National Press Preview

BMC Australia was confident that the 1100 was a good car and by the time it was due to be released locally its British counterpart (released in 1962) was setting sales records. But success in Britain does not automatically guarantee success in Australia, so BMC allocated a promotions and advertising budget reputed, at the time, to be the largest for ever a new car.

There was a 32 page newspaper supplement and a big Australia-wide dealer conference in Sydney - but the national press preview was something else!

The theme of the 3 day press preview was "Floating On Fluid" and BMC floated around 100 journalists down the Hawkesbury River aboard Halvorsen cruisers to the convention center.

The highlight was a colour film of the car's outback testing produced by Evan Green and Scott Polkinghorne. Needless to say, everybody had a very thorough understanding of what Floating On Fluid was all about by the end of the 3 days!

Of course the car received very favourable reviews and was so warmly received by the motoring public that a waiting list quickly developed.