mk1-forum.net

http://www.carsguide.com.au/car-news/my ... U9rA46qqko

Does anyone have information about this car?

is it a coach build?

or a special edition reserved to australia?

nice bonnet badge

thanks

I think it was a special conversion - only carried out in Australia.

Made by BMC?

You can find several cars on internet,

Maybe a pre cooper serie made by bmc

The badge is specific, and It looks very nice

Love it

How nice is that - its very nice

dap. (thats pad upside down ozzy style)

The mini wasn't launched in Australia until the beginning of 1961. By the summer of that year the local tuners couldn't wait for the Coopers to arrive so they started converting the standard minis. The Morris Sports 850 was the tuned version which could be ordered from two dealerships in Australia only up until 1963. Peter Manton in Melbourne and P & R Williams in Sydney. It wasn't an official BMC conversion yet they did approve it. It's unsure how many were produced over those years yet it is believed that they didn't sell more than a hundred.

The conversion consisted of a different badge on the bonnet and boot, anti scratch plates behind the door handles and a two tone paint was optional. A chrome rocker cover that had the Morris Sports 850 decal on it, twin 1 1/4" carbs and a slightly different exhaust system. The original manifold was cut to leave the just the exhaust part, a free flow system was then connected to it. Warneford supplied the inlet manifold and the airfilters. Steering, braking and suspension remained the same.

For people that already owned a mini and wished to convert theirs kits were available to yet the badges are slightly different. The entire red badge appears to have been on the conversions that were carried out by the dealerships, the blue ones would be the ones that came with the conversion kits.

Here is a picture of the carbs that I have that belong on one, some people might have seen them at Bingley Hall as I had them with me for sale :





And here are the different badges:

0-100mph in 9seconds from an 850Mini

I'm not sure my Porsche'll do that

Fired out of a cannon down a steep hill with a following wind maybe?

Interesting conversions though.

I think there is also a inlet manifold that had Manton cast in it. The badges when they do come up often go for big money

Most of them had Peter Manton or Monaro Motors Manifolds.

Have a look here - http://www.miniexperience.com.au/filead ... ts_850.pdf

It didn't do 0-100 in 9 secs, it did it 9 secs faster than a standard Mini. Which still takes some doing as the standard Mini wouldn't do 100mph!

The 850 Sport is one of my all time favourites & I would dearly love to own one one day.

M

It did seem an unlikely claim! I agree with you - a very interesting variant but I suppose over here we had quite a range of tuning firms who sprang up around that time to provide similar performance enhancing add-ons.

(That sounds like one of those annoying spam emails!)

Old English White wrote:It did seem an unlikely claim!

if it could really do 0-100 in 9 seconds it would have given most performance cars a run for their money in period.....

hell, I suspect it would have give my XJR a shock!

The unusual thing about the 850 Sport is that it was officially sanctioned by BMC in period.

Obviously the 100mph is a typo and what was meant was 100kph ( ~62mph )

Amazing, you never stop learning!

I like the Sports 850 too

I love this car too

thank you for all those informations!!

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

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.