"CROSSING THE BLOCK"
Featuring
The next auction from Historics will be held at Brooklands Museum on Saturday 7th March.
You will recognize our Classic of the Day as a British icon, but this is a little bit special as it is the actual millionth Morris Minor built.
1961 MORRIS MINOR 1000
"The One Millionth Car"
The Morris Minor debuted at the Earls Court Motor Show in London
on 20th September 1948 and was manufactured until 1971. In 1952,
the Morris Minor was updated with an Austin-designed 803cc overhead
valve, A-Series engine replacing the original side-valve unit. The
engine had been designed for the Minor's main competitor, the
Austin A30, but became available when Austin and Morris were merged
into the British Motor Corporation. Cosmetically the front wings
and grill were replaced and the head lights moved from the grill to
the front wings. To commemorate manufacturing a million cars (the
first time a UK British manufacture had ever built such an amount),
BMC produced 349 'millionth' cars. Of these, 31 were sold to North
America and Europe and the remaining 318 were distributed equally
through the UK BMC dealer network resulting in one car per dealer.
All of the 'millionth' cars were two-door examples and finished in
Lilac with white leather trim.
This Morris Minor came off the production line at Cowley on 22nd
December 1960. It passed from the Nuffield Group publicity
department to the National Union of Journalists on the 20th April
1961 for use in a national fund raising campaign in aid of the
British Red Cross and was subsequently raffled on national
television. The lucky winner was a Miss Susan George from Wales
who, unfortunately being too young to drive at the time, sold the
car on to a local postman. The Millionth Minor came to the
attention of the current owner in 1970 when visiting his holiday
home in Dyfed Wales - still going strong; although now painted red.
In 1971, the car was involved in an accident when it slid into a
ditch. The vendor purchased the car soon after the accident and
trailered it back to his Birmingham home. Two further house moves
and two decades passed before it finally received a full
restoration by Derek Smith, a senior lecturer in Motor Vehicle
Studies at Northbrook College in Worthing. There is a vast history
file (not viewed at time of writing) with the car including five
document wallets containing receipts totalling approximately
£15,000 for the restoration, various magazine and newspaper
articles relating to the car, photographs of the rebuild, a
Heritage Certificate and old MOT's. It has been dry stored in
recent years due to pressure of work and has only covered a nominal
mileage since the restoration.
Designed by Alec Issigonis and presented in excellent condition,
this Morris Minor is still registered on the original number plate
of 1 MHU (one million in engineering terms) and has recently passed
an MoT test. An iconic vehicle by any standards and complete with
the additional 1,000,000 either side of the bonnet and to the boot
lid (instead of the more conventional 1000), the Morris Minor is
well supported by an Owners' Club; there is even a 'Minor Million
Register'. Of the 1,368,291 examples manufactured; only one
can genuinely be the millionth car off the production - this is
THE one.
Brooklands Museum Trust Ltd
Brooklands Road
Weybridge
Surrey
KT13 0QN
Brooklands Road
Weybridge
Surrey
KT13 0QN
Please contact Edward
Bridger-Stille, John Tomlin,
Stewart Banks, Mark Perkins, John Williams in the South West or
Gerry Pettit for Automobilia.
UK Freephone: 
0800 988 3838 FREE
0800 988 3838 FREE
Non-UK: +44 (0) 1753 639170
Facsimile: +44 (0) 1522 262177
E-mail: auctions@historics.co.uk
+44 (0) 1753 639170Facsimile: +44 (0) 1522 262177
E-mail: auctions@historics.co.uk
