CHR 664C is the second One Point Five that I have owned. It was built at Longbridge in December 1964. Producion ceased in 1965. The Riley 1.5 (along with the slightly less powerful Wolseley version) was introduced in 1957 and was intended to be a new improved Morris Minor. Indeed the suspension and floorpan are virtually identical to the Minor. Perhaps, however, its launch ten years after the Minor had been introduced was too late for it to make a big impact. Its fifties styling was soon to be outdated by the craze for fins in the early sixties. As a result the car never sold in large numbers and about 40,000 were sold in all over the eight years of production.
As a "Classic Car" for the nineties the One Point Five is in many ways ideal. While possessing many of the characteristic that make Minors so popular, its twin carburettor 1500cc engine means it can easily keep up in modern traffic.Although performance is not staggering by today's standards it will certainly give pause for thought to those drivers who feel they have to overtake just because its old.
CHR 664C was delivered from the factory to the Henlys dealership in Bournemouth. A mystery surrounds its movements after this. It was issued with a Wiltshire registration (Bournemouth is in Dorset) on the 1st April 1965 and a years road tax paid but no owner was recorded in the logbook. Presumably it was still owned by the dealer. The car was purchased by a gentleman living in Crewkerne, Somerset on the 22nd April 1965 and was to remain in East Somerset with various owners until I purchased it in 1997. It is pictured above at the One Point Five 40th anniversary rally at Hatton in 1997.