WITH its running boards and beautifully curved wheel arches - the Lakeland Motor Museum’s Morris Ten Special Coupe has something of the gangster movie about it.

But it’s a little baby – more Bugsy Malone than Al Capone.

The 4-cylinder, single carburettor engine displaces a modest 1292cc with a three-speed gear box.

This model dates back to 1936 and was first registered in Blackpool.

They came in just two colours – light grey or sports blue – and this example has been both! It was previously grey. But as it needed repainting, the Lakeland Motor Museum returned it to its original blue colour to match its pale blue leather interior.

This is a Series II version and features a ‘faux drop head’ body style – despite the chrome pram irons and black covering - the roof doesn’t actually fold.

Infact, the roof is all metal with the black material placed on top - as seen later with the popularity of vinyl roof cars in the 1970s.

There’s comprehensive instrumentation in a Bakelite dashboard and an enclosed external luggage compartment (a new feature at the time, when previously cars had luggage racks).

The wheelbase is 98”, and there’s a single windscreen wiper and an opening front windscreen for ventilation. The doors open the opposite way to modern vehicles.

The Morris logo, if you look closely, features an Ox crossing a river – Ox-ford – the company’s home base.

Morris Motors Limited was a British privately owned car company formed in 1919 to take over the assets of William Morris’s WRM Motors Limited.

Though it merged into larger organisations the Morris name remained in use until 1984.

To own one of these back in the 1930s – would have cost you £215.

And finally, returning to the gangster theme, this vehicle is rumoured to have been used as a getaway car in a golf course robbery back in the 1970s.

It’s a little car with a big history.