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Article The Mini van and Mini Pick-up are among the most unusual Minis ever produced and they do have a very loyal, if not cult, following. The Mini van was launched in 1960, it so dates to the dawn of the Mini era when the car was being seen as a serious vehicle not just as fun form of personal transport, but also as a serious commercial contender.
If you want to hit the ground running with any new vehicle, it makes sense to have a major player on board to start using (and by default advertising) your new product. Such a partner was sought and found with what we knew then as the G.P.O. Now I know that there will be some among us who do not recognise those initials but in 1960, the General Post Office was the largest employer in the UK with around 361,000 employees. They were the monopoly that delivered all the mail as well as suppling and fitting all the telephone services for the country. An outfit that large meant vans, lots and lots of vans so they would be the natural target for the home market especially as at that time, they were using some quite outdated vehicles and so they were asked to trial the prototype Mini van.
This Morris advert for the van shows how the removal of the left front seat helped to add interior load space.
Two such vans were purchased and liveried for the Telephones division in 1958 (yes 1958) and were specially adapted for use by telephone engineers working on their own on jobs where no heavy equipment was required. They were fairly spartan, but they did carry a first aid kit, and they had a Smiths heater installed which was quite unusual for the time. They were Morris Mini Minor vans but because they were completely painted in the dark olive-green livery of the G.P.O., the trademark cream grille of the Morris was covered up. The number plate was fitted below the opening rear doors which necessitated using quarter bumpers and as you will see from the pictures, the prototypes had solid rubber ones which were there to do a job. I won’t go through the non-standard modifications as they are clear to see from the pictures. The trial must have been successful because two years later in 1960, the Mini van was unleashed onto the public and by the time of their demise in 1983, some 521,494 of them had been made.
A common sight on UK roads these models were ideal for small businesses providing both economical transport as well an ideal platform for advertising on what was to become the trendiest car of the decade. And of course, being classed as a commercial vehicle, they were not subject to the sales tax as the car versions. Many were purchased for that reason but then had rear seat conversions installed with kits that were made available from the factory. They were produced in both Morris and Austin versions but in 1978, they lost the old manufacturers names becoming known simply as Mini 95, the number referring to its gross weight of 0.95 tons.
Another combined advert showing the missing seat in the van and the extending load area of the pick-up.
A year after the van was launched, the Pick-Up arrived on the scene. It’s stablemate, the van, famously had just the one seat for the driver while a second (passenger) seat could be ordered as an optional extra. Whilst this was an understandable decision for the van where space was being optimised, there was no benefit to be gained in the Pick-up by doing this because of the bulkhead that enclosed the cab prevented lengthy front-to-rear storage. What it did have though was the unlimited height and an ease of loading that no other design can offer. It did have one well known innovation from the saloon model though, the rear swinging number plate. This was attached to the drop-down tail board and, as with the saloon, it swung down when this was opened thus keeping it legal and providing an even longer load floor than the published 11 foot. Interestingly, the first brochures show the Pick-up with a full width rear bumper. I don’t know how long that lasted before being replaced by quarter bumpers, but I do not recall ever seeing one with this on the road. Maybe someone will help with some info please?
The prototype Morris Mini Minor that was trialled by the G.P.O. in 1958. The tyre pressures printed over the wheel arches are proof (if ever it were needed) that it was a commercial vehicle.
The commercials all had the fixed, perforated grilles although it was not uncommon to see these cut out and then screwed on again to allow easier access to the engine. The classic external hinges and sliding window glasses were never changed throughout the production run even though the saloon lost both in 1970 with the Mk3. Nor did they lose the single centre speedometer although the steering column stalks and the centre switch panels did benefit from the upgrades that the saloon enjoyed over the years but essentially both models remained relatively basic. Along with the Minivan, the Pick-Up was rebranded as the 95 in 1978 and also in common with the van, production ceased in 1983 by which time over 58,000 had been built. This ended a long a chapter of the Mini’s history but it is not the end to it’s story. Both variants have become extremely popular and sought after. You only have to look at the prices that they achieve when they come up for sale to realise that. I wonder if there are any out there that are still working for the purposes that they were designed, I rather suspect not but again, if you know differently, let me know.
Rear of the prototype van with the kit it needed for the G.P.O. and the solid rubber rear quarter bumpers.
On a slightly different tack, what connects a penny farthing with Abingdon? I found the answer earlier this year in July when I visited the Abingdon Works Car show at Gaydon. During a wander, I came across the odd sight of a penny farthing bicycle propped up on its own stand beside works Mini CRX88B which belongs to Chris Spennewyn.
The full width rear bumper clearly shown here. Was this for another marker area?
On the screen of the car was a monochrome picture of the same car and bicycle but this time with a slightly unsteady looking Timo Mäkinen who appears to be mounting the bike with the assistance of Stuart Turner on one side and CRX88B on the other. Fortunately, Paul Easter was on hand to explain that it was his father who had been an engineer had scratch built the bike and that the relevance of this picture is that Stuart Turner’s house was also called penny farthing. I have no idea why Rauno’s car is there nor if Timo ever mastered riding the bike, but it is a remarkable piece of history that has survived.
The Penny Farthing bicycle created by Paul Easter's father.
