If you have not seen a Riley Elf before you would swear someone has taken it upon themselves to weld a boot onto a Mini - and the end result is, well, a bit amateurish. These are commonly known as a `booted Mini’ and were produced by BMC for Wolseley and Riley to capitalise on the success of the Morris Mini. Wolseley and Riley were upmarket divisions of BMC. Our featured car is a 1969 Riley Elf Mk 111.
These were not sold in Australia although we know a few have been privately imported, and we found this one in New Zealand where they are more common. Now, you may think your correspondent spends his time combing car parks looking for classic cars, but that is not the case. If, however, we do happen to be in a car park and spot an interesting car - and the camera is handy - will take a few obligatory snaps, as we have done here. We do plead guilty to spotting this lovely Riley Elf in a car park at Huka Falls, near Taupo in New Zealand’s North Island.
The Riley Elf was the more expensive of the two booted Minis, the other being called the Wolseley Hornet. The two cars were similar, but the Riley Elf featured a full-width timber dash panel. While the Mini had a wide, horizontal grille, the Riley and Wolseley both featured a vertical grille, in keeping with each makers traditional face. Both the Riley and the Wolseley had splashes of extra chrome.
The ‘Elf’ name recalled the 1930s Riley Sprite and Imp light sports cars. The Hornet name was originally used on a 1930s Wolseley with both brands doing what they could to give the heavily facelifted Mini some historic connection to these individual brands. Under each facade the Riley Elf and Wolseley Hornet were mechanically identical during their 1961-69 lifetime.
During their lifespan the cars were facelifted twice giving three versions. Our featured car is the last of those incarnations, the Mark 111. Originally they came out with a 848 cc engine, updating to a single carburettor version of the Morris Cooper 998 cc engine in the Mark 11 in 1963. In 1966 the Mark 111 facelift saw wind-up windows and fresh-air dashboard vents added. The exterior was given a cleaner appearance with concealed door hinges, around two years before the Morris Mini received the same treatment.
Both the Riley and the Wolseley proved popular with buyers and 30,912 Rileys and 28,455 Wolseleys were built. Along with the Cooper S, Cooper the Riley Elf and Wolseley Hornet were the most profitable in the whole Mini stable. The car that started it all, the basic Mini struggled to ever turn a profit, so sharp was the pricing. In retrospect BMC failed to capitalise on the popularity of the Mini by under-pricing the car.
The Riley Elf and Wolseley Hornet took the ‘two box’ shape of the Sir Alex Issigonis-designed Mini and essentially added a third box, the boot. This was a more traditional shape, although, as mentioned earlier, it was hardly a Mona Lisa in appearance. What it did do was give the car some practicality. You could actually carry four passengers - and some luggage.
While the Mini always had a ‘sporty’ shape the booted Mini was a far more conservative car, certainly befitting the Wolseley name. Riley always had a sporting edge to it’s cars and the front of the Elf is in keeping with that heritage.
The Mini was only beaten by the Ford Model-T as the car of the Century. It was a remarkable vehicle that changed the direction of the car industry, popularising front wheel drive, clever use of space, performance, handling and not least of all in 1959 when it was introduced, took car design into the new age. The booted Mini was just one of a number of spin-offs from the original design, others including the Traveller and Countryman, the Van, Pick-up and the Australian-favourite the Mini Moke.
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