Post-restoration photos courtesy of RM Auctions.
You don’t often hear the words “obsessively correct restoration” and Morris Minor in the same sentence. But not every Morris Minor is quite like the lilac-hued Million, a commemorative edition sold in very limited quantities to mark Britain’s first car to clear the seven-figure production barrier.
Though it took three decades and some six owners between its “discovery” and arriving in this condition, this 1961 Morris Minor 1000000 will be offered this Friday, January 16 by RM Auctions in Scottsdale. One of just 21 originally earmarked for the North American market, and bearing the serial number 1000001, the Morris was recently restored by Dave Adams, owner of Lake Oswego Restoration of West Linn, Oregon.
The Morris Minor 1000000 holds the distinction of being the only special edition Minor of any sort. They were all painted in the same shade of lilac and they all featured an interior of white leather seats with black piping, special treatments for a car that was essentially the Model T of Great Britain, the car that got the U.K. back on its feet following World War II. From 1948 through 1971, Morris (later part of BMC and then, ultimately, British Leyland) produced nearly 1.4 million Minors.
Other than the color and the leather interior, the Million models, of which 350 were made—one official millionth and 349 replicas—were otherwise standard Minor 1000s with the 948cc engines—making somewhere around 38hp—attached to smooth-case four-speed gearboxes. The car made quite the splash and the British Motor Corporation milked the publicity for every ounce they could, going so far as to give the actual millionth car to the journalists union in the U.K. to spread the word. With very few making it to the United States—that run of 21 was shared with Canada—spotting one in the wild, even back in the day, was a rarity. So, restoring one to all of its lilac glory may catch the uninitiated off guard.
Dave, who first restored a Morris Minor in the early Eighties for his then girlfriend and now wife (They still have the car, too!), has only owned the car for a couple of years, during which time he took turned a forlorn, rattle-can flat-black Morris into the lavender beauty RM will roll across the block in a couple of days.
“I sort of felt obligated to make this car as absolutely correct as possible,” says Dave. “Morris people, like Mini Cooper people, tend to every crazy modification that strikes them. Given the historical significance of this car, I thought it was pretty important. I think I did an obsessively correct restoration on it.”
For a car that almost ended up in the scrap heap, Million #1000001 has quite a story behind it. Just before Dave embarked on that first Morris restoration, he joined the Morris Minor club, then run by its co-founders, Rick Feibusch and John Voelcker, the latter of the pair also the club’s registrar. Rick, along with his friend, Jeff Davis, got a tip on a Minor around 1980, when the duo was living in San Francisco. The deal was that they could have the old beat up Minor if they pulled the engine out for the owner, since the original 948cc engine had been swapped for a hot 1,275 unit he had other plans for.
“He came to greet us—and I’m not joking—he was dressed like a pirate,” recalls Dave, “with one of those frilly, blousy shirts and he had a pearl-handled revolver in his belt. Not a holster—just kind of in his pants. With his hair and everything, he looked like a bloody pirate! He was a real nice guy—a character. He showed us around his shop and the various art projects he was working on.
“He showed us this Morris. It was painted flat black with red wrinkle finish—the whole interior and engine compartment was covered in thick, wrinkle finish. It was rough. Apparently some kids had gotten in the warehouse and were using the roof for a trampoline. So, it had dozens of dents in the roof.”
Unimpressed, Rick and his friend were set to take a pass when they both saw something special. “It was barely a parts car,” says Rick. “Jeff and I decided to pass on it. There just wasn’t enough car there. As we were walking away from the car we both looked back and noticed at the same time that there was a big, lavender oval where one of the taillights had been. We looked at each other and said, ‘Naaaahhh. It can’t be?!’
“But, I had never seen another lavender Morris Minor. No one would paint a car that color, except for the factory. So, we walked back to the car and very quietly—the hood was off of it. There were no ID plates on the car—they were all gone. But I knew where the number was under the wiring harness on the firewall. We took a screwdriver and scratched the red wrinkle finish off of it. And I told Jeff, ‘Start writing these numbers down…One…Zero…Zero… Zero…” By this time, we were jumping up and down because we knew we had a Million car. We thought maybe it was the Million, but the last number was one, so we had 1000001.”
Maybe not the millionth Minor, but a damn close second place. Curiously, Minor 1000001 was built a couple of weeks before the actual millionth car in December of 1960. The first two cars were sent to North America, left-hand drive models destined for the car show circuit. There is some speculation that 1000001 may, indeed, have been on display at the New York Auto Show in 1961, though there is no hard proof.
After Rick and Jeff pulled the engine, as agreed, they couldn’t decide what to do with the car. Neither had the resources to appropriately restore the car, though with the help of John, they were able to acquired the correct 1000000 badges for the flanks and tail. They also installed a correct date-coded 948cc engine and four-speed transmission, though the car never ran with that drivetrain. After a couple of years, they managed to trade the car for a pair of rebuilt transmissions for other projects they had.
From that time in the early 1980s, the car began a journey all over the West Coast, from a couple of owners in the San Francisco Bay area to San Diego and then back up north when Paul Asgeirsson moved from San Diego to Portland, Oregon, with the car. Like all of the previous owners, Paul had every intention of giving he car its due and restoring it, but after he passed away a few years ago, Dave acquired the car from Paul’s estate. In the hands of a professional restorer with Morris experience, 1000001 was finally where it needed to be.
In the ensuing years between Rick’s discovery and Dave’s ownership, the various 1000000 badges had gone missing, likely sold off, parts picked clean to pay for some other project. Still, Dave was able to source those unique pieces, the correct leather and piping and find the right match for the paint.
Although few would choose such a color for a car—and plenty of Dave’s friends and colleagues in the business though he was nuts—lilac indeed proves a disarming color, particularly when attached to the smiling face of a Morris Minor.
“I’ve never shown a vehicle that was more fun,” exclaims Dave. “I’ve restored and showed a lot of fancy European sports cars. Maybe they’re not quite as accessible, so maybe people aren’t inclined to come up and chat. This car has been a blast to show, because people love it. Both genders, but gals just totally flip out on this car.
“People think E-Types are chick magnets, but I am here to tell you, a Morris Million is the car!”
To read more details about the long path to restoration for Minor 1000001, click here.
from Hemmings Daily - News for the collector car enthusiast http://ift.tt/1AXrivb
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