an ex-UK registered 4-door saloon that is now in San Francesco. I want to start off a ‘GPO/PO Corner’ as there are lot of readers out there with ex-Post Office Minor vans, well after all they were the largest fleet user with a total of over 50,000 units being purchased across the entire production date range, 1953-1972. So if you have found or have any Post office ‘oddities’ on your van please let us know, I am sure we have readers who can help. And remember send us those holiday snaps when you find the Minors on your travels So until next time, enjoy your Minor, keep motoring "

Russell Harvey - Minor Monthly Editor

" RUSSELL’S ROUND UP I WAS SADDENED to receive a letter from Trans-Pennine Publishing Ltd with the news of the passing of a well-loved publisher Professor Alan Earnshaw on the 10th March. His motoring books were always a great delight to read, it was Alan that approached me back in 2005 to publish my second book, “Minor Commercials” in his Nostalgia Road series. My thoughts are with his wife Larraine and family. Yet another bumper packed issue. We are continuing with our Minor Million theme and features, this month Bruce Blair from Nevada examines the North American specification for the Million, there were differences! As well as this Bruce examines the survivors across the pond. We still have more to report on the Minor Millions over the coming months and I have recently been to see the Minor Million prototype so watch this space for a full feature on that one. Over the past 12 months or so I have been to see a number of these cars and I must say they never fail to fascinate me. We have a great Workshop feature on how to rebuild your gearbox from our gearbox expert Andrew Bywater, he know’s all there is to know about these. Another new contributor Nick Gibbs visits a recently discovered stash of Minors in New Zealand along with a Minor business these are possibly for sale and is happy for them to come to the UK, any takers for this one? Mandy continues with her ‘roof chop’ convertible feature, Adrian Moses’ Minor was nearly 10 years in the making, but I think you will agree it is an excellent home restoration all credit to him. During December both ‘my better half’ and myself had the good fortune to visit Morris Minor Guru from the West Country, Charles Ware, where we received a guided tour of his operation located in Bristol, sincere thanks to Charles and his team for an enjoyable visit. Some recent news in, is the Footman James Bristol Classic Car show that was supposed to have taken place in February that was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions has been rescheduled to take place on 2nd to 4th May 2009 at the original venue. The good news is the original tickets are still valid for this event, so all our lucky competition winners are still eligible to get in, so all being well will see some of you at the show, also note it has been extended to 3 days. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to loose weight, well I started at the end of January and as I write in this editorial at the end of March I am pleased with the progress. You will also note that great Minor 1000000 T-shirt that Bruce is wearing in the photos in his million feature… …As you can see by the new image I’ve got one too as I was there, but I am over 1 stone lighter than the last time I wore it! For information on the Minor used on the latest Walkers crisp adverts see page 6, if your eyes can be drawn away from Danielle Bux or Gary Lineker that is! Before I let you get on and have a good read, I need to express my gratitude to all those that have sent in contributions for ‘Me and My Minor’ this month thanks go to a Derek & Matthew Dodds. For our ‘Step Back…’ image my thanks are to Elayne May from Cardiff "

Russell Harvey - Minor Monthly Editor