There may well be more than coincidence that the new MINI made its public debut at the Melbourne International Motor Show between March 1st and 12th. Close to 40 years to the day of release for sale of the humble Morris 850 - the original Mini - on March 23rd 1961 in Australia by a very cautious BMC Australia. Just over 18 months after the original launch in England of August 26th 1959. For a car that was released so cautiously locally to a populace reserved towards small cars, the fears of local BMC executives was, as it has turned out, unfounded and I dare say that if they were still alive would be surprised by the cult like following their humble 850 created with all forms of Mini built and sold in Australia by enthusiasts today. Many of us not having been born when the 850 was released and indeed many of today’s generation of young Mini enthusiasts weren’t even born when the final Mini was built in Australia 17 ½ years later. Truly a classless and now generation-less car loved and occasionally loathed by all. You only need park your Mini and there will quite often be somebody who will reminisce a Mini tale to you, be that they owned one form of Mini or other, or indeed a family member did. The Mini is truly one of very few cars most people can relate with. Some of which, if not a lot, BMW will be hoping rubs off onto their new MINI.
Forty years is what we’re celebrating though so I’ve been for a little paper chase digging through the archives to see what the Australian motoring journalists of 1961 had to say and do.
Most motoring journalists aren’t known for pussy footing around when it comes to testing cars and the Modern Motor testers in their May 1961 issue were no exception with the way they portrayed the Morris 850 across their front cover.
Wheels magazine were a little more restrained but none the less there was the humble 850 on their May 1961 cover also. The competition had already begun. Modern Motor’s cover depicting an 850 doing it’s best impression of a dog cocking its leg on terrain best suited for the real four wheel drive - Land Rover - with a caption at the bottom stating ‘No - She didn’t crash’. Femininity had already been attached to the car.
Explaining their cover effort on page 3 it states ‘Hearing incredible claims of the new Morris 850’s stability, we drove her into this precarious position - and by golly, she stayed there, firm as a rock!’ By golly indeed - as no doubt a few of you reading may have done your own testing over the years and finished with a severely scratched roof!
Opening the magazine to page 42 and ‘Car of the Year!’ heads the article. This being before the Australian version of ‘Car of the Year’ was contrived by Bill Tuckey for Wheels magazine a couple of years later. With a heading like that it can only mean that Modern Motor’s Bill Daly was certainly impressed with BMC Australia’s latest endeavour. The first few sentences of the article certainly proof of that.
"Every once in a while we motoring scribes get the opportunity to road-test a vehicle of outstanding character. It may be a car of luxurious comfort, a sports job with fantastic performance, or a set of wheels with incredible fuel economy. The new Morris 850, released throughout Australia on March 23, doesn’t fit specifically into any of these classifications - but it combines many characteristics of all three in one unique, exhilarating package."
He then goes on to quantify the statement - "Comfort? - Yes, it has unbelievable roomy comfort for four big adults and will even take a fifth - plus a fair whack of luggage. Performance? - Yes, of the eager, get-up-and-go kind that will soon earn you a booking if you don’t learn to watch the speedo. Economy? - Yes, that too. I got 41mpg on a throttle-punishing 150 mile test, so 45 to 50mpg should be the average in normal use."
With 40 years of hindsight and motor car improvements since, reading the article now makes one think this man was easily impressed when you read how he could be impressed by the 850’s comfort, performance and economy and several other features further into the article like handling, braking ability, a price of £775 tax paid (the equivalent of \$1550 dollars) and in general the whole Morris 850 package. He was indeed impressed and rightly so - the motoring world of 40 years ago had some woeful cars being sold to an unsuspecting public and the 850 was a "new form of motoring" that deserves some crowing about. Daly had very little to criticise in his article - he would have preferred to see wind-up door glass, larger sun-visors and he didn’t like the use of the pressure limiting valve. This addition to stop the rear brakes from being locked when hard braking was used - transferring braking power to the front brakes. Quantifying this point with - "This certainly prevents the rear wheels locking; but, because most of the weight is at the front of the car, its light tail tends to swerve off the straight-and-narrow under heavy braking."
Also in this article he may have in-adverbially started the VW versus Mini rivalry. Having a couple of dices with VW owners with the following tale to tell. "Not long after these tests we got into holts with a VW whose owner was obviously unaware of the 850’s dragon-killing propensities and attempted to burn us off on a long top-gear gradient. The terrific top-gear pulling power of the 850 enabled us to pull away from the VW quite easily, right up to the 60’s. The VW driver never knew which way we went - but he’s much wiser now."
Bill Daly can also probably be blamed for giving Mini drivers the ‘hoon’ tag with other motorists after that little effort!! The finishing sentence of his article also makes for prophetic reading all these years later - "If the 850 doesn’t shatter the Australian motorists’ prejudice against small cars, nothing ever will." Another feather in the 850/Mini cap! Wheels magazine’s road test titled "Morris’ Mercurial Marvellous 850" written by Ian Fraser is somewhat more conservative an article than Modern Motor’s. Although it still manages to sing the praises of the 850 but there was no dices with Volkswagens, no testing the stability of the 850 on 4WD type surfaces and not quite the same enthusiasm Modern Motor’s Bill Daly had testing the car. Surprising perhaps only 2 items came in for serious criticism -"Brickbats for the size of rear vision mirror which failed to give an adequate view astern through the large window. And the trafficator warning light was far, far too bright at night."
Both magazines carried advertisements for the "Incredible new Morris 850" on their back covers for the first time and began something the would continue to be done for the next 10 or so years with BMC/Leyland Australia prolifically using the back cover to promote most of their range of vehicles, the Mini particularly.
Within the pages of Wheels there was also an advert for Lancaster Motors - Sydney BMC dealers, announcing the availability of Twin SU carburettor kits for the new Morris 850 owner to purchase. This also beginning a long line of advertisements for performance kits and general accessories aimed at Mini owners for many years to follow. "Incredible" was the official catchcry for the early Morris 850 publicity - be it rear window decals, magazine advertising, sales brochures or accessory catalogue and indeed it was for the phenomenon it created.
Somehow I think "Attitude" will take its place for the catchcry of the new car as the modern forms of publicity wind-up for its release next year in Australia.
March 2001
