Mini Pick-up (1961–1982)

A pick-up truck, 11 ft (3.4 m) from nose to tail, built on the longer Mini Van platform, with an open-top rear cargo area and a tailgate. The factory specified the weight of the Pickup as less than 1,500 lb (680 kg) with a full 6 imperial gallons (27 L; 7 US gal) of fuel.

As with the Van, the Pickup did not have a costly chrome grille. Instead, a simple set of stamped metal slots allowed airflow into the engine compartment. The Pickup was spartan in basic form, although the factory brochure informed prospective buyers that “fully equipped Mini Pick-up is also available which includes a recirculatory heater.” Passenger-side sun visor, seat belts, laminated windscreen, tilt tubes and cover were available at extra cost. Like the van, the Pickup was renamed as the Mini 95 in 1978.
A total of 58,179 Mini Pickups were built.

Mini Moke (1964 – 1993)

The Mini Moke is a vehicle based on the Mini and designed for the British Motor Corporation (BMC) by Sir Alexandros Issigonis. The name comes from "Mini"—the car with which the Moke shares many parts—and "Moke", which is an archaic dialect term for "donkey".

The initial design was a prototype for a light military vehicle in the style of the American Jeep, but its small wheels and low ground clearance made it impractical as an off-road vehicle. It was subsequently offered in a civilian version as a low-cost, easily maintained utility vehicle. The Moke finally achieved success as a beach buggy — becoming a popular 'cult' vehicle in the Seychelles, Australia, the United States and many tropical resorts in the Caribbean. The original Moke used identical engine, transmission and suspension parts to the basic Mini.

Mokes were first built at the Morris factory in Oxford before production moved to BMC's Longbridge, Birmingham plant, and eventually overseas. 14,500 Mokes were produced in the UK between 1964 and 1968, 26,000 in Australia between 1966 and 1981, and 10,000 in Portugal between 1980 and 1993 when production of the Moke ended.

When Issigonis designed the Mini, he planned another vehicle to share the Mini's mechanical parts, but with a more rugged body shell. This was an attempt to take a portion of the military vehicle business from Land Rover. Issigonis had previously designed the Nuffield Guppy in a failed attempt to break into that market. By 1959, BMC had working prototypes of what was codenamed "The Buckboard", later to become the "Mini Moke". These prototypes were shown to the British Army as a parachute-droppable vehicle, but poor ground clearance and a low-powered engine did not meet the most basic requirements for an off-road vehicle. Only the Royal Navy showed any interest at all in the Buckboard—as a vehicle for use on the decks of aircraft carriers.

Early promotional material made much of the lightness of the vehicle, showing four soldiers riding in the Moke off-road, then picking it up by its tubular bumpers and carrying it when (inevitably) its low ground clearance proved inadequate to the task.
In a further attempt to make something for the army, a few four-wheel drive Mokes were made by the addition of a second engine at the back of the vehicle with linked clutches and gear shifters. However, this did nothing to solve the ground-clearance issue, and mechanical complications discouraged development beyond the prototype stage. This strange vehicle was called "The Twini" and was shown to the US Army - again with no success.

Wolseley Hornet and Riley Elf (1961–1969)

The Elf and Hornet both shared a distinctive, "long-tailed" body shell which had special front panels to accommodate the two marques traditional, up-right grilles. The longer tail incorporated extended rear wings (with upright tail lamps and "fins") which provided a much larger boot area with a top hinged boot lid.

MKI Hornets were powered by the standard Mini 848cc A-Series engine which seemed slightly underpowered towards the end of the models life. Hornets were well equipped, the interior featuring extra sound proofing, quality seat coverings and Cooper instruments mounted in a walnut centre panel.

Built as more luxurious versions of the Mini, both the Wolseley Hornet and the Riley Elf had longer, slightly finned rear wings and larger boots that gave the cars a more traditional “notchback” look. Front-end treatment, which incorporated each marque’s traditional upright grille design, also contributed to a less utilitarian appearance. The cars had larger-diameter chrome hubcaps than the Austin and Morris Minis, also additional chrome accents, bumper over riders and wood-veneer dashboards. The Riley was the more expensive version of the two cars. The name "Wolseley Hornet" was first used on a 1930s sports car, while the name "Elf" recalled the Riley Sprite and Imp sports cars, also of the 1930s. The full width dashboard was a differentiator between the Elf and Hornet. This better dashboard was the idea of Christopher Milner the Sales Manager for Riley.

Both cars went through three versions. Initially, they used the 848 cc engine, changing to a single carburetor version of the Cooper's 998 cc power unit in the Mark II in 1963. The MKIII facelift of 1966 brought wind-up windows and fresh-air fascia vents; also concealed door hinges two years before these were seen on the mainstream Mini. 30,912 Riley Elfs and 28,455 Wolseley Hornets were built.

