1968 Austin Maxi Pre-production [ADO14]

1968 Austin Maxi [ADO14] in Classic British Cars: Made in Coventry, Documentary, 2021

Class: Cars, Hatchback — Model origin:

00:51:57 Background vehicle

Comments about this vehicle

Author	Message
dsl ◊ 2021-06-09 15:41	KJO 157G was Oct/Nov 68 plate. Probably Cowley registered, 6 months+ before Maxi launch, so my guess is that Morris were given a prototype to play with, maybe to see if they wanted to have a Morris-badged version??. No badges visible (eg A U S T I N letters on bonnet front edge). Some suggestions that 1968 ideas involved Austin launching the hatch as the Austin 1500, with Morris taking a parallel booted saloon (hints within here) plus end comments "Before the Maxi was announced it was tested in the Arctic Circle. But, not many people know that 2 versions were tested. These were the normal hatchback and surprisingly a saloon. The saloon was cancelled after the ‘field’ test and the hatchback had its ‘nose’ lengthened by 6″" "In reality, most of the Maxi’s cold testing was done in Morris Motors ‘cold rooms’ in Cowley North Works. These maintained a constant -30c, in 2 basement labs." Unconnected photo of booted Maxi prototype (NOB 595F or 596F??)
dsl ◊ 2021-06-19 15:28	Have just stumbled on a rather sickly PR studio photo of KJO 849G with Austin bonnet letters, so it looks as if Cowley registered a few pre-pro Maxis at the end of 1968. Such happy excited faces ... and Start-Rite sandals - I remember them. Founded in 1792 and still going ...
keef ◊ 2021-11-19 19:09	Here's another :-

Author

Message

dsl

◊ 2021-06-09 15:41

KJO 157G was Oct/Nov 68 plate. Probably Cowley registered, 6 months+ before Maxi launch, so my guess is that Morris were given a prototype to play with, maybe to see if they wanted to have a Morris-badged version??. No badges visible (eg A U S T I N letters on bonnet front edge).

Some suggestions that 1968 ideas involved Austin launching the hatch as the Austin 1500, with Morris taking a parallel booted saloon (hints within here) plus end comments

"Before the Maxi was announced it was tested in the Arctic Circle. But, not many people know that 2 versions were tested. These were the normal hatchback and surprisingly a saloon. The saloon was cancelled after the ‘field’ test and the hatchback had its ‘nose’ lengthened by 6″"

"In reality, most of the Maxi’s cold testing was done in Morris Motors ‘cold rooms’ in Cowley North Works. These maintained a constant -30c, in 2 basement labs."

Unconnected photo of booted Maxi prototype (NOB 595F or 596F??)

dsl

◊ 2021-06-19 15:28

Have just stumbled on a rather sickly PR studio photo of KJO 849G

with Austin bonnet letters, so it looks as if Cowley registered a few pre-pro Maxis at the end of 1968. Such happy excited faces ... and Start-Rite sandals - I remember them. Founded in 1792 and still going ...

keef

◊ 2021-11-19 19:09

Here's another :-

Advertising

Last completed movie pages

1968 Austin Maxi Pre-production [ADO14]

1968 Austin Maxi [ADO14] in Classic British Cars: Made in Coventry, Documentary, 2021

Comments about this vehicle

Add a comment

Advertising

Watch or buy this title via JustWatch

Advertising