VotW - Hydrolastic Suspension
Video of the Week

VotW – BMC’s Hydrolastic Suspension

Let’s get bumpy this week!  Our Video of the Week this time is going to be a Morris 1100 television commercial from New Zealand featuring the car’s hydrolastic suspension. Made for the New Zealand British Motor Corporation (BMC) distributor Dominion Motors. If you don’t know, hydrolastic suspension was used on early Minis and the full line of BMC 1100 / 1300 cars, collectively known by their factory designation of ADO16. The ADO16s include the MG 1100, Austin America, Morris 1100, Vanden Plas Princess 1100, Riley Kestrel, and many more. At this point, BMC was huge into badge engineering. Hydrolastic suspension cars, at least in this form, use liquid-filled dampers at each of the four wheels instead of shocks and springs. Those dampers, which are basically large heavy rubber bladders, are connected front-to-back by hoses. This means that when the front left […]

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Austin

ADO16, MG1100, Austin America

I have to admit it, I am a die-hard fan for the BMC 1100 family of cars. Say what you want about the British Motor Corporation, BMC, and its later incarnation BLMC, British Leyland Motor Corporation, these were innovative cars. This includes the MG1100 Sports Sedan, MG 1300, Austin America, Morris 1100, Vanden Plas Princess and even Wolseleys! To that end I want to call your attention to the fantastic site by my friend Todd Miller at AustinAmericaUSA.com. Not only does he have repair information, historical details, and an Austin America registry, but he also has reproduced some hard to find parts such as rubber vent window inserts. Oh, and want something really wild? He has been in personal contact with Dr. Alex Moulton, the inventor of the revolutionary hydrolastic suspension system used in these cars. Some of the emails […]