Thursday 10th March 1966

The Austin 1100 Countryman and Morris 1100 Traveller estate cars were launched at the Geneva Auto Show. Externally the Morris 1100 Traveller and Austin 1100 countryman were similar apart from the Austin being fitted with the traditional eight wavy bar grille, and the Morris had eight straight bars. Internally the Morris dashboard was more adventurous than that fitted to the Austin.Throughout the life of the estate, there were some minor problems with the Hydrolastic suspension. When a load was placed in the rear, it caused the front end to rise, and the rear end to droop. Alex Moulton had been working on a revised system that would be self levelling. The Austin 1100 Countryman appeared in the Fawlty Towers episode “Gourmet Night”, in which the short-tempered owner of Fawlty Towers Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) gave it a “damn good thrashing”. This episode was first shown in October 1975.