Random # 53: Mini Estate ('Traveller')

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Sadly, this classic sliding-window Mini estate has seen better days but, on the positive side, it's still on the road and its B-reg designation suggests that it's not been that long since it passed a roadworthy.  It is probably a Morris, rather than an Austin version, as far fewer of the latter made it to Australian shores.  


Mini estates - or, as they're also known in the UK, Travellers or Countrymans - weren't common here in Oz, either.  We did, however, see large numbers of Mini sedans, vans and Mokes, as well as some rarer Speedwell editions, plus a few Wolseley and Riley variants.


According to the UK-based Mini Traveller and Countryman Register (http://www.minitravellerandcountrymanregister.org), all Morris steel-sided and 'Woody' estates were given the Traveller designation, while their all-but identical Austin cousins - in either guise - were called Countrymans.  Being steel-sided or wood-embellished therefore has nothing to do with the naming convention, as it is commonly believed.







U M P H

 (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au .)

 All iPhone images.

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