XSP Engines

[This page is in the early stages of construction]

Morris Motors Ltd., (Engines Branch) made power units for vehicles produced by the Nuffield Organization, and its factory became part of British Motor Corporation when Morris Motors Limited merged with The Austin Motor Company Limited in 1952. [Wikipedia]

In addition to producing the vast array of production engines for the BMC group, Morris Engines Branch built special engines for competition use, these finding their way into Cooper racing and sports-racing cars, the many racing and rally cars of both the Donald Healey Motor Co and the BMC Competition Department at Abingdon.

In his book "More Healeys", Geoff Healey says: "The man who probably made the greatest contribution to improving both the power and the strength of the 'A' series engine was Eddie Maher at Morris Engines. This was largely as a result of his work on the BMC Formula Junior engine, which continued until 1964 when the Cosworth-developed Ford engines ran away with the series". He also mentions Maher's colleague at Morris Engines, Derek Frost, the independent tuner Harry Weslake, Gill Jones and Harry Broom at MIRA, Tim Fry of Rootes and Jim McManus all of whom contributed to the improvements made to the little motor.

Another quote from Geoff: "The 948cc unit fitted to the Frog-eyes and the early MkII.Mk1 Spridgets benefited from Eddie's work on the Formula Junior engine as used in John Cooper's car, with which Jackie Stewart did so well. This used the stronger crankshaft, connecting rods and valve gear that were essential if the tuned unit was to stay together. The crankshaft was nitride hardened and manufactured from better alloy steel, and this found its way into most of our racing engines". This crankshaft was commonly known as the "Red" crank.

XSP numbers appear to run in the sequence in which they were built, whether they were 'A' series, 'B' or 'C' Series. Here are a few of the 'A' series numbers to start us off:

* The '62 engines in the Sprite Mk 2s are known to have used a split centre exhaust port effectively creating a 4-exhaust-port head.
DS: Dry-sump motor.
FIXF: Fuel-injected with crossflow head, and dry sump.
^ same car (144 became 237).

The Cooper Formula Junior Service Parts List shows the following capacities:

Standard BMC engines were:
948 - Bore 2.478" - Stroke 3" - Capacity 948cc
1100 - Bore 2.543 - Stroke 3.296" - Capacity 1098cc
1275 - Bore 2.78" - Stroke 3.2" - Capacity 1275cc

(Contributors to this page to date include John Poulter, Rob Maxstone-Graham, James Thacker and David Scothorn to whom I extend my sincere thanks.)

[This page is in the early stages of construction ~ any further information and numbers would be gratefully received.]