It’s always good to come upon an old Mini still doing its thing. They’re vanishingly rare in the Midwestern United States, where we live. In this case, we were on a back street in what used to be East Berlin, which I’m sure increased our chances. As an American, when I think Mini, I think Morris.
So I was surprised to find this one badged as an Austin! I’m sure readers in the UK are all snickering. Snicker on. I did some digging and found that in 1960 and 1961, Austin called their version of this car the Seven, switching it to the Mini in 1962. The Mini lost both its Austin and Morris makes in 1969 to become a brand of its own, only for the Austin badge to reappear from 1980 to 1988.
We’ve covered the Mini many times here. Here’s a 1960 Austin Seven, and here’s a 1964 Morris Mini-Minor, and here’s an 80s Austin Mini still rolling.
In pale gray – everything the swinging 60s on Carnaby Street was not. No wonder this one found its way to Germany, whose teutonic owner surely approves of the car’s buttoned-down appearance.
Fits superbly into the east german surrounding, that grey (grinning a grin).
Neat, but not entirely original. It has the wrong grille for a normal Austin, internal door hinges, wind-down (rather than sliding) door windows and the door itself is the later, taller type that more or less reaches the rainstrip. Either re-shelled or a later one with retro fittings. Still neat and nice to see though!
Compare differences with this 1964 example: https://www.tradeclassics.com/auctions/austin/1964-austin-mini-super-deluxe-2/
Still some ‘real’ Minis around in North Wales; they easily fit Supermarket car park spaces.
Interesting that you say that as an American, you think “Morris”. In my experience anyway, in Canada they were almost invariably called the “Austin Mini” regardless of badging.
Yup, as a Canadian I was thinking Austin. The lack of external door hinges jumped out at me right away too. So it’s at least a 1970 model backdated with some older parts.
Great find nonetheless!!
Complete bodyshells are available for the Mini so it wouldn’t be unusual to ‘restore’ a rotted out Mini by replacing the body. It maybe be 90% new, but still the same car…
https://www.bmh-ltd.com/body-shells/mini-body-shells/
Agreed. The Mini was never a big seller in the US but they were all Austins, I’m pretty sure. Morris as a brand rather fell off here, and was never nearly as big as Austin. Austin and MG were the two predominant BMC brands here.
I guess the Minis I saw as a kid in the 70s must have been Morrises, or just Minis, and I missed seeing or remembering any Austins.
The Mini was sold here as either the Austin 850 or Morris 850. No reference to “Mini”, at least not in the beginning. But I found a source that confirms my own impression, that the great majority if Minis sold in the US were Austins.
But I’m a bit surprised to hear you saw them in Indiana in the ’70s, as the Mini sold rather poorly in the US, and I only saw them quite rarely.
They were very unusual, but there were a couple that rolled my hometown’s streets. One turned out to be owned by a fellow who worked for my dad’s best friend. I saw that one a lot. Come to think of it, he called it his Mini, which might be where I got my impression from.
They look good with the original 10″ wheels. My father had one in the late ’60’s that he, my brother and I all drove – there’s something about them that makes you corner like a maniac, especially on roundabouts. So we were wearing out the front tyres in 4000 miles.
Nice find! I haven’t seen a “real” Mini on the road in years here in the US. For a while not long after the new MINI came out, they seemed a bit more common (or at least I noticed them more).
Probably one of the reasons why most existing Minis have been relegated to collector cars only driven to shows and events is evident from your 2nd photo. The Mini looks pretty mini sitting behind that ID3…which in itself would be considered a small car by most folks on the roads over here. I think driving something like that Mini on public roads here would require considerable bravery.
Such an amazing car (whatever name is used), so far ahead of its time. It’s distressing that it doesn’t get the same type of recognition as gamechanging vehicles like the Model T, VW Beetle, Chrysler T-115 minivan, and Toyota Prius.
The Mini’s early FWD drivetrain and simple, two-box design allowed for the wheels/tires to be pushed out all the way to the four corners with zero overhang, maximizing interior room for such a diminutive vehicle. Today, it’s a given that all small cars be of the same design, with a prime example being the just-departed Mitsubishi Mirage hatchback. For someone looking to relive those early Mini days in an updated, more modern (and way safer) version, that’d be the one to get.
Imagine if the Mini had been the car GM had decided to emulate instead of the Beetle for the 1960 Corvair. While a GM Mini wouldn’t have been as tiny (a bit larger, compact size to compete more directly with the Falcon and Valiant), it still might have had a better chance in the long run, sort of an ‘anti-compact’.
Of course, it would likely have been a repeat of the Chrysler Airflow experiment, another car that was, sadly, too far ahead of its time to succeed.
