Do we have a Mini De Luxe register?

I did a search unsuccessfully, but I always struggle with searches on the site.

I am trying to nut out how many Mini De Luxes were built.

According to the book How to get more from your car - No2 Mini Minor published by Wheels magazine in about 1970, there were 37,489 built between March 1965 and March 1969. This gives a mean average of 960 per month.

However, there are a number of problems with this figure.

Firstly, for the Mini De Luxe to be released in March, production would have to have started beforehand, at least in February or even January.

Secondly, in an interview in Wheels magazine in August 1965, only a few months after production began, BMC Australia Managing Director Bill Abbott said that BMC was at that time producing over 18,000 Minis per year, of which 90% were the Deluxe [sic]. That would give a mean average of 1,350 per month, which would equal a total of around 66,000 built.

Thirdly, How to get more from your car - No2 Mini Minor says that there were 60,188 Morris 850s built. I have always believed the Mini De Luxe was more popular than the Morris 850, in terms of sales, but of course the Morris 850 was built over 61 months, while the Mini De Luxe was built over 49 months.


I have recently received a request for dating information about a Mini De Luxe, which has a chassis number of 34,742. Given that chassis numbers started at 501, that makes it the 34,242nd one made.

If the mean average of 960 per month is correct, then that would make the car somewhere around December 1968 to January 1969.

If the average of 1,350 is correct, then the car would be around April-May 1967. A full 18 months earlier.

From the info on the car's ID plate, it was originally painted Jay Blue - this colour is only listed in the Leyland and Dulux charts as being available in 1967.

This supports the build date of the car being at least 1967, and taking all things into account it would be fair to suggest the car was built in mid-1967. This then means that the previous belief that there were only 34,742 made is probably way off the mark.

So, if we have a De Luxe register, what is the highest chassis number recorded? If we don't have such a register, maybe one should be started up, or just add any info you can to this thread.

As an aside, I think it would be a good idea that if there are any publicly available registers for any model Mini (that is if anything already exists in another thread on this forum) perhaps they could all be grouped together in a new Forum on this site. Alternatively, I know there have been a number of threads on similar lines to this one, such as the Dead Mini thread, so perhaps they could be grouped into a separate forum.

It would make this sort of research a bit easier.

Cheers,
Watto.

Dam your good at what you do Watto very impressed with how you worked that out. I now see why all your articles are so great because you go to extraordinary measures to make sure you have the right info. Top job Watto keep up the good work

I cannot help with dating but would be interested in a Deluxe register too.

I have deluxe car no. 503 and another about 1500.

keep up the good work.

cheers

Kevin

no he`s not,,, he`s not "good" at what he does at all

he`s damn-well absolutely exceptionally fantastically & amazingly stupendously good at it

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

Hi Watto, we don't have a Deluxe register. A few people have played with numbers but nothing that solves any mysteries.

They changed the wiper direction at car number 32800 which was around the middle of 68 (the same time as they changed it on the Cooper S at car 4029) so car 34,742 would have been made about two months after the changeover.

The top number for a Deluxe that I have seen is 37288 (I have a photo of the ID plate when it was on ebay)

A couple of bits on info I have from Passport to service handbooks is...
YMA2S2 19316 was sold on 24/8/66 (engine number 9YA/Ta/H20299)
YMA2S2 25766 was sold on 20/6/67 (engine number 9YA/Ta/H26769)

And a forum member owns car 210** which was sold on 10/02/1967. (car owner has requested that the full number is not posted)

I don't place any faith in the colour charts to try and date cars. I have seen cars in colours that were not listed in the books or colour charts and I have seen cars that were made a year or two after a colour was supposed to have been obsolete.
The main reference for colours and dates is the Dulux book. The main paint supplier for BMC was Berger paints.
Dulux was supplying the repair industry and it seems that they were a bit late with their info at times.

The other thing I,m interested in is the CKD 850 shells , when they stopped assembling the 850,s how many shells were left over and used to assemble other models like the Mini-Matics , De Luxes etc

.

