1929 Morris Minor Fire Tender

• The prototype of only six such vehicles built
• Retired from active duty during the 1950s
• Restored over a lengthy period of time
• Completed in 2012

"This speedy little fire-fighting vehicle is of particular value to large private institutions and small communities, or as a tender to the more pretentious fire-fighting vehicle. Its high speed, rapid acceleration and exceptional manoeuvrability enable it to reach a source of trouble in the shortest possible time and thus frequently deal with it effectively before it has attained serious proportions." - Morris Motors.

'UD 2682' was originally a Morris Motors prototype/factory demonstrator based on the overhead-camshaft Minor chassis. The vehicle was first registered on 1st March 1929 to Morris Motors at Crowley and is one of only six ever built. Two were provided to the City of Oxford Fire Service, two for Worthing Town Council Fire Service, and one for HRH Maharajah Rana Bahadur, this last example being exported to his palace in India.

'UD 2682' served all the way through the Second World War and was retired in the 1950s when the new Morris Minor fire engine was introduced. Usual factory practice was to scrap the old vehicles but this was not the case for 'UD 2682', which was sold to a member of the administrative staff at Morris Motors. As 'UD' was to be rebodied and used as a two-seater sports car, all the firefighting equipment was stripped off.

It is not known what happened to 'UD' between this time and when it ended up at an Oxfordshire scrapyard, where the late Mr Peter McCann spotted the vehicle and decided to begin restoring it with the help of a 1929 Morris Minor donor car. Over the following years the Minor changed hands several times with aspects of the restoration ongoing, until the car was purchased by the current vendor 13 years ago, still in a sorry state. After countless hours of work and searching for the correct type of equipment that would have been carried in period, 'UD 2682' has been returned to its original factory livery 94 years later. Without the intervention of the late Mr McCann, 'UD 2682' would have been lost forever.

Several years ago, 'UD 2682' was displayed at the NEC, Birmingham where the late Sir Stirlng Moss had a long chat with the owner. Stirling remarked that one of his first cars had been an MG M-Type, a model similar to the OHC Minor, and so the Morris 'must be a little flyer'. Very likely a unique survivor, this charming Morris Minor fire tender comes with handbook, jack and starting handle, and is offered with a V5C document and a file containing numerous photographs.