1100/1300
The Mini started the transverse, front-wheel drive ball rolling, but it was the larger 1100 range that proved it could really work for small families. From its launch in 1962, pretty much to its death over a decade later, the pretty and capable ADO16 was a UK best-seller. Here’s all you need to know about it.
The cars : BMC 1100/1300 development history
World beater So the Mini was launched, and the world had showered BMC with the acclaim that it so richly deserved, but in the months following the car’s arrival on the market, things were not all sweetness and light. Quite simply, fuel crisis or not, the Mini was not the car that the dealers wanted; [...]
August 29, 2011
· 
Keith Adams · 
13 Comments
BMC 1100/1300 buying guide
BMC and BL badge engineering ran amok on the much-loved 1100/1300 range of the Sixties and Seventies. RICHARD GUNN unravels the various marques and tells you what to look out for when buying. Availability Years produced: 1962-1974 Body style: 2- and 4-door saloon, 3-door estate Engine options: 1098cc A-Series inline-four 1275cc A-Series inline-four Transmission options: [...]
October 23, 2010
· Keith Adams · No Comments
BMC 11/55
Alongside the standard Austin 1100, South Africa also had an uprated, 55bhp version which was sold in Austin and Wolseley guises. Although this increased power output was equivalent to that produced by the twin-carb 1100s available in the UK, the 11/55 models took a different route to achieving their extra horses, having a single 1½in. [...]
October 2, 2011
· Keith Adams · One Comment
Radford 1100s
Details of the Radford-converted 1100s are still quite sketchy, but on this page we have tried to pull together what is currently known. ALONGSIDE its much better-known Mini de Ville conversions, Radford also fitted out a number of 1100s to their ususal high standards. The first conversions, completed in mid-1963, were based the Morris 1100, [...]
September 25, 2011
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Also known as : BMC 1100/1300
Austin de Luxe Home market name: based on Austin 1100 MkIIINot just a new name, but a new engine too: this Spanish-built model used a 55bhp version of the 998cc A-series engine. Introduced in 1974, it also found its way into the Danish and Greek markets. Austin 11/55 Home market name: based on Austin 1100In [...]
August 28, 2011
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Interview : Alec Issigonis on the BMC 1100
Motor magazine, August 1962 WHY IS THE ADO16? Alec Issigonis, technical director of the British Motor Corporation and Charles Griffin, chief engineer, answer questions from our technical editor. Joseph Lowrey, Motor – As soon as they discovered the Mini-Minor’s remarkable qualities, Motorists began asking whether your unique design could also be scaled up into something [...]
August 27, 2011
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Tested : Austin 1300 vs Triumph 1300
There’s a lot of talk about premium small cars these days – here are two that were playing the game 35 years ago… First published in Classic Car Weekly in November 2005, RICHARD GUNN pitted the Austin 1300GT against its upmarket in-house rival, the Triumph 1300TC… Brotherly rivals Introduction Ah, ‘GT’ and ‘TC’, two magical [...]
July 25, 2011
· Keith Adams · 3 Comments
BMC 1100/1300 : Irish variations
Ireland was an interesting market for BMC>Rover, as for a short while, not only were they importers, but they were a CKD assembly operation. Andrew Ryan takes up the story… Austin & Morris had two separate importers/assemblers. For Austin, there was Lincoln & Nolan, which also had the Rover agency and Morris cars were assembled [...]
July 19, 2011
· Keith Adams · 6 Comments
BMC 1100/1300 : North American variations
MG Sports Sedan / MG Princess Within a month or so of the model’s UK launch, the MG1100 was being exported to the US to be sold as the MG Sports Sedan (perhaps providing inspiration to the Rootes Group, who later lauched the Hillman Imp in America as the Sunbeam Imp Sportsedan). Launched in the [...]
July 19, 2011
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BMC 1100/1300 : New Zealand variations
Production of the ADO16 in New Zealand followed fairly close on the heels of the initial UK launch, and lasted into the early 1970s. AS related by Ian Walker in his article on ‘BMC>Rover in New Zealand’, by the 1960s the franchises for the Austin and Nuffield brands in New Zealand had been consolidated into [...]
