I photographed a 1970 Morris Mini 850 yesterday for an upcoming auction, and took it for a drive. It was an automatic -- the first old Mini auto I've encountered. This car needed to have the idle upped, because I had to two-foot it to keep from killing it when I put it into gear. Once moving, it wasn't bad. Decent car. Not a show car, but it would make a good driver, if you are okay with an automatic. CD
In the '70's a friend and I built a Mini race car with a four speed automatic and a 1275 cc engine out of an Austin America. The transmission was modified so that it was beefier and had to be manually shifted into any gear. Older BMC front wheel drive automatics were problematic, the cases on those were painted green, later improved autos had an aluminum finish.