Morris 850 sport

[rich@minispares.com]

those speed stripes are epic!

[bubbacluby]

I know the that lad and know the car.

INCREDIBLY NICE yes and a genuine sport too.

Everything that make these a "sport" are bolt on and are very easy to fake. (just fine some twin carbs and buy some badges and few stickers)

There are no record of production of Australian minis and there isn't mentioned on the ID tag signifying it as anything different to a normal 850.

But this one is genuine, and goes well for an 850 too.

That is the white sport, not yellow. Not 100% sure about the yellow one as far as originality goes, never met the lad, and heard stories (whether right or wrong who knows).

[CKD1961mini]

Hi

I have a Peter Manton Sports 850 with just over 14000 miles since new. Purchase it in 1995.

Easy for people to say what they had fitted on them. Unless you have owned one and have collected history of these unique special minis.

These were the first mini in the world to be fitted with twin SUs as factory by only 2 dealers one in Sydney P & R Williams & Peter Manton Motors Melborne, being 3 weeks before the release of the Mini Cooper in England with factory fitted twin SUs.

Sadly a lot of people think badges, chrome rock cover with sticker & other features make a sports 850.I have a register of only 7 known genuine ones. 2 being Peter Manton & 5 P & R Williams.

The badges on this particular model were red background with chrome letters & white & black chequered flag. Others options were if someone wanted to make sports 850 conversion would you buy the kit over the counter by the 2 mentioned before dealers. The badges were Aqua blue & green.

Thanks

Grant

[UHR850]

This is the book you must have about Aussie Mini's

Spotlicht on MINI MINOR DOWNUNDER by Pedr Davis
Marque publishing company ISBN:0-947079-10-6

You will discover a whole new Mini world you did know of !
Full of black and white pictures, road tests and so on

Have this for years now and a real must have

UHR850 (Kees).

[morris_mini_minor]

This is a story on a 850 sports from a few years ago, The Mini Experience apr/jun 2007. this car was local to me. (sold, haven't seen it for ages)
my wife works for our local council in the tourist info office, the same car was used a number of years ago in a promotional booklet
for our region, cant find a copy though.





Cheers Scott

Avoid this like a plague its a nice 850 but thats about all great tribute to the Sports 850

The Sports 850 yes being an Australian only car makes.in unique but no actual figures or numbers of conversions completed make it hard to value

[Charlynsane]

The funniest mini ever,

The soul of the mini, just a little bit tunned,

I really love it

thank you very much for those wonderful pictures

[Spider]

This is the book you must have about Aussie Mini's

Spotlicht on MINI MINOR DOWNUNDER by Pedr Davis
Marque publishing company ISBN:0-947079-10-6

You will discover a whole new Mini world you did know of !
Full of black and white pictures, road tests and so on

Have this for years now and a real must have

UHR850 (Kees).

Kees, that is a great book,

however,,,,

it's also none too accurate.

[UHR850]

I think you have to do it with it, as far as I know this is the only one about Aussie Mini's !
There are also some very nice colour pictures in it, so still a must have for the real Mini men !

Kees.

[AWOODY]

I know this car very well , it belongs to a mate of mine 2 owners from new found under a tree on a property in country NSW restored a few years ago now but still immaculate , he went to a great deal of trouble to get the details as acurate as possible . It owes it's shine to me I spent 18hrs detailing it a couple of years back even polished the floors inside under the mats !! Sad isn't it . It goes real well and achieves great MPG . It is still winning trophies as recently as a month ago .

[UHR850]

Hi

I have a Peter Manton Sports 850 with just over 14000 miles since new. Purchase it in 1995.

Easy for people to say what they had fitted on them. Unless you have owned one and have collected history of these unique special minis.

These were the first mini in the world to be fitted with twin SUs as factory by only 2 dealers one in Sydney P & R Williams & Peter Manton Motors Melborne, being 3 weeks before the release of the Mini Cooper in England with factory fitted twin SUs.

Sadly a lot of people think badges, chrome rock cover with sticker & other features make a sports 850.I have a register of only 7 known genuine ones. 2 being Peter Manton & 5 P & R Williams.