July 19, 2011
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BMC 1100/1300 : Japanese variations
The Japanese took the ADO16 to their hearts in a big way, leading to a mass exodus of decent examples to Japan in the 1990s. And when the demand for the cars began to outstrip the supply of pukka models, a gaggle of ingenious reproductions began to appear… BACK in the late 1960s/early 1970s, BLMC’s [...]
July 19, 2011
· Keith Adams · One Comment
BMC 1100/1300 : Italian variations
The first 1100-based Innocenti – the IM3 – was so-named as it was the third Innocenti-Morris joint venture, following the A40 and 950 Spider. It was launched as a Morris in the spring of 1963, and was joined the following year by a more basic, Austin-badged model. Production of the Morris models ended in 1970, [...]
July 19, 2011
· Keith Adams · 4 Comments
BMC 1100/1300 : Danish variations
Although the ADO16 was never built in Denmark, it was first introduced there within weeks of the UK launch, and remained available in one form or another for around six months after sales in the UK had fizzled out. Here, former BL Denmark dealer Erik Loye tells its story… IN August 1962, shortly after the [...]
July 19, 2011
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BMC 1100/1300 : Chilean variations
Read the extraordinary story of how the production of glass fibre Minis and 1100s was instigated in Chile. Story by Dennis Harrison. To octagenarians, Abingdon, the factory home of the MG for half a century, is synonymous with the marque. Few, if any, have heard of another production centre at Arica, a seaport on the [...]
July 19, 2011
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BMC 1100/1300 : Australian variations
IN 1964, around a year-and-a-half after its UK launch, a locally-built (but otherwise fairly standard) version of Morris 1100 was launched in Australia, where it was sold alongside the Mini and Austin A40 Farina. In August 1967 the 1100 was joined by the 1100S, which actually had the 1275cc A-series engine of the UK’s 1300 [...]
July 19, 2011
· Keith Adams · One Comment
BMC 1100/1300 : Specialist conversions
The 1100/1300 was the only BMC/BL model to be offered as both an estate and convertible by Crayford (although these models were not marketed concurrently). You can also find out below about a couple of other attempts to give the 1100 a hatchback and soft-top… Estates/Hatchbacks Crayford 1100 Estate Hitting the market a couple of [...]
July 18, 2011
· Keith Adams · 5 Comments
Gallery : BMC 1100/1300 timeline
The ADO16 was BMC’s best selling car during the 1960s, and as a result, it lived a long and varied life. This timeline, compiled by Michael Schaefer, has put the car’s illustrious career into factual order. Year Date (where known) Details 1962 March Production of the MG 1100 (and presumably the Morris as well) began [...]
July 18, 2011
· Keith Adams · 2 Comments
Drive story : Vanden Plas Princess
Harriman’s Concorde? austin-rover.co.uk gets its second ADO16 for test; and after taking it for a quick spin, Keith Adams feels the need to espouse the car’s vitues. Yet again… Written in 2004 THE best of British: it is an oft-used cliché, but does anyone really use it in conjunction with anything remotely good these days? [...]
July 18, 2011
· Keith Adams · One Comment
BMC 1100/1300 : Concepts and prototypes
While the 1100 was an Issigonis concept from the outset, it took Italy’s Pininfarina to give the car its undeniable style. This page was contributed by Declan Berridge
July 18, 2011
· Keith Adams · 3 Comments
In-house designs : Vanden Plas
Vanden Plas prototypes The coachbuilding firm of Vanden Plas had been purchsed by Austin in 1946, and thus became part of the BMC empire that was created by the merger of Austin and Morris in 1952. Until the end of the 1950s, the factory at Kingsbury in north-west London was chiefly used for the production [...]
June 25, 2011
· Keith Adams · 5 Comments
Service vans : ADO16 and ADO17
When the ADO17 was launched as the Austin 1800 in 1964, few people can have imagined that one of its defining features – its doors – would later appear on a series of cars ranging from a 1.5-litre family hatchback to a 3-litre executive saloon. But the story doesn’t end there. As well as being [...]
April 2, 2011
· Keith Adams · No Comments