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I have some data which may or may not be useful to someone, some is drawn from a Deluxe I wrecked a number of years ago the other is from owners handbooks I have.
Wrecked Deluxe - YMA2S2 24204 - Engine 9YA/Ta/H 25168 - colour Burgendy. I believe the car was 1967 model
Owners handbooks
Mini Moke - YJBPB1R 1702 - Engine 9YB/U/H 2201 - sold 23/8/66 in Lismore
Mini Moke - YJBAB1R 3927 - Engine 9YB/U/H 3927 - sold 1/11/67 in Lismore
Mini Van - YJBAV4R 2916 - Engine 10YJ/U/H 4009 - sold 8/6/70 in Newcastle
Mini Deluxe - 9YATAH 22026 - Engine 9YA/Ta/H 22026 - colour Special Burgendy - sold 3/12/66 at Artarmon, Sydney. Car is currently owned by president of Morris club in Newcastle I believe.
Have fun in your Mini

_________________
John Sneddon
0408 431 807
1963 Morris Cooper
1965 Morris 850
1968 Morris Cooper S

Here is a scan of the original invoice when my Mum purchased a brand new Mini Deluxe back in March 1968, the numbers may be of help to some one.
It was one a quite a few Minis the family had back in the 60's and 70's.

Mine is 22003 and is a 1966 car, going by the ignition switch date (most other diagnostic bits have been changed).

_________________
66 Deluxe, 07 Cooper

My Deluxe is 34673 which is pretty close to the number 34,742 you had the enquiry for.

Two threads below that might be of some use on the subject.
http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic ... 267#781267
http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=67874

_________________
1968 Morris Mini Deluxe - members gallery
1970 Morris Cooper S - members gallery
Mini's I grew up with
Slot car couch

I did own this one at one stage -



Supposedly a 1968 Mini Deluxe. Unsure of where it went after I sold it on Ebay.

I have two handbooks here from late De Luxe's

Both were sold in 1969.

The first one is body 34738, engine H35968. Purchase date 25/2/1969

Fate unknown.

The second one is REALLY late

Body : 37512
Engine : H38756

Purchase date 7/3/1969.

This one still exists, in bits, in a shed... somewhere

cheers,

_________________
'72 Clubman Van - 1022cc, 295 head, 731 cam - Daily Driver
'69 Morris 1100 S - Dinged by a bus, in shed under repair
'64 Morris 1100 - Early 1100, long term project

Thanks folks.

That is all useful information.

It shows that in fact the info in the Wheels book is probably correct. I would suspect they got this information from BMC at the time - well before the purge and "burning of the records".

It also shows that:

You can't always trust what you read/see in the media (like I ever did).
Car manufacturer MDs will always try to talk things up (well, that's news).
Don't always believe what you hear (there are more rumours than facts, as we know).

So, in summary, it appears there were 37,489 Mini De Luxes made, at a mean average of only 765 per month. (Sorry, I appear to have divided the total by 39 months instead of 49 months - maths is obviously not my strong point.)

Keeping in mind that production probably began in January or February, for sales to begin in March 1965 - (edit made to correct date), this is supported by the following cars:

19316 sold in August 1966 (average sales of about 1100 per month)
210** sold in February 1967 (average ~ 891 per month)
25766 sold in June 1967 (701 per month)
31795 sold in March 1968 (869 per month)
32800 was the change-over for wipers in mid-1968
34738 sold in February 1969 (713)
37512 sold in March 1969 (755)

These purchase dates would of course have been later than the build date, and would vary anyway, as some dealerships would have been selling considerably more cars than others.

I guess the production went up and down a little according to sales too, and also I recall being told by a number of people from the factory that when pressing body panels they would do three months' supply for any one model at a time, then draw from the stock as the car bodies were built. When stocks were running low they would press another three months' supply.

Apparently, stock of other items coming from various suppliers was also ordered in batches to meet production quotas. BMC Australia was a leader in "just-in-time" production methods, years before the term was coined.

Cheers,
Watto.

Watto

Are you a year out in each of the dates. I thought production/sales started in August 1965.

I did my leaving certificate in November 1965 and I remember very clearly one of my classmates turning up in his mother's brand new mini deluxe with only a couple of hundred miles on it. We were all admiring it.

Mike

Crikey, Mike. I think you made your point - or maybe you were leaning on the send button. (edit - multiple posts now deleted)

The official launch date for the Mini De Luxe was 29 March 1965.

On that day, two cars set off on a four-day Mini-Mobil test run, averaging 52.42mpg and 51.06mpg respectively. The launch of the De Luxe also coincided with the first Mini Monte rally, over the Easter long-weekend of 15-18 April 1965.

All this was reported in the April issue of BMC Rosette.

Cheers,
Watto.