Britain's Royal Mail drivers must have been a hardy lot in 1953/54. During that period their Morris Minor vans were delivered without heaters because the mail bosses believed the workers would otherwise be too comfortable. This made demisting difficult so the vans had to be fitted with windshields that were hinged from the top and could be opened to create a flow of cool air across the glass. No heater... cold air rushing in; that would keep anyone alert (as we learned back in the days of opening vent windows)! However those top-hinged windshields interfered with the wipers, which then had to be moved from the bottom of the window frame to the top. Any money saved by deleting the heaters likely wouldn't have been enough to pay for this special factory order but the Royal Mail came up with another big idea: black rubber fenders. Apparently the postmen and postwomen were guilty of occasional dings when squeezing through city mews or narrow country lanes and thus the rubber fenders would, the bosses thought, reduce the cost of repairs. Maybe, but this little trick meant the headlights had to relocated into old-fashioned nacelles, as you'll note in our photo by Nigel Mathews at the recent Birmingham classics show. Apparently less than a dozen such Minor vans still exist as the rest were probably beaten to death by angry postal workers. You can learn more about these British light vans at the MinorLCVReg Website.