The badges on this particular model were red background with chrome letters & white & black chequered flag. Others options were if someone wanted to make sports 850 conversion would you buy the kit over the counter by the 2 mentioned before dealers. The badges were Aqua blue & green.

Thanks

Grant

Well I think UHR850 from Downton was the first in the world to have twin SUs !

Kees.

[motodevo]

Here's an article from march 62 on the Sports850

[Tim]

Kees, that is a great book,

however,,,,

it's also none too accurate.

And a little bit dated! I think it came out in about 1990. It was a revelation at the time, but the work of Craig 'Watto' Watson, is far fresher, much more comprehensive and generally much better researched. "The Mini Experience Reloaded" is especially good, because he's gone back and updated the original articles and corrected some of the errors where new information has come to light.

Tim

[Spider]

Kees, that is a great book,

however,,,,

it's also none too accurate.

And a little bit dated! I think it came out in about 1990.

Tim

Hey Tim!

You been hiding?

I've actually had my copy since the mid-80's. Although it was first published some time around then, I wouldn't consider it 'dated' since all our local production of the Mini ceased in 1978 and the Moke in 1981, so if anything, 'timely' in that it hasn't or rather shouldn't have, had time to loose and distort it, but sadly, little is actually written by Pedr in this book.

It is none the less a good book, and when I said it was none too accurate, for the most part, it is fairly accurate, but some of the numbers, in particular regarding production, are a way off. The 'Author', Pedr Davis (and that is how it's spelt), if I recall right, was at one time an employee of BMC. I say 'Author' as I guess, technically, he is, but I tend to consider him more of a 'complier' as for the most part, the book is a collection of magazine articles, sales brochures etc while little actually written by Pedr, in this particular book.

Kees, as we had our own BMC Factory Here, complete with drawing office, R&D dept., Marketing, etc, from very early in the piece, before the mini came along, we tended to do things our own way with our own touches, sometime for the good, and sometimes not. Regrettably, today, these unique Aussy 'touches' are also our undoing as sourcing parts for those rivet-counting type restorations is a real headache to an impossibility, though a couple of local organisations have had some parts re-made.

I think in different ways, the South Africans are in a similar boat.

[CKD1961mini]

I know this car very well , it belongs to a mate of mine 2 owners from new found under a tree on a property in country NSW restored a few years ago now but still immaculate , he went to a great deal of trouble to get the details as acurate as possible . It owes it's shine to me I spent 18hrs detailing it a couple of years back even polished the floors inside under the mats !! Sad isn't it . It goes real well and achieves great MPG . It is still winning trophies as recently as a month ago .

The yellow mini is a good show n shine vehicle. The previous owner who restored the mini came down to Sydney and took plenty of photos of my Sports 850 back in about 2005.

You are saying he went to a great deal of trouble to get the details as accurate as possible which is totally incorrect. The car has new upholstery which is wrong vinyl should have black fleck in the seats if 1961 model, carpet floor wrong should be moulded rubber mats front and back. Outside bonnet stripes is wrong shape to wavy should be more sharper triangle look. The back number plate holder should be black instead of body colour if 1961 model. The wheels if 1961 model should be Old English White. In 1963 Silver birch came out on the 850 models. Engine bay shouldn't be chrome SUs dash pots, shouldn't have braided hoses to each of the carbies should be rubber hoses, master cylinder caps should be metal type not plastic, clutch slave cylinder & generator should be green. Head is wrong should have no temperature sender, thermostat housing should be low profile type, oil filler cap wrong should be raised writing saying OIL FILLER only on 1961 models,chrome plated bonnet catch plate should be body colour, wrong spark plug caps, Sports M 850 rocker cover sticker new replica to thin should be thick metal type and it says 4/62 on regulator box. If 1961 should say month & year 61 on regulator box.

Thanks

[winabbey]

Here's the original brochure for the Sports 850. Note in the comment below the front page photo that the car can apparently only be purchased by a male.

How times and attitudes have changed.

Sports 850 p1.jpg

Sports 850 p2.jpg

Sports 850 p3.jpg

[AWOODY]

I spoke to Laurie Stewart about the sports 850 at Bathurst last weekend He worked at P and R Williams back in the day and he remembered it very well but he was not sure as to how many they sold probably around 50 . He was very impressed with the restoration of the white one that was talked about earlier.