mk1-forum.net

Or 40 reasons BMC went tits up

One to six

Seven to twelve

Thirteen to eighteen

Nineteen to twenty four

Twenty five to thirty

Thirty one to thirty six

Thirty six to 40!!!!!!

Nice to see mine parked together No. 11 and 14. Spot on colour wise too ! That was til I sold No. 14 today !

Were white Hornets ever available with a black roof ? Thought mine was unique.

Pete wrote:Were white Hornets ever available with a black roof ? Thought mine was unique.

I don't think they came with black roofs. White came with either a dark blue or maroon roof I think. I had a MkIII Hornet in the 1980's which had a blue roof and grey interior.

Back to that brochure, it got worse later on in the '60's with the merging with Standard Triumph, Rover and Jaguar.
Add their cars into the mix and it the total would be over 60 cars.

No 14 looks more like an S to me (is that an S badge visible)

Lovely selection!
My brother and sister in law have an all white Elf, really rare to see one that isn't two tone colour. Although it's in pristine condition it always suffers at shows when two tone cars in worse condition win the class prizes

Nothing like a bit of nostalgia is there All those great cars of the past. Yes BMC did produce far too many models really and the dealers had to keep far too many parts. At that time there was still the daft separate Austin and Morris dealers thing too - often in the same town.
On the subject of "all white" Elfs, this became standard late in production I think. I've seen quite a few but all were late cars and usually with black interior. If you think about it BMC (or BL as they were by then) dropped the two-tone paint jobs on most of their range, and later Morris Oxfords, MG & Wolseley 1300s and the Mini Coopers of course came with just a single colour.

Old English White wrote: Mini Coopers of course came with just a single colour.

I used to own a mk1 cooper that was factory ordered monotone white, I got sick of people telling me that it couldn't possibly be a proper car because ALL mk1 coopers where two tone, so I painted the roof black out of badness

Is it just me or does that range look very old fashioned even for 1965.
M

mk1 wrote:Is it just me or does that range look very old fashioned even for 1969.
M

it does when you compare what the likes of Ford where selling

that bmc catalogue could easily have been printed in 1963 and the cars would have looked the same

That's just what I thought, I have been doing a bit of comparing to Ford & Fiat & the BMC offering is horrendous in comparison.

M

I can remember going to the London Earls Court Motor show in the late 1960's as a kid and even then thinking that the Morris Minor 1000 and BMC A60 range, etc were very old fashioned cars to still be on sale new.
Even then, though too young to drive, Mini's were fascinating to me because of their transverse engines, Hydrolastic suspension, etc compared to the conventional layout of most other British cars. I was at the 1967/68 Motor show because I distinctly remember the shiny Mk2 Mini's on show and being impressed by the large updated rear light clusters and new front grille, larger rear window, etc. Also remember bringing home loads of car brochures gathered off the stands some of which I still have!
My dad was there mainly for the Ford's and Vauxhalls, he disliked Mini's as too small, uncomfortable, noisy buzz boxes and difficult to work on but my elder brother had just brought the first 'souped up' Mini into our family much to my delight.

mk1 wrote:Is it just me or does that range look very old fashioned even for 1969.
M

A 1965 range would have looked old fashioned in 1969

What would banger racers have done in the 70's without half of that range ?! Even though Moggy's certainly looked outmoded they were very popular (and have survived well) and A40's - first saloon hatchback ? Those big bangers (oops pardon) used to sell in their droves, and though the dealers competed against each other those different badges made them all a little different. We had a Humber Super Snipe, pure luxury , I loved the picnic tables as a kid , even when sationary (which was alot !). I do remember horror stories about brand new Anglias always breaking down so maybe we need to accept that 60's cars generally were just abit crap ?