Fine examples of the Morris Minor will descend on Graaff-Reinet from Sunday, 13 March until Thursday, 17 March for the biennial Morris Minor National Rally, this time hosted by the Gqeberha Branch of the Club.
The club was formed in Gqeberha in 1981 by Gary Dodds, with the Nationals held every two years rotating between Gqeberha, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, and Bloemfontein.
The last one hosted by Gqeberha was in 2010 whn it was held at Cape St. Francis.
The cars leave their home bases and travel from all corners of South Africa to attend the Rally. This year, we have 50 cars covering the whole range of Morris Minors, with 90 participants.
The event will be based at Profcon, who are providing the accommodation with the overspill being accommodated at the Karoo Guest House that backs onto Profcon.
Events include the Concours with judging taking palce on Monday. Other events that will take place throughout the week will be a Boot Sale, Rocker Cover Racing, driving skills and visits to the Motor Museum who will run a Peoples Choice competition for the public. In addition visits have been arranged to the Valley of Desolation, as well as Nieu-Bethesda.
The last rally in 2020, was hosted by the Western Cape Branch and held at Club Mykonos.
The Morris Minor was designed developed by Sir Alec Issigonis and first went into production in 1948. The car comes in 2 and 4 door versions as well as a Traveller (the Woody), tourer (Convertible), panel van and bakkie. Production ceased in 1972. It was the first British car to have more than a Million cars produced. At the end of the day, there were more than 1.6 million produced.
The emphasis is on participants meeting each other, discussing issue related to the mark, and generally having a good time.