As in most years, 2022 sees a number of significant – and in some cases, not-so-significant – motoring anniversaries being celebrated. So far this year we’ve marked the Renault 5’s 50th birthday and the Ferrari 250 GTO’s 60th, and this week we’re going to celebrate anther 60th anniversary, that of the Austin/Morris 1100/1300, also known collectively as the ADO16.
Following his success with the Mini, the ADO16 was initially developed by Alec Issigonis before being taken over by Charles Griffith and styled by Pinninfarina. It encompassed some of the features that made the Mini such a success – a transverse-mounted engine and front wheel drive with wheels in the corners to maximise interior space and enable good roadholding, plus Hydrolastic suspension, included for the first time on a BMC car.
The power unit was the 48bhp, 1098cc BMC A-series engine, previously fitted in the A35 and A40, cars which the ADO16 replaced, as well as the Morris Minor, MG Midget and of course the Mini. Top speed was a relatively modest 79mph/127kmh.
Launched by BMC in August 1962, the ADO16 was marketed under a variety of badges – as was the BMC, and later British Leyland, way, and we’ll come to some of those further on in this piece. To begin with, however, it was available as the Morris 1100, and the range became Britain’s best-selling car for no fewer than eight of its twelve-year production run. In all, about 2.4 million examples were built, in a bewildering array of variations, with half of that number being sold in the UK.
The two main assembly plants were Longbridge in Birmingham for the Austin versions and Cowley, Oxford for Morris and MG-badged cars, but the ADO16 was also built at factories around the globe, including Australia and New Zealand, Yugoslavia, Malta, Spain and Portugal, Belgium and others, making it something of a world car. The power unit was the 48bhp, 1098cc BMC A-series engine, previously fitted in the A35 and A40, cars which the ADO16 replaced, as well as the Morris Minor, MG Midget and of course the Mini. Top speed was a relatively modest 79mph/127kmh.
The Mark 1 version of the ADO16 was initially available only with a four-door saloon body in the UK, with two-door models for export only, and it didn’t take long for the badge-engineering to start; indeed, within a month of the Morris 110’s launch, the MG 1100 was introduced, with a slightly more powerful 55bhp power unit. The following year saw the Austin 1100 and Vanden Plas Princess 1100 going on sale, with Wolseley and Riley versions coming later. Besides the badges, the main external differences were the front grilles and interior trim levels, especially so with the Wolseley and VDP versions.
In 1966 a three-door estate model came onto the market, with the Austin version branded Countryman, with Traveller being applied to the Morris variant.
After a very successful half-decade, despite frequent interruptions to production by strike action – 254 strikes at the Cowley plant in 1964 alone – the Mark II series was launched in 1967. This featured an enlarged version of the engine, now with a capacity of 1275cc, but only in the Riley, Wolseley, MG and Vanden Plas models – customers for the Austin and Morris-badged cars had to wait until 1968 to be able to select the larger-engined model. 1967 also saw the availability of two-door versions on the UK market.
October 1969 saw the introduction of what for many was the ultimate ADO16, the 1300GT; brought in to compete with the Ford Escort and Vauxhall Viva GT’s, the 1300GT featured a different grille, black vinyl roof and most importantly, the twin-carburettor equipped 70bhp engine from the MG 1300. These are starting to become much sought after.
Towards the end of the Mark II’s run, the Morris badged variants were dropped ahead of the launch of the Marina, and 1971 proved to be the range’s last year as the UK’s best-selling car, being surpassed by the Ford Cortina.
For its final incarnation from 1971, the ADO16 range was whittled down to just Austin and Vanden Plas badged cars, with the last ADO16 to leave the factory being a Vanden Plas Princess 1300, and the range was replaced with the Austin Allegro, “quartic” steering wheel and all (and about 50 years ahead of any number of supercars with similarly shaped steering wheels). The Morris Marina was also on the market already, so the death throes of the ADO16 were well advanced, with the last VdP badged example rolling out of the factory doors in June 1974.
Press reactions to the ADO16 were generally in favour. Autocar magazine tested an Austin 1100 in October 1963 and had nothing but good to say about the car’s ride – “almost unparalleled…by any but the most sophisticated steel springs” – and handling that was “almost unbeatable”. The magazine also loved the car’s looks, calling it “one of the neatest and most handsome small cars on the road today”.
A later test of the MG 1300 MkII in 1968 maintained the praise for the ride and roadholding, “remarkable performance” – the testers reached a maximum speed of 101mph/163kmh – and roominess, but was more critical of the heating, ventilation and price.
The ADO16 was marketed in an exceptionally competitive sector throughout it’s production run, with the likes Vauxhall Viva HA, HB and HC, Hillman/Chrysler Avenger, Ford Anglia and Escort providing homegrown alternatives, while the FIAT 128, Datsun 120Y and VW Beetle with just some of the competition from importers.
There were a couple of intriguing sidebars to the ADO16 story in the shapes of the Austin Apache (South Africa) and Austin Victoria (Spain) launched in 1971 and 1972 respectively, which showed there was still some life in the ADO16 concept – both were effectively re-styled and booted redesigns (the Apache by none other than Michelotti) and demonstrated perhaps what could have been done to keep up with the likes of Ford’s Escort and Cortina.
While the ADO16 was a sales success for BMC and British Leyland, this was despite the troubled production and lack of real development, and its low profit margins meant that the companies never really benefitted as much as perhaps they should have.
Having started life as a medium-sized family saloon, by the 1970’s it’s former competitors had moved upmarket and the ADO16 had to compete with more modern, three-box saloons with more space and of course better boot access, as well as the beginnings of the supermini hatchback segment. Despite it’s shape, the ADO16 retained a small conventional boot-lid giving limited access to the luggage compartment, a failing that remained with the Allegro. One wonders what might have been had the company either a) pursued the route taken by its South African and Spanish partners or b) developed the ADO16 into a modern supermini hatchback to compete with the Ford Fiesta, VW Golf, Renault 5 and others, but we’ll never know.