Mini Mark II / MKII (1967–1970)

From 1944 to 1979, Issigonis had been designing a replacement for the Mini in the form of an experimental model called the 9X. It was longer and more powerful than the Mini, but due to politicking inside British Leyland (which had now been formed by the merger of BMC's parent company British Motor Holdings and the Leyland Motor Corporation), the car did not reach production.

The Mark II Mini featured a redesigned grille which remained with the car from that point on. Also, a larger rear window and numerous cosmetic changes were introduced. 429,000 Mark II Minis were made. A bewildering variety of Mini types were made in Pamplona, Spain, by the Authi company from 1968 onwards, mostly under the Morris name.

From 1967 to 1969, production of Austin Mini Mk2 and Morris Mini Mk2. Details: 2 models available- The Basic and the Super De Luxe. Models changed to Mini 850 and Mini 1000.Improvement from MK1: New front MK2 grille design, larger rear window and rectangular rear lights. Brakes system improved. Engine size: 848cc (The Basic and Super De Luxe model) or 998cc (Super De Luxe model only).

Production of Austin Mini Countryman Mk2 and Morris Mini-Traveller Mk2. Morris Mini Traveller and Austin Mini Countryman (1961–1969, UK only). Two-door estate cars with double "barn"-style rear doors. Both were built on a slightly longer chassis of 84 inch (2.14 m) compared to 80.25 inch (2.04 m) for the saloon.The luxury models had decorative, non-structural wood inserts in the rear body which gave the car a similar appearance to the larger Morris Minor estate which had some of the look of an American-style 1950s Woodie. Approximately 108,000 Austin Mini Countrymen and 99,000 Morris Mini Travellers were built.
Some advertisement brochure for Austin Mini Countryman Mk2 and Morris Mini-Traveller Mk2 in the past

On the left is the standard advertisement from Austin group to advertise Austin Mini Countryman. It is called “Austin Countryman MK2″ (Pub No: 2439). The Austin advertising group manage to choose a dire dark miserable colour to offer the MK2.

“Morris. Thrifty..all purpose” (Pub No: 2352) - This is the standard brochure being used until the end of MK1 Traveler production, unfolding to roughly 22 x 16″. This brochure is full of details and description of this popular Morris Mini-Traveller. Both for the Woody version and non woody version are clearly described in to brochure. Morris make a brave effort to present the MK2 Traveler in a good light. A very nice bright colour car, obviously taken a happy couple off for a sailing weekend, but why are they launching the boat from what looks like the back of a council office block?

From 1967 to 1969, Production of Austin and Morris Mini-Cooper Mk2Details: All changes in line with the Mk2 non-cooper model. Grille style standardized between Austin and Morris. Engine size: 998cc. Well, for Mini MK2, the mechanically has a little changed, although a larger 998cc engine now appeared alongside the 848cc A-series. The Mk II lasted only 2 years when the wind-up window Mk III appeared in 1969 also bringing to an end the separate Austin / Morris name badges.


From 1967 to 1970, Production of Austin and Morris Mini-Cooper ‘S’ Mk2
Details: Similar specification to the Mini-Cooper model but with twin
fuel tanks, 4½ inch rims as standard, different badges and a larger
engine. Outlived the other Mk2 models until the Mk3 ‘S’ was introduced.
Engine size: 1275cc

Mini is getting more and more famous during 60’s to 70’s, the R&D for
Mini move on very fast to MK3 and this make MK2 had a very short
production time in the past. MK2 model was appeared from 1967 to 1970
which is about 4 years, and it still has many years to go until classic
Mini Cooper last generation MK7.

British Motor Corporation (BMC)

The British Motor Corporation (BMC) was a UK vehicle company, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation (parent of the Morris car company, MG, Riley and Wolseley) in 1952. BMC was the largest British car company of its day, with (in 1952) 39 percent of British output, producing a wide range of cars under brand names including Austin, Morris, MG, Austin-Healey, Wolseley as well as commercial vehicles and agricultural tractors. The first chairman was Lord Nuffield (William Morris) but he was replaced in August 1952 by Austin's Leonard Lord who continued in that role until his 65th birthday in 1961 but handing over, in theory at least, the managing director responsibilities to his deputy George Harriman in 1956.

BMC's headquarters were at the Austin plant at Longbridge, near Birmingham and Austin was the dominant partner in the group mainly because of the chairman. The use of Morris engine designs was dropped within 3 years and all new car designs were coded ADO from "Austin Drawing Office". The Longbridge plant was up to date, having been thoroughly modernized in 1951, and compared very favorably with Nuffield's 16 different and often old fashioned factories scattered over the English Midlands. Austin's management systems however, especially cost control and marketing were not as good as Nuffield's and as the market changed from a shortage of cars to competition this was to tell.


