The Independent American Magazine for all Mini Owners
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mini heritage section designed a successful mass-market front- wheel-drive sports car. Even so, Enever then found some spare time, persuaded his boss (MG General Manager John Thornley) to let him allocate an official BMC ADO project number – ADO34 – to the program, had a body style worked up by two of his inventive staffers, Jim O’Neill and Denis Williams, the result being an 848cc-engined prototype that had an MG-themed front end, looked very much like a shrunken MGB (though the doors had plastic, sliding side-curtains – and that car was still secret, of course), which was finished in 1960. That open-topped car, however, was not a technical success – because it was open-topped, and not enough effort had gone into stiffening up the platform, there was apparently too much body-shell flexure – so Enever ordered that it should be cut-up, and no trace of that prototype now remains. ADO34 - Rises Again Months later, later in 1960, the ADO34 project rose from the dead, but amazingly, this time it was at Longbridge. Although Alec Issigonis was still not a supporter of the project, he allowed his deputy Jack Daniels, and Jack’s colleagues to dabble with the development of their own version of a Mini- based sports two-seater. Once again this was an 848cc-engined car, once again it had an MG grille and proposed identity (though an Austin-Healey version was also to be considered if the project should get on to the production lines), but this time the difference was that the two-seater shape was to be finalized by Farina, the Italian design house which was BMC’s official consultant stylists. What we may now call the ‘official’ ADO34 was eventually turned into a running prototype, and even went through some serious development running in 1960 and 1961, but somehow it never got to the head of the queue when it came to achieving management approval. Amazingly, however, this prototype, and a second car – a fixed-head coupe development – both survived many years of storage, and neglect, and eventually the open-top version ended up in the care of the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust at Gaydon (where the museum is situated very close to, but separate from, the corporate HQ of Jaguar-Land-Rover). Although the author has inspected ADO34 at Gaydon, it has never been made available for driving trials. Since we know that the prototype had an 848cc engine, and all-round drum brakes, we know that it cannot have been exciting to drive – cheering, perhaps, and spirit-raising for sure, but not likely to stir up too many emotions in that state. This was the original proposal, as re-worked by Pininfarina, it looked more like a Fiat and had a OHVV ÁDPER\DQW QRVH ...and a simple, but nicely detailed, cockpit. Note the use of wind-up windows in the doors and the Fiat 850-type of styling to the rear deck and taillamps. 7KLV LV D ODWHU GHULYDWLRQ RI WKH $'2 3LQLQIDULQD VW\OH QRW RQO\ ZLWK D À[HG KHDG FRXSH URRI but with an alternative front end, which might have been adopted for an ‘Austin Healey’ type. Issue 29 MC2 Magazine 53