Morris Oxford Series MO is an

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

produced by

Morris Motors Morris Motors Limited was a British privately owned motor vehicle manufacturing company formed in 1919 to take over the assets of William Morris's WRM Motors Limited and continue production of the same vehicles. By 1926 its production represent ...

of the United Kingdom from 1948 to 1954. It was one of several models to carry the

Morris Oxford Morris Oxford is a series of motor car models produced by Morris of the United Kingdom, from the 1913 ''bullnose'' Oxford to the ''Farina'' Oxfords V and VI. Named by W R Morris after ''the city of dreaming spires'', the university town in which ...

name between 1913 and 1971. __TOC__

Saloon

After the Second World War the 13.5

fiscal horsepower The tax horsepower or taxable horsepower was an early system by which taxation rates for automobiles were reckoned in some European countries such as Britain, Belgium, Germany, France and Italy; some US states like Illinois charged license plate pu ...

Oxford MO had to replace the Ten horsepower series M, Morris's Twelve and Morris's Fourteen. It was announced along with the new 918cc

Morris Minor The Morris Minor is a British economy family car that made its debut at the Earls Court Motor Show, London, in October 1948. Designed under the leadership of Alec Issigonis, more than 1.6 million were manufactured between 1948 and 1972 in th ...

and the 2.2-litre

Morris Six MS The Morris Six Series MS is a six-cylinder midsize car from Morris Motors Limited which was produced from 1948 to 1953. Announced with Morris Motors' Minor, Oxford and Wolseley ranges on Tuesday 26 October 1948, it was Morris's first post-war ...

on 26 October 1948 and was produced until 1954. The core design was shared with

Nuffield Organization Nuffield Organization was the unincorporated umbrella-name or promotional name used for the charitable and commercial interests of owner and donor, William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield. The name was assumed following Nuffield's gift made to form ...

stable-mate Wolseley 4/50 which used a traditional grille and better finishes. Designed by

Alec Issigonis Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis (18 November 1906 – 2 October 1988) was a British-Greek automotive designer. He designed the Mini, launched by the British Motor Corporation in 1959, and voted the second Car of the Century, most i ...

, the Oxford, along with the Minor, introduced

unit construction : ''For the vehicle design where the vehicle's skin is used as a load-bearing element, see Monocoque.'' Unit construction is the design of larger motorcycles where the engine and gearbox components share a single casing. This sometimes includes ...

techniques such as Unibody construction even though it is not widely recognized as a true unibody car.

Torsion bar A torsion bar suspension, also known as a torsion spring suspension, is any vehicle suspension that uses a torsion bar as its main weight-bearing spring. One end of a long metal bar is attached firmly to the vehicle chassis; the opposite end termi ...

front suspension was another novelty, and hydraulically operated 8-inch (200 mm)

drum brake A drum brake is a brake that uses friction caused by a set of shoes or pads that press outward against a rotating cylinder-shaped part called a brake drum. The term ''drum brake'' usually means a brake in which shoes press on the inner surfac ...

s were fitted all around. Under the bonnet, the MO was a step back in technology from the pre-war Ten. It used a

side-valve A flathead engine, also known as a sidevalve engine''American Rodder'', 6/94, pp.45 & 93. or valve-in-block engine is an internal combustion engine with its poppet valves contained within the engine block, instead of in the cylinder head, as ...

straight-4 A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the ...

rather than the older

overhead-valve An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located bel ...

unit. The single SU-carburetted engine displaced 1.5 L (1476 cc/90 in³) and with its output of at 4200 rpm could propel the car to 72 mph (116 km/h). In order to reduce noise, the crankshaft helical gear that drove the camshaft was steel and the camshaft gear was of resin-bonded fibre construction, rather than a steel-to-steel coupling. It was believed, surprisingly, that the steel gear wore out first over time. Replacement parts were sold as factory-matched pairs of wheels. The four-speed gearbox had a column gear change and steering was by rack and pinion. Interior fittings were reasonably comprehensive by the standards of the time, with a full width shelf under the dashboard and "useful pivoting ventilator panels" (hinged quarterlights) at the front edge of each of the front doors and a rear window blind included in the price. Instrumentation included an oil pressure gauge, an ammeter and an electric clock. Also available, albeit at extra cost, was a heater. Morris Oxford 4-Door Saloon 1950.jpg, saloon 1950 Morris Oxford MO saloon 1950 3671562245.jpg, wide-mouth
alligator bonnet Engine Morris Oxford MO saloon, 1496cc sv 1950 3671563787.jpg, sidevalve engine (modified to use twin carburetters) Morris Oxford, in Edinburgh 2014-05-05.jpeg, grille 1952 Morris_Oxford_MO_1953.jpg, facelift grille 1953 Morris Oxford arriving on a stormy day at Schaffen-Diest.JPG, profile 1952 Morris Oxford Traveller 1953 4659310521).jpg, Morris Oxford Series MO Traveller 1953

Traveller

A two-door estate version of the Series MO was introduced in September 1952.Michael Sedgwick & Mark Gillies, A-Z of Cars 1945-1970, page 143 Marketed as the Oxford Traveller, it had an exposed wooden frame at the rear. Just 3½ inches longer than the saloon which its dimensions otherwise matched the ''Traveller'' was given bench seats front and back, the front backrest split for access to the back. Six could be seated in reasonable comfort, though the back squab was narrowed by the rear wheel arches, and furthermore there was a large platform behind for luggage or freight. Folding forward the rear seat made an area nearly five feet square and three feet high. The front part of the car remained the same as the saloon and no comfort was sacrificed by front seat passengers. Normal winding windows were retained in front but the side windows at the rear (which provided excellent vision for the driver) could slide horizontally, the first for more than two feet and the second only a short distance to give ventilation. The vague steering column gear change lever still showed no improvement over previous OxfordsVirtues Of A Shooting Brake Body. ''The Times'', Tuesday, 7 Jun 1955; pg. 2; Issue 53240 ''

The Motor ''The Motor'' (later, just ''Motor'') was a British weekly car magazine ''Car'' is a British automotive enthusiast magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. International editions are published by Bauer Automotive in Republi ...

'' magazine tested a Traveller in 1952 but only attained a top speed of and acceleration from 0– in 26.2 seconds. A fuel consumption of was recorded. The test car cost £825 including taxes. The final drive ratio had been lowered from 4.55 to 1 to 4.875 to 1 in 1949 "in the interests of top gear acceleration, which still keeping top gear reasonably high, as is ...Morris policy", according to a statement attributed to the manufacturer.

Morris Six

A six-cylinder version was sold as the

. It was replaced by the

Morris Isis The Morris Isis name was first briefly used by Morris Motors Limited on a 6-cylinder car made from 1929 until 1931. It was resurrected on a new 6-cylinder midsize car from the British Motor Corporation in the 1950s to replace the Morris Six MS. ...

in 1955.

Hindustan Fourteen

Hindustan Motors Hindustan Motors is an Indian automotive manufacturer based in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It is a part of the Birla Technical Services conglomerate. The company was the largest car manufacturer in India before the rise of Maruti Udyog. Hind ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

produced the Oxford MO as the Hindustan Fourteen.

References

Footnotes Bibliography * {{Automobiles made by BMC, BL and Rover Group companies, post-1945 Issigonis vehicles

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...