The biggest selling car, the Mini, was famously analyzed by Ford Motor Company who concluded that BMC must be losing £30 on every one sold. The result was that although volumes held up well throughout the BMC era, market share fell as did profitability and hence investment in new models, resulting eventually in the merger with Leyland Motor Corporation.

At the time of the mergers, there was a well established dealership network for each of the marques. Among the car-buying British public there was a tendency of loyalty to a particular marque and marques appealed to different market segments. This meant that marques competed against each other in some areas, though some marques had a larger range than others. The Riley and Wolseley models were selling in very small numbers. Styling was also getting distinctly old fashioned and this caused Leonard Lord, in an unusual move for him, to call upon the services of an external stylist.

In the 1950s and the 1960s, BMC set-up twenty-one plants overseas, some as subsidiaries, and some as joint ventures, to assemble their vehicles.One was British Motor Corporation (Australia) who were established at the Nuffield Aust site on the one time Victoria Park horse racetrack in Sydney. This facility went from a marshalling area for fully imported Morris cars (Austins were up until then being assembled in Melbourne, Victoria from an earlier Austin Motors establishment), to a facility for making CKD cars, to the total local fabrication and construction of vehicles, engines, and mechanicals.

Mini Mark I / MK1 (1959–1967)

The Mark I Mini (1959–1967) was the first version of British Motor Corporation's Mini. It is characterised by its sliding windows, external door hinges and "moustache" grill. In the United Kingdom the Mark I was produced between 1959 and 1967, with production in Australia continuing until 1970.

The first Morris Mini-Minor sold in Texas being delivered to a family in Arlington Texas in 1959. The production version of the Mini was demonstrated to the press in April 1959, and by August several thousand cars had been produced ready for the first sales.

The name Mini did not appear by itself immediately — the first models being marketed under two of BMC's brand names, Austin and Morris. The name Austin Seven (sometimes written as SE7EN in early publicity material) recalled the popular small Austin 7 of the 1920s and 1930s. The other name used until 1967 in the United Kingdom (and in Commonwealth countries such as Australia), Morris Mini-Minor, seems to have been a play on words. The Morris Minor was a well known and successful car, with the word minor being Latin for "smaller"; so an abbreviation of the Latin word for "smallest"—minimus—was used for the new even smaller car. It was originally going to be called the Austin New market.

Until 1962, the cars appeared as the Austin 850 and Morris 850 in North America and France, and in Denmark as the Austin Partner (until 1964) and Morris Mascot (until 1981). The name Mini was first used domestically by BMC for Austin's version in 1961, when the Austin Seven was re-branded as the Austin Mini, somewhat to the surprise of the Sharps Commercials car company (later known as Bond Cars Ltd) who had been using the name Minicar for their three-wheeled vehicles since 1949. However, legal action was somehow averted, and BMC used the name Mini for the remainder of the car's life.

In 1964, the suspension of the cars was replaced by another Moulton design, the hydrolastic system. The new suspension gave a softer ride but it also increased weight and production cost and, in the minds of many enthusiasts, spoiled the handling characteristics, for which the Mini was so famous. In 1971, the original rubber suspension reappeared and was retained for the remaining life of the Mini.

Sporting Achievements

Once it was realised how incredibly well the Mini handled, the famous Grand Prix team, John Cooper Racing, became involved and produced a succession of performance models.These then went on to many, many successes in rallying (the Monte Carlo being the most famous) as well as road circuits.The Mini's fantastic handling combined with an excellent power-to-weight ratio made them a force to be reckoned with while competing against much bigger and more powerful machinery. Size isn't everything!

The Wonder Years

Inspired in the mid 50s when the fuel crisis meant that fuel was very expensive in the UK. Launched on an unprepared public on the 27th of August 1959, the car was not an immediate success, because people thought it "odd".Once the Queen had been seen taking a drive in one in the early 60s, the car suddenly became a major fashion item. Every famous person had to be seen in them and the car soon became "classless", and could be seen as easily outside the school as outside the Ritz. In 60s swinging London, nothing else was quite as cool!

Among famous owners were The Beatles (they had one each!), Peter Sellars and his wife Britt Ekland (in picture), Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, David Niven, Paul Newman, Brigitte Bardot, Dudley Moore, Cliff Richard, Norman Wisdom, Lord Snowdon, Princess Alexandra, Prince Michael of Kent, Twiggy and Dame Margot Fonteyn .... phew!Motor racing people loved the Mini too, which is why Enzo Ferrari had three and others were owned by Graham Hill, John Surtees, Jackie Stewart, Bruce McLaren, Ron Dennis, Jack Brabham, Nicki Lauda, James Hunt and Ken Tyrrell....all names still famous in motor racing.