When I was a teenager my family had a Morris Minor. By some strange coincident Suann also had a Morris Minor when she was a teenager.
The Morris minor had hand crank to use if the started did not work. It was easy to start by hand. The engine was about 1000 cc. If you look in the hood, it looked like the battery was as large as the engine.
One summer I went with Dad to work at Opa-locka, near Miami. At that time he worked for Dothan Aviation. They had a contract working on the eradication of the Mediterranean fruit fly. On one drive down from Marianna we carried a B-25 rudder on top of the Morris Minor.
While working in Miami, I spent a large faction of my income on surplus electronic/radio gear. There was a surplus store down there which had a warehouse full of interesting stuff. I think the place was named Miami Radar. On one trip home, we had the Morris full of surplus electronic goodies.
Dad relied on the hand crank to start the thing a lot. Put off buying a new battery I guess. One time in Marianna I was home, Dad call me to come haul some bags of dust down to some road where Bill was on a dusting job using the J-3 duster. I was delayed because the Morris would not even start with the hand crank. I hooked my HO gauge model train transformed to it. And got enough juice to it to power the ignition.
I drove the Morris at the University of Florida until Dad gave me his 1965 Mustang.
Since we both had a Morris Minor when we were younger, I bought this green Morris Minor to restore.
This one saw a 1967 Minor 1000. I think this was the last year it was imported into the USA. This one had the larger 948cc (57.9 cu in) engine. I rebuilt the engine and transmission. At that time you could still get parts. I but disk brakes on the front from a MG. I put 14 inch wheels on it. It turns out that Chevrolet Vega wheels had the same bolt pattern. I replaced the differential gears to avoid over revving the engine due to smaller wheels. The differential gears came out of a MG.
I drove the Morris to work a number of years. Erik drove it some while in high school.
I had two other Minors which I got as part cars. I eventually sold all three to one person.