The Morris Nomad is a car that was produced in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

British Leyland Motor Corporation of Australia British Motor Corporation (Australia) was a motor manufacturing company formed in Australia in 1954 by the merger of the Austin Motor Company (Australia) and Nuffield (Australia). This followed the merger in 1952 of the Austin Motor Company and ...

from 1969 to 1972. It is a

hatchback A hatchback is a car body configuration with a rear door that swings upward to provide access to a cargo area. Hatchbacks may feature fold-down second row seating, where the interior can be reconfigured to prioritize passenger or cargo volume. ...

version of the Morris 1500 sedan, itself a locally produced variant of the British BMC ADO16 design with a larger 1500 cc engine. The Nomad was a small - medium-sized car, sitting above the

Morris Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

in size and price. The hatchback styling resembles that of the

Austin Maxi The Austin Maxi is a medium-sized, 5-door hatchback family car that was produced by Austin and later British Leyland between 1969 and 1981. It was the first British five-door hatchback. British Leyland built and sold the Maxi alongside the 1971 ...

, which was never sold in Australia. It was a front-wheel-drive car, with an all independent suspension linked by fluid filled chambers, which was called Hydrolastic suspension by the company. The suspension gave a comfortable ride, only suffering a little from "droop" if overloaded in the boot, and sometimes going into oversteer if the body rolled too much with hard cornering. Power came from a

BMC E-Series engine The BMC E-series engine is a line of straight-4 and straight-6 overhead camshaft automobile petrol engines from the British Motor Corporation (BMC). It displaced 1.5 L or 1.8 L in four-cylinder form, and 2.2 L or 2.6 L as a si ...

with a single overhead camshaft, which provided improved performance and economy compared with the original Morris 1100 model. Four- and five-speed manual gearboxes were available. Automatic versions of the 1500 sedan and Nomad were fitted with the 1275cc BMC A-Series engine and Automotive Products 4-speed automatic transmission also used in the MiniMatic models and marketed as a Morris 1300 Automatic. The body was largely identical, except with new pressings for the front and rear panels to fit with the British Leyland "corporate look", and to shed the tailfins of the original model. Unlike their British counterparts which were coded ADO16, the Nomads were designated with a YDO9 code and the sedans with YDO15. Austin Nomad, Austin 1500 and Austin 1300 names were used in some export markets, where the cars were marketed by

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. The Morris 1300/1500/Nomad models were replaced in the Australian market in 1972 by the Morris Marina.Morris Marina at www.elevenhundred.com
Retrieved 25 March 2012 Approximately 29,000 were built.

References

* Adams, Keith (2005)

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The UNOFFICIAL Austin-Rover Web Resource
Retrieved 17 December 2005. {{British Motor Holdings and British Leyland cars, 1966-1986 N British Leyland vehicles Cars of Australia Cars introduced in 1969 1970s cars Front-wheel-drive vehicles Hatchbacks