GM didn’t “emulate the Beetle”. Rear engine cars were quite common then in Europe, and there had been some American ones too (Tucker). Cole was a bit obsessed with the rear engine configuration because of its inherent qualities.
The Corvair was of course substantially larger than the VW. If they had scaled up the Mini into the compact size class, it would have been about the size of the BMC “Landcrab” 1800, a car that looked decidedly ungainly in its proportions. I can just imagine how well that would have gone over with Americans.
Yet the Landcrab’s monocoque body was one of the strongest cars ever made.
Its just Front Wheel Drive was in its infancy and the Alec Issigonis, design ideology, insisted on the Gearbox, being put in the Engines Oil Sump, rather than End On like Dante Giacosa preferred, and Innocenti actually carried out on the Italian built Mini’s. (He was more worried about seized engines from lack of Oil, with many Italian peasant roads, rather than having 5 forward gear ratios).
The BMC ADO17 was just a scaled up Mini, but now competing against the Ford Cortina Mk2 & Mk3, Vauxhall Victor FE & Cavalier (Opel Ascona B) and Hillman Hunter, that were all rear wheel driven, with very smooth gearboxes, that Sales Reps loved.
Even, rebodying the Morris Minor as the Morris Marina, was to little to late.
One of the infinite BMC / BLMC cock ups.
The Australian Tasman/Kimberley (X6) looked a lot better, but would have flopped in the US just like it did down under. No real advantage over a big, simple RWD tank.
A Toronado was mad enough…
The Mini was indeed an icon, but was really dead-end engineering after Dante Giacosa’s mic-drop moment.
Datsun developed the engine into a decent item and put the cogs in their own separate box under it for the 100A Cherry, but that’s about as far as it went.
CC Effect, I just saw one here in California. I’m guessing it’s on at least 13”, maybe larger, wheels; they’re certainly wide. I remember when 12’’ looked big on a Mini. By the way, wasn’t the Austin version originally the Se7en, not Seven?
The cars were badges Seven, but the advertising used se7en.
https://www.turntwoclassics.co.uk/assets/249004/large/c85dd58846235a55e7fee2846ce85a26_249004_15.jpg
http://www.motorgraphs.com/content/thumbnails/01548/154737-zoom.jpg
Yep Badged Se7en.
The original Austin 7 had been to Great Britain and the Empire, what the Ford Model T, was to the USA.
Most of the British post WW2 Racing Teams started with an Austin 7, stripped down to parts, and then competing on the Tarmac / Concrete runway of what had been a US Bomber Base.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_7
It was also, how William Lyons of Jaguar started by rebodying 7’s as Swallows.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swallow_Sidecar_Company#Swallow_Sidecar_and_Coachbuilding
In Sweden, they call it ” hundkojan” ( = “the dog kennel”).
Apt!
My dad had a 1961 “Austin 850,” purchased new for $850 (replacing a rusted ’49 Star Chief)
Virtually identical to these photos, except …..
The side-view mirror was fender-mounted.
The wheel covers were full-wheel style: a bit of a trim ring extended outside the dog-dish hubcap, seen in these photos.
Outside door hinges were visible.
The hood logo was a rectangular “Austin” design.
The same logo was embedded in steering wheel horn-button.
The rear was labeled “Austin 850”
The horn button also had the Austin logo.
In 1959 BMC launched the Morris Mini Minor & the Austin Se7en.
Austin’s had that lethal serrated grill, used for skinning children alive.
By 1971, Mini was its own marque, within the British Leyland Motor Corporation.
In Canada the last car I remember being sold as a Morris was the Morris Minor. In high school my bet friend’s mother drove one and I loved it. I always assumed that the it was called “Minor” because when the original “Minor” came out there was also a Morris Major. Then when a smaller car came out it was the Mini-Minor. I might have made this up, but the simplicity of the names appealed to me.
I did not own a Mini, but several friends did. I do have a strong link to Austin, as my dad had an Austin 7 in the 30s. I still have a “spanner” from the tool kit. Also, my first car was an Austin 1800 that Paul mentions in an earlier comment.
Back in the thirties there was a Morris Major, a two-litre six.
BMC Australia revived the name when they reskinned and simplified the Wolseley 1500 in 1958. Pretty much a Minor replacement, it lived on through two facelifts (the second rather drastic) until 1964, when it was replaced by the FWD 1100. So we did have a Mini-Minor and a Major on sale at the same time.
I like the gray color .
-Nate
The car still got a plate with DIN-lettering. Last day of issue was the 31st of October 2000. No change of owner since then, obviously.