Minor is One in a Million

LatestThe Minor failed to reach its reserve of £20,000. Bidding stopped at around £8,000

A Morris Minor is estimated to sell for £25,000-30,000 when it goes under the Charterhouse hammer in their auction of classic cars and motorbikes on Sunday 8th November at The Royal Bath & West Showground, Shepton Mallet.

“We have teamed up with the Footman James Classic Car Show in November again as it is one of the best classic car shows in the country attracted many thousands of car collectors and enthusiasts.” Commented Matthew Whitney. “We are always fortunate to receive some interesting cars and motorbikes in the sale, but this particular Morris Minor is probably the best known Morris in the car world as it is the millionth Minor off of the production line.”

The Minor going under the hammer came off the production line on 22nd December 1960. It passed into the National Union of Journalists in April 1961 to be used in their national fundraising campaign and was then subsequently auctioned live on television with the proceeds donated to The British Red Cross. It was “won” by Miss Susan George in Wales and the car was road registered as 1 MHU which is 1,000,000 in engineering terms. Ten years later, the vendor bought the car having seen it in Wales on several holidays. By this time, it had been repainted red and been involved in an accident and it was purchased as a restoration project. However, the new owner did not envisage the project to start 20 years later.

The car was fully restored to its original specification by Derek Smith, who is a lecturer in motor vehicle studies at Northbrook College, Worthing at a cost of about £15,000. It is now resplendent in its lilac colour which was only used for 349 special Morris Minor’s which were badged as Morris Minor 1,000,000 to commemorate this historic sales achievement.