What's cuter than a Royal Enfield?

Automobiles don't come cuter than a Morris Minor station wagon.

 "Wouldn't you like to have a hobby car you could have fun with?" my wife asked me. 

We'd just admired a lovely 1959 Morris Minor 1000 estate wagon (dubbed the Traveler) parked at a marina in St. Marys, Georgia. A surfboard was attached to the roof. 

Naturally we talked with the enthusiastic owner, who described its restoration, to standards that made it better than it was when new. 

Its original 948cc motor was replaced with the 1275cc motor. The rear axle ratio remained 4:11, however, limiting speed. 

It's a surfer's delight, complete with surfboard on the roof.

"I have a bunch of collector cars," he said, mentioning a 1932 Ford convertible. But the Morris was his favorite. 

The car, probably not repainted in a factory color, fairly glowed in the sunset. 

Sure, who wouldn't want such a pretty little car?

"Thing is," I told my wife, "if I had a car like that I would want to baby it, keep it in showpiece condition,  avoid wear and tear, and hardly ever drive it.

"Besides, I already have a fun collector vehicle," I said.

"You do?"

"Yes. My Royal Enfield Bullet. It gets all the love I have to spare for a vehicle."

Note the bulge of the hood crease at the center of the bonnet. Designer Alex Issigonis, dissatisfied with the narrow width of the car, had the prototype cut in half and the halves moved apart until he decided a four-inch increase looked best. The bulge filled in the gap.

"But a car would be safer," she said.

"Yes, safer than a motorcycle. It's a metal box you are inside. But, as a car, this one is only safe to 1959 standards. Seatbelts might have been added, but not shoulder belts, head rests, collapsible steering column, or side impact protection. The owner told us his car isn't fast enough to be safe on expressways and its brakes are probably as bad as the ones on my old Enfield."

A design of the 1940s, the Morris Minor was never meant for safety.

Its stiff, monocoque structure provided no crumble zone. The thickness of hood and doors was reduced in an effort to improve things, but the fender wings remained full strength, eliminating any advantage. The thinner metal was abandoned as its result alone was to make a crumble zone of the passenger compartment.

But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the little Morris Traveler is as cute as a puppy. My wife almost cooed as she peered in through a side window.

"I see you travel with your skeleton," she said to the owner. A plastic Halloween skeleton rested on the back seat.

"Yes. I pose him on the surfboard at car shows," he replied.

You can't beat that for cute.

Ahead of its time in some ways, the Morris Minor retained post-war styling of the 1940s. Seatbelts came along in the 1960s but otherwise safety was an afterthought.