1,000,000th

2011 is the 50th Anniversary of the Minor Million.

The production of the Minor Million in 1961 was the first time that production of a British car had passed the one million mark - a landmark not only for the British Motor Corporation, but for the British motor industry more widely. Naturally the BMC wanted to mark the occasion and use it to gain maximum publicity and sales advantage. The strategy worked and the Minor Million received widespread coverage in the motoring press and national newspapers.

The actual production of the millionth car and 349 replicas was at the end of 1960, running thru November and December. The 1,000,000th car was assembled on December 22nd, but the cars didn't go on sale until the following year with the formal launch of the Minor Million taking place an 4th January 1961.

The lilac colour is down to the publicity department reponsible for securing maximum publicity for the millionth moggy. The BMC management were invited to view a number of cars painted in bright vibrant colours: yellow, pink, lime green,orange and of course, lilac. They had tried silver and gold but the finish was unreliable and couldn't be guaranteed to last longer than 6 months. However, the management team could only decide that it shouldn't be orange, so the final decision was left to a member of the publicity team. He chose lilac and that would have been my choice too.

Of the 350, 70 Millions are known to have survived, tho not all of them are roadworthy - I can only dream of owning one myself ( and do! ). For now I can just gaze lovingly at the replica model Sav gave me a couple of years ago that sits on top of our telly.