GOING off-road in a classic British family car has become a daily pastime for one New Zealand mechanic. Shane Armitage has converted a 1950s Morris Minor Traveller into a 4x4 off-roading beast that he can take on both roads and sand dunes. On first look, ‘Woody’ as the car is known, appears to be a British motor corporation classic, but is actually built on a Morris Minor shell and a Suzuki Escudo/Vitara chassis with a second Morris Minor used for donor parts. Shane, of Muriwai, told FutureStudiosCars: “I use it every day, it’s my daily drive but I also really like off-roading. This combines the two together. It’s really cool, two-for-one. Everywhere you go people come up and say ‘Wow, what’s this?’" Shane was driving a 4x4 Suzuki Escudo when he spotted a Morris Minor cruising the Auckland bays and was inspired to combine the two. He bought a two-door Morris online and a second Traveller chassis which he used to make carbon fibre moulds of the roof and side panels. He then attached those moulds to the original Morris, complete with the classic wooden design seen on the original cars. The newly constructed chassis was then placed on the running gear of a Suzuki Vitara 4x4, giving it off-road capabilities. Shane said: “It’s just an all-purpose, do anything, do everything, pick the groceries up, go extreme four-wheel driving in the same day without changing vehicles. It’s a gnarly four-wheel driving beast.”
