Lot 402: Austin Riley 1.5

Riley is one of the oldest car marques. Percy Riley, together with his brothers Victor and Allan, founded the company Riley Engine Company in 1903. They also founded the Riley Motor Manufacturing Co. for car production, leaving wheel production in the Riley Cycle Co., which soon changed its name to Riley (Coventry) Ltd. After several incarnations the now named Nuffield group merged with Austin, forming BMC in 1952. The Pathfinder was succeeded by the Two-Point-Six, with BMC's C-series six-cylinder engine. The Riley One-Point-Five was really a Wolseley 1500, and the models 4/68 and 4/72 were Riley editions of the BMC Farina bodies that also were produced as Austin, Morris, Wolseley and M.G. variants. The Riley 'Mini' was called Elf and the 1100/1300 models were called Kestrel.Production of Riley ceased in 1969.The marque is now owned by the BMW company. This Austin Riley 1.5 is said to be in good all round condition, and would require little to bring it up to a very good standard. It is offered with a new MOT and plenty of history.