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At on time there was a Company in Lea Bridge Road, Hackney, London that rebuilt/renovated the Minor 1000's..  They offered superb workmanship and mouthwatering cars..   L. 

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One of my son's school masters was with us on a school cricketing tour to Sri Lanka in 2001 (in my schooldays an outing from Edinburgh to Hadrian's Wall was something special). He bought a whole load of spare panels for his Morris Woody there. These panels were still available new there and very cheaply. The Minor 1000 was built in Sri Lanka for years after production ceased in the UK. Eminently suited to Sri Lankan roads, where the double strength of a chassis plus a unitary body made them as tough as old nails. The only tools you really need are a hammer, a screwdriver, an adjustable spanner and a crowbar (to lever the front torsion bar out of the way, to withdraw the locating bolts for the brake master cylinder, which sits inside the chassis rail). There was an old motor trade joke of someone looking at an elderly mechanic's left hand which was missing a number of fingers. He asked: "El Alamein?". The answer came back: "no - Morris Minor brake cylinder."

Wilson

 

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Interesting that it is referred to as the "Countryman" rather than "Traveller".  A different name for an export market maybe?  It was called the "Traveller" both in the UK and here.  I'll have to look in my Morris Minor book.

 

Anyway, here's the next one:

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I have just been flicking through Paul Skilleter's book on the Morris Minor (unfortunately it doesn't have the greatest of indexes).  No references in the book at all to the name "Countryman", other than to the Mini Countryman - a different car. I do know that there were Austin estate cars that used the name though but, once again, a different car.

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Well, that one didn't last long either - it is indeed an MG F.

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Over to a.j.z.

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Here is your next one

 

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Maybe one of those horrible Panther Lima cars, based on Vauxhall Viva HC mechanicals. A friend of mine had one and asked me if I knew what he could do about the awful handling. He was somewhat upset when I handed him a box of matches. 

Wilson

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I’m embarrassed to say that I recognise it as a Kallista rather than Lima based on the slat vents - the Lima has mesh openings....

Personally I wouldn’t have wasted a whole box of matches.

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Nigel,

I suppose the best you could say about the Lima and later Kallista, is that they probably handled better than the grotesque Panther 6 wheeler, with its twin turbocharged 500 cu.in. Cadillac engine cantilevered out behind the rear wheels. I bet it does not go round corners twice as fast as my Morgan Three Wheeler. Bonhams sold it at an auction I was at in Monaco in 2011. It actually sold for just over £40,000, which was slightly more than it cost new, so zero depreciation. 

Wilson

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I am impressed. Yes, a Panther Kallista. I had hoped that nobody would admit to know this car 😉 Your turn, Nigel.

 

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Edited by a.j.z
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I am still in the UK (since mid-March) unable to return to my home in NYC till the borders reopen so don’t have access to my photo library. As “lockdown” eases here I might be able to get another interesting vehicle or two locally....but can someone else post in my place for the meantime?

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When I was a volunteer on the local heritage railway (more than 10 years ago now) one of the guys in the diesel dept used to build Kallistas (for a short period) a long time earlier.  His "horror" stories of poor engineering standards used to make us all laugh.

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1 hour ago, Graham (G4FUJ) said:

When I was a volunteer on the local heritage railway (more than 10 years ago now) one of the guys in the diesel dept used to build Kallistas (for a short period) a long time earlier.  His "horror" stories of poor engineering standards used to make us all laugh.

Graham, 

I was told they used to take on reject staff from Lotus, TVR and Jensen 🤣

Wilson

 

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Just to keep things going, what is this one?  I mean the green car on the right:

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