Recommission: 59 Morris 850

[850RS]

I recently purchased a 1959 Morris 850 that has been a racecar for the majority of its life. The car came with a 998 Cooper engine (thin flange) and an 1128 gearbox. The engine and gearbox had been sat in a barn with the clutch housing removed and it had been a good home for all the moths in the barn. Needless to say I needed to disassemble it all and make sure it was clean and ready to go. This was a great time to rebuild the gearbox and replace bearings and shafts as necessary. I went with the upgraded Layshaft from minispares and a new main shaft and all new bearings. The box has the standard ratio, I may look to swap for a close ratio in the future. Right now my main objective is to get everything back together and have a running car. The block and head seem in great shape with flat top pistons (+0.40) and Kent 544 cam. The head is a 12g202 that has been worked considerably with oversized rimflow valves. The compression ratio works out to 10.95:1.

On to the body. The shell had a poorly designed bolt in cage with 1 3/8 erw tubing. I cut out the old cage and have designed an 1 1/2” .095 DOM roll cage that I will weld in. I do have a few spots of rust that I plan to address before I weld in the cage. Once the cage is in I’ll be mounting a Sabelt X-pad seat.

I appreciate any input or advice from you seasoned racers. I am most interested in making the safest car I can, and will then work to develop the car for more performance.

Cheers

[850RS]

A few photos of the project so far.

[mk1]

Looks like a great project!

Glad to see you are thinking about the sensible stuff before making it go quicker.

A welded in cage is certainly a good start, a well designed cage will make the car safer & more rigid which will pay dividends when it come to handling. Of course a good seat is a must, make sure the subframe, like the cage is welded in & Very secure I have seen a few seats pull out of the floor before today. It's always best to mount the seatbelt harness shoulder straps directly to the cage & make sure you use large spreader plates on the bolts that go through the floor.

I am sure that there will be loads of stuff that I have missed, but I guess that's a start.

Good luck,

M

[850RS]

Thanks for the advice, Mark. Much appreciated and I’ll definitely do a solid mount for the seat tied into the roll cage structure.

[850RS]

I’ve always felt the brake pedal was a touch small on the mini. I wanted just a little larger pedal pad to spread the load so it’s not such a pressure point on the bottom of the racing boot. I cut original pad off the pedal and then cut out and shaped a new pad that should be a little better.

I also wanted a little larger pad on the throttle pedal and I had some spare flat carbon fiber. I flattened out the original pad and drilled holes to mount the carbon to the throttle pedal. Covered in grip tape for traction.

[mk1]

Nice work.

[Mini Mad Swede]

If you want ispiration for your rollcage build then search for Urchfab on Youtube and his MiniMiglia build.
Never seen someone building a cage to fit that well before.

[850RS]

If you want ispiration for your rollcage build then search for Urchfab on Youtube and his MiniMiglia build.
Never seen someone building a cage to fit that well before.

Thanks for the recommendation! I just watched the build all the way through and it has given me some ideas. I won’t be getting my cage as tight against the shell as he did, he is quite the craftsman.

[850RS]

Been trying to make some progress. I mocked up the seat placement with some wood so I can make sure I fit. I’ll need to make some adjustments as the shoulder bolster hits the b pillar.

The modified pedals are painted and ready to have some grip tape applied.

I also recently ordered an intake manifold from maniflow for my 40 dcoe but the piece that showed up was 2” short.

I also have a ultra light flywheel from minispares that will need a balancing with the crank assembly before I put the engine back together.

[850RS]

I was searching through the local photographers website and found a photo of the 850 being raced by the previous owner. This was taken in 2011 at High Plains Raceway in Colorado.

[Oneball]

The mounts for my seat angle slightly under the seat so you can get it a bit closer to the tunnel.

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[850RS]

The mounts for my seat angle slightly under the seat so you can get it a bit closer to the tunnel.

Thanks for the photos! I will likely use a solution like this as well. Does your seat have the large shoulder bolsters as well?

[Oneball]

Yes it does.

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[850RS]

Thanks for the photos. That gives a good reference to work from.

I cut some new templates and tried a few different seating positions. I also had to take out the hand brake for now. Hopefully I can fit it after the seat is fully mounted.

I was able to move the seat far enough towards the middle of the car that I’m no longer hitting on the b pillar. It’s more comfortable and more in line with steering wheel and pedals now as well. With my helmet on I have 3” between the top of the helmet and the roof. I believe regulations for the local racing club require the top of the roll hoop to be 2” above the helmet. So as long as I keep my main hoop within an inch of the roof line I will be ok.

[850RS]

Rolled the 850 out into the driveway to work on stripping more of the bed liner material out of the interior. Lots of work still before I can weld in the roll cage. Took advantage of the nice light and took a few glamour shots.

[Oneball]

I like the wheels. Is your headlight feeding the carb?

[850RS]

I like the wheels. Is your headlight feeding the carb?

Hey Oneball,

The Compomotives are some of my favorite wheels. These actually came on my other racecar, but I felt like they went better with the blue than the BRG. I do also have the 10x6 Minilites as a second set for the 850.

That is a great idea about feeding the carbs with the headlight buckets. I will double check the regulations for both clubs I’ll race with to make sure there is no issue with that.

My new manifold has also arrived from Maniflow. There was a bit of a mixup with the shipping and my manifold was shipped to a racer in the PNW and I received his. Luckily we were able to sort it out and send each other the correct manifolds.

[850RS]

On to the next project. I have a swiftune oil catch can and I needed to adapt a rocker cover to work with the setup. I found a 1” mandrel bend 90° for the back takeoff. I think it turned out well. Now just to figure out where the ST badge needs to go.

[850RS]

Started working on the new roll cage. This is my first time building a cage and I’m taking my time and making sure I get all the measurements right. Took me a couple hours to get the main hoop bent, but it’s within an 1/8” of what I had planned for on total width.

[850RS]

Spent some more time in the garage getting the roll cage bent up and tacked in. Still need to work out the rear diagonals and door bars and a few other pieces.