Fifties Cowley saloon car.

This black & white photo shows a mildly bent 1950s Morris Cowley after making contact with something solid.

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Morris Cowley car from the 1950s

The only information on this back of this photograph says 'Car crash outside Figueras, Spain'. Whether the person who took the photo was the driver, or just a passer-by, I really don't know. It looks like a fairly low speed impact, although it hasn't done the grille and nearside front wing panels any favours. The car's registration number is MOU 576, so a British car driving in Spain, either in the 1950s or 1960s. Did it ever make it back to the UK, or end its days in a Spanish breaker's yard?

The Cowley is seen here in what looks like a deeply rutted, and muddy, field. Someone is fiddling around in the back, and (I didn't spot them at first) a couple are sat in the grass, over to the left of this view. If the Morris had hit either of the trees in the background, it'd have caused a more defined impact to the front end of the car, making a banana out of the front panel. As it is, it looks like it crashed into something fairly low down, pulling down the bumper and lower front edge of the wing. The headlamp has been pulled down with the wing, but appears not to be shattered. The doors still open ok, and the screen isn't in pieces either, so maybe the car was fixed up by a local garage.

Morris Cowley 1954-1959
The Morris Cowley was in essence a low-specification version of the Oxford, built between 1954 and 1959, powered by the B series engine. Early cars had 1200cc whereas later Cowleys had the 1500cc variant of this popular 4 cylinder engine. The Cowley was identifiable by its less extensive use of chrome when compared to Oxfords, and didn't have opening quarterlights, or a heater as standard (not that you'd often need one if driving through Spain!).

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Old Classic Car (C) R. Jones 2023. Content not to be reproduced elsewhere.

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