| Morris Twelve Four or 12 | |
|---|---|
 Badges of a March 1939 registered series III saloon | |
| Overview | |
| Manufacturer | Morris Motors Limited |
Morris Twelve is a model of Morris car introduced without fanfare in the autumn of 1934 as little more than a larger engined Morris Ten Four for which just another £5 was asked. The chassis and body were of the slow-selling longer wheelbase Ten Six. The engine though awarded a tax rating of 11.98 hp had a cubic capacity of 1548cc compared with Morris's 1292cc (10 hp) Ten Four and 1378cc (12.09 hp) Ten Six.
This resulted from the vagaries of the Treasury's tax rating formula which took no account of the length of the engine's stroke. Very long stroke engines such as were given the Twelve provided good low speed torque at the expense of reliability at higher rpm. Such engines were unable to make full use of better fuels and the improved engine breathing techniques that were coming available. Morris briefly promoted the series II car with the note that it performed just like a 14 horsepower car but that brought about a clash from the summer of 1936 when Morris began to supply a six-cylinder 1818cc Morris Fourteen.
While both this new Twelve and the Ten variant Ten Six models appeared in the Morris catalogue for 1935 the slow selling Ten Six was soon dropped. The Twelve remained in production until war intervened and was replaced after the war by the 1476cc but 13½ horsepower Morris Oxford MO.
Each new model showed further integration of the structure of chassis and body. The post-war replacement, Morris Oxford MO, was close to full unitary construction.