The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed the slight change in the title of this week’s Prime Find, and there’s a good reason for that – having just finished preparing this piece, it seems the chosen car has now been sold, but it’s an interesting car that doesn’t often come up for sale, plus I didn’t want to waste the time I’d spent putting this article together, so we’re running it anyway…
Back in 1962, the British Motor Corporation launched a car that would become the best-selling car in the UK for several years. Known internally as ADO16 (Amalgamated Drawing Office, project number 16), it was designed by Alec Issigonis and styled by Pininfarina, continuing a co-operation with the Italian design house that had produced the ADO16’s immediate predecessor, the A40 Farina.
Like the A40, and the Mini, the ADO16 used BMC’s faithful A-series engine and shared the Mini’s transverse engine, front-wheel-drive layout and inter-connected hydrolastic suspension designed by Alex Moulton. This allowed the creation of an exceptionally roomy cabin for this size of car – claimed to be comparable to the larger Ford Cortina, although its market sector competitors were actually Ford Escorts, Vauxhall Viva’s, Opel Kadetts, VW Beetles and the like.
Initially introduced to the market as a four-door saloon, with 1100cc engine and Austin or Morris badging, the two being most clearly distinguishable by their radiator grilles, BMC indulged in its common practice by making the ADO16 available with a wide variety of badges, trims, engines and door configurations, ranging from basic 1100 saloon through upmarket Wolesley and Van den Plas Princess versions, as well as sportier Riley Kestrel, MG and GT variants, and not forgetting the Innocenti-built models manufactured in Italy. In fact, it’s fair to say ADO16 was a “world car”, produced as it was in thirteen countries.
Perhaps the most famous of all ADO16’s – and indeed one of the best-known cars in the UK – was Basil Fawlty’s poor little red Austin 1100 Countryman that had the temerity to let him down, for which it was punished with a thrashing from a tree branch by a deranged John Cleese in one of UK TV’s funniest moments. Incidentally, you might notice another ADO16 in shot early on in this clip.
Despite Fawlty’s evident dislike for his car, the range was a great success commercially, with over 2.1m sold worldwide, of which more than half were bought by UK owners – indeed, the range was the UK’s best-selling car from 1963 through to 1966, and again from 1968 to 1971. There was barely a street in the UK that didn’t have an 1100 or 1300 parked in it, and BMC was the country’s dominant manufacturer during these years before descending into steady decline from the early 1970’s onwards.
Like many of yesterday’s heroes, there are remarkably few ADO16’s left on the road – just under 2,000 of all variants, or less than 0.1%, survive. Of those 2,000, 82 are 1300GT’s, and it’s one of these little sports saloons that is our Prime Find – and now Prime Sale – this week.
According to the dealer, this is a very original low mileage example of an Austin 1300GT, first registered to a lady owner in Wilmslow, in August 1972, who kept the car for 45 years! It then changed hands almost annually until 2011 and was kept by its fifth owner until 2019. There is a comprehensive history file which details all previous owners and supports the odometer reading of 51,000 miles.
This tidy-looking car is finished in its original colour of Limeflower, which for some might be an unacquireable taste, with matching vinyl interior; it’s certainly very ’70s! The dealer claimed that the car is “structurally very sound” and the paintwork is in good condition, having had some attention. The interior is completely original and in excellent condition, with the exception of a mock period radio fascia. The dealer reported that the car drives really well with engine, transmission, steering and suspension all working as they should and even the heated rear screen works.
I really like the look of this little 1300GT, even in this distinctive colour, and the idea of owning a car that used to be a huge seller but is now very rare has a lot of appeal. It also seemed to be reasonably priced at £7,995, and with such a low mileage, is likely to give years more service without needing extensive mechanical attention other than regular servicing.
As is our usual practice, we borrowed a few photos from the dealer’s website, though the car is no longer available. I would hazard a guess that whoever bought this little GT saloon has got themselves a very serviceable and uncommon classic; I hope they have a lot of fun with it.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us inspire by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro