The Hillman Minx 'Audax' Was Rootes Group's Superstar! (1967 1725 Automatic Road Test)
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- Опубликовано: 27 сен 2024
- Struggling against Ford and BMC on the British market, Rootes Group set their sights on international export with their new Audax platform, particularly America. Their mission began with the humble but mighty Hillman Minx and Joe took a late example for a drive to find out how it stacks up today!
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Hillmans often did handle better than you would expect. An Avenger is still so much fun to drive, a world away from a Marina.
The Series VI Minx is a very good car. We've had ours for 47 years, and before that my father-in-law had it from new. Done lots of work on it over the years and have come to appreciate how well these cars are designed and built. We also have a Mk.1 Humber Sceptre and a Series V Super Snipe, so I'm totally immersed in Rootes engineering. Recently overhauled the front suspension on the Minx and fitted it with SPAX adjustable shock absorbers which have improved the roadholding and responsiveness. Great cars.
My father purchased a new Minx in 1959 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Excellent Car, I have a 1959 Hillman Minx Special Saloon, I've rebuilt the engine, brake system, front end, just need to finish bodywork, paint and interior. Fun Car to drive. I've had mine since 1980 when I hit a deer with the other 59 minx I had. The car never left me stranded, very well built cars.
A 1963 1600cc Minx has been our everyday car now for 12 1/2 years, during which we have driven over 300,000kms! (approx. 35,000kms per year) Brilliant little car, and gives us around 12 kpl. And loads of people want to chat with you about their memories with Minxes.
Fantastic review of a great car the Rootes group made quality cars.
I had TWO alpines at the same time; fantastic car and by the late seventies, so cheap the daily car was a Mk1 and the spares car a Mk IV. The achilles heal was the gearbox, but an easy fix; so much fun... later they shoehorned a V8 in and in Tiger form, dominated racing in the US and a match for even the AC Cobra.
My first car, in Rhodesia, was a 1960 Sunbeam Rapier. Great car! Twin carbs, front discs, hardtop coupe with a Jag-like dash layout, and four-on-the-floor with Laycock electric Overdrive on third and top gears, which for a newly licensed car nut gave the pleasure of shifting with a 6 speed!
I remember they were beautiful cars 🤟🤠
The Audax arrived in 1955 with the first Sunbeam Rapier; the Minx and Singer Gazelle arrived in 1956. They were all good solid cars - the Rapier was very well regarded.
I had the pleasure to get to drive and work on them cars in my day and I loved them they where great brought back memory's to see that minx just sad Rootes went out business.
I was big fan of all there cars and owned quite a few of them 😁👍
Lovely car, i love the styling and that interior is a dream 🤩
What a beautiful little car!
I remember these from when I was four years old and loved to learn the names of the cars that drove by my grandparents' house where we lived in Cardiff New South Wales Australia!
Really enjoyed this. My dad had several and he worked for a Ford dealer back in the day! They seem very underrated and the innovation of Rootes using this platform to underpin so many different models is amazing. I like them and feel I must try one at some stage.
My mum and dad had a blue 'D' reg Minx like this, I remember bringing back my brother from hospital in it after he was born..this was the car we had before our 'M' reg, green GXL 'Life On Mars' style Cortina 👍
Nice little cars!😍😍 I grew up in Pennsylvania,USA,from 1972 until 1986,& I remember seeing a few mid 60s Hillman Minxes on the road there in the 70s,as well as late 60s& early 70s Sunbeam Rapier coupés & Sunbeam Arrow sedans/saloons(Hillman Hunters) Chrysler bought Rootes in 1967 or 1968,Icreating Chrysler UK,and killed off the Hillman/Sunbeam/Singer/Humber names by the mid to late 70s. Chrysler bought Simca of France around the same time. The first fully Chrysler UK designed & developed car was the 1970 Hillman Avenger,which they sold as a Plymouth Cricket in the USA & Canada for a few years in the early 70s. Peugeot bought Chrysler UK around 1978 or '79,and I think Simca as well. Late 70s/early 80s Hillmans & Simcas were badged as Chryslers.
First car I drove after passing my test , dad's car it was a 1965 1725 cc & as you say a great car to drive
USA here 62 years old . Another car I had as a Matchbox but never remembers seeing on the road .
Some very interesting cars that I am only vaguely familiar with. Here in the States, I was aware of the Sunbeam cars and that's about it. All in all, a nicely done video. Thanks for this one.
Really like Rootes Group cars and the Audax in particular, they are very underrated. Less brash than Ford and Vauxhall but not as pipe-and-slippers as BMC. Stoically British middle class motoring but with an appealing transatlantic twist.
Lovely colour inside and out on that far. I love cream steel wheels too. Nice dash, reminds me of Rover P6 but nicer looking. Never seen an estate before, it looks stunning, like a sexier Volvo Amazon.
I had the super minx loved that car.
They were also assembled in Australia, at Port Melbourne in Victoria.
Always wondered about them. In US saw a few still hanging in the 70's80s. Guessing a number gave their lives for Alpine parts
...a nice piece on the Audex Minx, a Rootes Group classic rarely seen here Stateside...
...unfortunately, one of the very capable British cars which gained some traction against the Rambler American and Metropolitan...but suffered from very limited dealer and service arrangements exascerbated by the Rootes Groups own financially tight bottom line...
...while these saloons and estate cars were rare, Rootes did hit a stride with the Sunbeam roadster variant; particularly the Tiger when it was featured in the popular spy spoof " Get Smart" with Don Adams as Agent 88, who drove a V8-equipped Tiger convertible...an attractive car for horsepower addicted Americans ..
...and though these Audex Minx offerings never truly challenged Vauxhall or Ford UK...it did remain true to the Rootes Groups' concept of building a superior product...
