The Independent American Magazine for all Mini Owners
Issue link: http://mc2.epubxp.com/i/33537
mini heritage section Mini Sports Cars In Summary: ADO34 ~ There were two distinctly different prototypes: was conceived by MG engineers at Abingdon in 1959, using a lightly modified front-wheel-drive Mini 850 platform. Styled ‘in-house’ at Abingdon, with sliding-plastic side curtains. Eventually, it was scrapped. was conceived by Jack Daniels and his Mini team at Longbridge in 1960; it also used a near-standard front-wheel-drive Mini 850 platform. Styled by Farina of Italy, with wind-up windows and swivelling wing vents. The one prototype built still survives. ADO35 ~ A Farina-styled fastback coupe derivative of ADO34 was produced in 1960, reputedly with identical technical equipment. Austin-Healey and MG noses were both assessed at the early mock-up stage. One prototype, with an MG nose, survives. ADO36 ~ This was purely a ‘paper’ project, and effectively an Austin-Healey version of the MG-intended ADO34. No prototype was ever built. ADO70 ~ Conceived at Longbridge. Styled by the Austin-Rover Design Studios, and credited to Paul Hughes. One prototype was built at the Michelotti Studios, in Italy, in 1970. The project was eventually cancelled. The prototype survives. BMC’s ‘ADO’ Numbering System ‘ADO’ stood for Austin Drawing Office, and was a the prefix for almost every new model of every brand, conceived under BMC control in the 1950s and 1960s, though the numbering system was not always issued in sequence. ADO15, of course, was the famous number issued to Alec Issigonis’s famous Mini, ADO20 covered the work involved in producing the Clubman/Mk III Minis with wind- up door windows, while ADO50 refers to the Mini-Cooper family. ADO88 was the replacement Mini project of the late 1970s, which finally matured as the Mini Metro of 1980. The highest publicly known ADO number was ADO99, a non-Mini project covering a replacement for the Austin Allegro/Maxi range – this eventually became the Austin Maestro of the early 1980s. There was really no rhyme, nor reason, for the allocation of ADO numbers – although ADO34, ADO35 and ADO36 were the legendary sports car codes, ADO33 was never allocated, and ADO37 referred to the big Farina-styled Austin/Princess 3-liter saloons of 1959. Just one prototype of the ADO 70 was ever produced, at the Michelotti Studio in Italy. Years after the project was abandoned, that prototype was handed over to the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust at Gaydon, where it is sometimes exhibited. Issue 29 MC2 Magazine 55 V ersion 1 V ersion 2 The author you to David Knowles, author of MG, the Untold Stor also to Malcolm Green of Magna Press, for providing the illustrations that helped us to tell this stor , and MC2 Magazine, offer a ver y grateful t y . hank , y and