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RIP Jane Birkin...

mab01uk wrote: ↑Wed Jul 12, 2023 4:09 pm



Longbridge Engineers testing early Coopers in France.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1874746 ... cale=en_GB

Morrises with Austin badges fitted - still with the Morris badge holes!

MFC is an Oxfordshire registration.

It may just be the photography but that car seems to have an extraordinary amount of negative camber at the front

Just the usual Cowley factory tolerances I'd say.....

Also neg at the rear ?

Yes, I agree. There certainly looks to be something odd about the stance but I don't know what. The car is rather a bitza I think with the odd badging etc. It looks as if the front indicators are working as sidelights and there is some sort of bracket or something beneath the grille. I also noticed that it doesn't have any bumper corner bars which would have been standard on any Cooper. It's probably a bit of a test "mule" isn't it?

Are they flat indicators/ side lights, could it be a works lamp bar bracket below the grill?
I agree about the camber front and rear..
D

It’s an early smoke grey Morris 997 road test/PR car. It is wearing Austin badges and also had a right hand tank. It did 24 hours at Monthelry in France four up.

A modern 'Period' picture...
Ian Curley battling with Grant Williams’ Jag for the lead at Brands Hatch recently.

SMOKE GREY wrote: ↑Tue Jul 18, 2023 8:17 pm It’s an early smoke grey Morris 997 road test/PR car. It is wearing Austin badges and also had a right hand tank. It did 24 hours at Monthelry in France four up.

"It did 24 hours at Monthelry in France four up."

Flippen heck!

richardACS wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 10:42 pm

SMOKE GREY wrote: ↑Tue Jul 18, 2023 8:17 pm It’s an early smoke grey Morris 997 road test/PR car. It is wearing Austin badges and also had a right hand tank. It did 24 hours at Monthelry in France four up.

"It did 24 hours at Monthelry in France four up."

Flippen heck!

Couple more photos...the reg is an Oxford series used between Jul ‘61 and Mar ‘62.






Front L to R: Gill Jones (Chief Experimental Officer and head of safety development), Benny James (Vehicle Proving),
The two men at the rear are Alan (The Pipe) Garrard and Pat Layton.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10 ... cale=en_GB

What a lovely peice of history - if this was today I doubt Benny James would be wearing a tie and a little suprised the other 3 are not... would they have allowed Pat Leyton to have smoked a cigarette during the attempt?

Look how high the seat belt is mounted, which they don't seem to be wearing - but I think back in the day seat belts were not a preferred option as they felt to be thrown clear might be the better option...

Bristol in the '60s...

Early Mini on family holiday in France in the 1960's. (Reg: WKY 75)
(from an old cine film recently shown on the Talking Pictures TV channel series "The Footage Detectives").

Taken sixty years ago today - at Bridego Bridge, north of Cheddington on the West Coast mainline, a few after after the Glasgow to Euston mail train was robbed, the Mini belonged to one of the police officers sent out to the scene...