...one can only imagine the innovative cars Rootes would have produced had the marque and the company survived...
We certainly wish Rootes were still with us!
what a lovely car. wish it was mine.
The Singer Gazelle was the more upmarket version of the Hillman Minx. The next Minx from 1967 was a cheaper Hillman Hunter.
I've got a 1963 hillman husky mk2, great fun spinning about in it.
My Father had a Singer Gazelle...and Uncle had a Hillman Minx at the same time...they were always competitive 🙃...the lasting memory for my Father of his Gazelle was when I decided to hide from my sister in the boot...oops ....a lovely comfortable car from memory although the boot could have done with a pillow😂...great upload thank you and a reminder of what may have been easier time's
Singer Gazelle had twin carbs so it was relatively 'sporty' for that time
I had a '66 Singer Gazelle... loved it!
I’d never really appreciated Rootes Group cars before - I always saw them as a poor cousin to BMC/Ford/Vauxhall - and by the time I became aware of car makers in the mid 70s, Rootes had been taken over by Chrysler, and made some, well, lacklustre cars. These however, were little gems of cars, well engineered, and with that glamorous Raymond Loewy styling. I’ve come to like them a lot, and I think they were certainly a cut above the rest of the market in their day.
Correction (I’m glad I looked this up) - it was Loewy’s London office who consulted on, and worked with Rootes on the styling, not the great man himself!
I don't know where you live but here in Australia, Rootes cars were considered superior to anything offered by Ford or BMC and with their main market being mostly middle class buyers. We even got special Australia only Audax variants, one such example being the Hillman Gazelle which was an Audax Minx body fitted with the Rapier motor. The last Hillman we got in Australia was the Hunter which was a very good but highly underrated car and which was poorly marketed by Chrysler Australia.
😮My first car 1988 1964 ,did near 90mph if you waited 15 mins on a flat , had the crank starter , dimmer switch on floor ,no synchro in 1st 🙏 never let me down ,put some nice Goodyear radials and she actually went around a corner ok 👍
Getting back to my Rootes!
Does a Humber qualify?
I learned to drive in my mum's 1960 Series IIIB Minx. Rootes cars were very well made and utterly dependable little machines. In my opinion, better built than similarly priced BMC vehicles. Rootes even went to the trouble of sorting pistons and connecting rods by weight and matching them in sets, in order to produce better balanced engines. Sadly, Rootes became just another chapter in the demise of the British car industry.
My grand father owned a pre WW2 Hillman that was a really good car. Better than a Ford Or a Morris of comparable price. Rootes products post war were good and it was a tragedy when Harold Wilson sold what was left of it a mere one pound note.
I had 1.6 one I fitted a 1725 cc engine out of a Commer van I drove it all over Ireland a great car I sold it to a lady she had it for a good few years
My dad had one,MLC 512 D I learned to drive in it
I always liked the range. Smooth, torquey and easy to drive. Gear ratios were a bit odd, and the column change pattern varied from series to series. Pity about the rust though.
love one
Lovely car 👍👍👍👍👍👍
That's "OW-dax" not "OR-dax". When the car was produced, Latin was still taught.
Fascinating. My friend's father always had Hillmans. He had one. Well, they were rotters, as were most cars. My 1954 Hillman was a rotter. Never had another. I thought them as rubbish compared with other cars.
An excellent choice of bodys but the most important is not there. The lowest price, stripped post two door.
That's all really interesting. But the car was crap.
I’ve had mine for 47 years,still driving it now never let me down.
I always thought the Minx and particularly the Rapier version were damn good looking cars.
I owned a 1965 Sunbeam Tiger for a year. Super little v8 based on the Alpine. Sadly, many regarded the Alpine as a “woman’s car” but their ignorance sold them short. Great little coupe and pretty quick for its time.
For me routes cars were above BMC Ford and Vauxhall in quality .
I come from a rootes group family my father had a hillman minx wagon l owned a hillman minx and two hillman gazelles in Australia that is what they were called and l am pretty sure they were built in Australia also on the 1960s Rootes Group were the largest car manufacturers in the world
Rootes Australia built the Hillman Minx in their Port Melbourne plant, where they also produced Humber and Singer vehicles. They sometimes did a mix-'n-match with names, which is why they had the Hillman Gazelle (in the UK it was called the Singer Gazelle). After the Audax series they also built the Arrow range in Australia. This was widely known as the Hunter range. From December 1965 the plant was owned by Adelaide-based Chrysler Australia, who also produced the Dodge Phoenix (1960-73) and Mitsubishi Galant. The Port Melbourne plant operated from 1946 to 1972 when, in November of that year, the last Hunter was produced. At that point, Chrysler and Mitsubishi production was moved to Tonsley Park, Adelaide.
style a car like a studebaker, youre onto a winner....ask Rover
Got my license in a 63 Hillman minx, 4 on the tree, great little cars, very popular in Australia, Cheers Mal in au.
The reason why Rootes Group dropped the Singer name in Australia is that the early Singers had a bad reputation in Australia so they just called the Singer Gazelle the Hillman Gazelle and Singer Vouge the Humber Vouge
I was taught to drive in one of these they were a quality built car and streets ahead of the model that followed hit which was the Hillman Hunter.
Lovely old girl 👍very nice ✌️
I owned a 1956 series1 minx. It did 30 mpg, - that's rubbish. After fitting twin solex carbs it dropped to 25mpg. Even bigger rubbish, but back then you could get 4 gallons for £1. My 2003 Micra gets 50 mpg. That's good.
It puts me in mind of a 4/5 Volvo Amazon...
I've owned 2 Singer Gazelles in my younger days (4:29). I loved them.