As I wrote in my recent Maverick post, unusual cars seem to arrive on our pages in groups. This 1958 Hillman Minx Estate is just a little older than the last one we posted, but it does seem to be in nice driver condition. It’s available here on eBay and is located in (surprise) Del Rey, California. Currently it’s at $1,000 without a reserve, so this Minx will find a new owner!
Although this one is a little older, it still has the utility of the later car and is actually very similar under the skin. As you can probably tell from the pictures, the car has received a backyard quality respray; in one shot the door jamb leads me to believe this car was originally beige.
When you look at the paint closely, this isn’t the highest quality, and there’s a ripple or three. But this is a driver for sure, not a concours show queen.
Here’s the load bed. I can see my dogs back here, too, although I’d throw down a blanket or two first. I wish I could do that!
Another striking interior, although of course this can’t be original. I like it, though! It certainly looks like this car has been loved, even if it hasn’t been kept in it’s original form. How about that parking brake handle near the door? Like many British cars, the central gauge location facilitated producing the car in both right hand drive and left hand drive forms. According to the seller, the original California black plates come with the car and the bumpers have recently been rechromed.
The engine looks intact, and there are even videos of the car running and driving. This is yet another cool classic that may well end up under our “cheap” $2,500 limit. I think I’ll be following this auction; will you?
I’ve never really noticed the battery location before, pretty interesting. I really like these cars. If there was an inexpensive way to ship vehicles that would be great, although I don’t know what that would be, rail maybe? Shipping adds so much to the ultimate price of a vehicle like this.
Battery location was pretty typical of British vehicles of the period and even later. All of my Sprites and Midgets had the same location for the battery as did my mother’s Sunbeam Rapier. The Spitfires had the battery located on the right side of the firewall. When I set up those little sports for racing, I moved the batteries into the right side of the trunk/boot. My 65′ S-type Jag also has the battery on the right side of the firewall.
Charles Manson had a Hillman Minx. He abandoned it off Barham Blvd near Forest Lawn Drive.
When I was a kid, my family had a Hillman Minx sedan. It was a lot of fun, but the fan belt tensioner bracket — which, if I recall correctly, was also the generator bracket — broke regularly every 10,000 miles or so. We kept a spare in the “boot” and every time one broke, it was time to buy another spare.
After breaking one or two, why wouldn’t you make a stronger one?
Excellent, sturdy little cars. Very heavy steel, unit body, great transmissions and reliable engines. Far better than an Austin, English Ford or Triumph Herald, though possibly more boring. We never had the problem Jim Norman mentions regarding the tensioner bracket. I’d love to own this wagon.
Had a Minx IIIA sedan that I got in exchange for fixing the hydraulics to discover the trans was bad. Friend paid the bill with the title. I found s sunbeam sedan in a scrap yard and I was on my way. My wife drove it to college 20 miles each way until it was hit while parked. Fender and turn light need replacing along with bumper. Found a IIIA convertible when looking for parts. Fixed that with sedan parts, and got a few more years. Fun cars.
In 1956 my dad took mom and went shopping for a car for her, sort of, as he only showed her two cars, a Hillman estate and a Sunbeam Rapier hardtop pillarless coupe. She chose the Rapier.
It was painted in a two tone scheme of Tan and Burgundy and had the same color scheme for the interior in Kangaroo leather. The 4-speed shifter was on the column and it had the dual-carb motor. It was a pretty little car, but with about 65-Hp, it wasn’t to fast, but my mother just loved that little car.
lots of common parts with: Hillman Husky, Minx, Super Minx, Sunbeam Rapiers, Alpines, Singer Vogue and Humber Sceptre make these cars easy to maintain – or it does in the UK, but we have more rust problems.