ADO 17 and Me
Or How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Austin 1800
ADO 17 and Me
or
How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Austin 1800
(This article first appeared in the November 2017 edition of the Morris Car Club of South Australia's monthly Bulletin.)
First off, let me begin by saying how wonderfully gratified I am that the Morris Car Club has welcomed my wife, myself and our lime green BMC Amalgamated Design Office (ADO) model 17, "Mr Toad", into the fold.
My wife grew up around car clubs. If you look carefully at the Ford Model A Committee Members' board in the clubrooms you will find her father listed as the secretary in that club's founding year. What she remembers of car cub life from the heady days of the 1970's lives on in the form of welcomeness, helpfulness and friendliness that we have already experienced as members of the Morris Car Club. We've met some wonderful people, already been on an enjoyable if sand-blown car run and made some friends along the way.
As you all know for sure, the Australian ADO 17 isn't a Morris, it's an Austin 1800. However it was designed by Morris engineers, and the original British Austin 1800 was available in Austin, Wolseley and Morris variants. The British makes were thus all from the same stable, only they were different breeds. And the Australian ADO 17 came down the same production line that had built the famous Morris Minors of the 1950's and 60's.
The direct predecessor of ADO 17 was the famously popular Morris 1100 that carried the designation ADO 16. With a similar shape and front-wheel drive configuration, the Morris 1100 could be thought of as the Austin 1800's little brother. And seeing a member's 1100 pulled in alongside my 1800 on club registration day was a sight to behold. Thanks for parking where you did Phil - it made my day!
Since acquiring "Mr Toad", I've discovered the joy of people pulling up next to us at the lights and looking the car over. I've enjoyed talking about Mr Toad with complete strangers when we've pulled into country service stations to slake its thirst. (Premium unleaded is OK because the valves have been hardened, apparently). And the number of people who have told me that they learnt to drive in an ADO 17 seems to be huge, especially amongst my generation that learnt to drive in the 1980's, when a 16 year old 1800 in fair condition could be bought for the princely sum of $800.
Which was the price and condition of a late 1968 Crystal White ADO 17 that I took delivery of as a 16 year old in February 1985. A vehicle that was only a few months younger than me at the time I bought it.
I learnt to drive in that Austin 1800, working the manual transmission up and down, getting a good physical workout as I turned the bus-sized steering wheel, and having passed my test then spent another seven years driving it, it felt like I could drive just about anything. But age wearied my first 1800, and the impending demands of a family and the need for reliable transport overtook us, and so it became a trade-in on a low mileage Holden Barina.
My First ADO 17 - Sir Thomas Sopwith - Pictured here in July 1992 on the day it was traded in on a 1985 Holden Barina. I still have the bonnet and tail badges.
However, just as you never forget your first love, I never forgot my first ADO 17. Sure, it leaked enough oil to cause a wastewater problem, the CV joints spent more time knocking than not, the windows would wind down but not up, the driver's side door had rusted out and the horn magically stopped working after my driving test, never to sound again. When the staff at Stewart Martin's BMC Dealership (and BMC scrap yard) on Tapley's Hill Road called me by name within seconds of taking a call from me I knew it was time to move on. It was nearly unroadworthy by the time I got it to the car yard and drove off in a seven year-old Barina.
The years have passed, and I now have the time and also the inclination to maintain such a magnificent beast of a car. And my wife, having remembered that I had never forgotten these magnificent machines, would occasionally look around and see if there were any out there for sale.
And then in August this year, she found it. It was in excellent condition, lime green, had some factory fitted extras like the sun-visor, the somewhat rare genuine BMC transistor radio and a factory fitted reversing light. Shortly after his 40th birthday he was stripped down and fully restored, including an engine rebuild, full respray and complete re-upholstering. It was as close to showroom condition as I had ever seen any ADO 17.
Sure, it wasn't white like my first one, but it was an Austin 1800 nonetheless. So I went to inspect the vehicle, fell in love with it and had it shipped from Brisbane to Adelaide, arriving just in time for us to join the Morris Car Club and get historic registration in time for the Bay to Birdwood Classic run.
Obtaining historic registration for Mr Toad was memorable. There was confusion over the engine number, where the engine block appeared to start "15YS" but the previous registration papers from Queensland had the engine number starting "15Y5". I had to laugh when the inspector at Lonsdale asked a colleague to check the number on the block and his colleague said "It will be 15YS. That's the designator for the MGB engines when used in the Austin 1800. The Queenslander’s got it wrong!" And this was said without his colleague having to look at the engine. He just knew.
Some people must love their work!
My Second ADO17 - Mr Toad - Pictured here in October 2017 shortly after he had received the same plates that once graced Sir Thomas Sopwith.
The examiner at Lonsdale was very impressed with the state of the car and asked me why I had bought it. I replied that my wife had told me to buy it, which she had, to which he replied "lucky bastard!"
I do hear that a lot when people ask me why I bought it.
It leaks oil, every ADO 17 does, though mine is leaking from an engine overflow point and not the more common gear cable mount. Nothing serious I've been told, but something that I'll keep an eye on. So it leaves a mess wherever it goes. My wife jokes that a gravel driveway is just kitty litter for old British cars.
It has a few clunks every now and then from the CV joints, again nothing unusual. And on the run to Wellington it had some new clunks develop that I was actually able to fix when I got home by jacking up the rear passenger side, removing the tyre and drum brake cover and tightening a loose locking bolt. It was the first time I had ever done any repair work myself on either of my ADO 17's and I have to say it felt good. I had no idea of what the problem actually was, but the mechanical simplicity of the rear wheels of the ADO 17 meant that I was able to get to the source of the problem easily.
In October 2017 I applied for and was granted re-use rights for the number plates that graced my first ADO 17. So now Mr Toad carries the same plates that my first ADO 17 did, a connection across more than 30 years of my life.
So now I'm beginning to see what all the fuss of classic cars is about. The satisfaction of fixing things with your hands and simple tools. The enjoyment of manually shifting through a synchromesh equipped transmission. The connectedness one feels to the road with direct rack and pinion steering. The joy of being noticed on the road as you drive your washed and polished, chrome bumpered land- crab.
Mr Toad has no computer-moderated throttle, no constant velocity automatic transmission, no air- conditioning, no fuel injection, no power steering, no variable speed windscreen wipers, no MP3 player, no inertia reel seatbelts, no ASC braking system. Almost nothing that modern cars possess.
But what it truly lacks is blandness.
It is a joy to behold and a joy to drive, and he, my wife and I have been accepted into a group of individuals who also reject blandness and embrace the investment of time, money and love that classic cars require.