Indholdsfortegnelse for October 2019 i Mini Magazine

I'm writing this at the end of August, and I have to say, what a month! We knew it was going to be a fittingly busy few weeks, marking the 60th Anniversary with a calendar jam packed full with events, meets and photo shoots. And despite a few glitches with the weather, it couldn't have been any better. The one thing that Mini owners do better than anyone else is mark an Anniversary - nothing gets in their way. It's not an exaggeration to say we've met people from the four corners of the globe, and in a lot of instances, they bought their Minis with them. Seeing Finnish, Chilean and Japanese registered Minis on display at the British Motor Museum in the heart of the Warwickshire countryside was slightly…

• If you have a Moke and you aren’t part of the Mini Moke Club then it’s time to pull your finger out. Not only do they run interesting events all year round (from drives to Sunday lunches and stands at all the major shows) but they are also a lovely, down-to-earth bunch and have some fascinating vehicles between them. Their most recent event was their popular Welsh Weekend, camping in Aberaeron where a great time was had by all. The club will have a stand at the Classic Car Show NEC 8th-10th November. Further information can be found on their website: www.mokeclub.org…

This year, Mini In The Park moved to Mallory Park Circuit and it proved to be a fantastic venue for the event. The setting has a strong aesthetic, fringed by expanses of green, with the action unfolding around a central lake and that magnificent track snaking around it all. The track was busy all day, giving an extra injection of interest for both racers and spectators alike. The track is visible from all of the display areas, so wherever you went on site, you felt like you were always up close to the action. There was a brilliant selection of both classic and modern cars taking to the circuit and there were a few familiar faces too, such as our regular kerbside contributor Stephen Colbran in his Mini Se7en and…

Over the past 25 years Bernie has been a member of several local Mini clubs. He thinks nothing of driving 100 miles in a Mini to attend a club meeting and talk with his mates about all things Mini related. “Many a night we sat in the Causeway Coast Hotel until two in the morning, talking Minis and sharing the craic,” he remembers, “And then I had an hour and a half or two hour drive home.” Bernie has travelled further afield in his quest to meet up with other Mini fans and chat about his favourite cars. A regular at IMM, he attends the English and Irish events and made the 1500 mile trip to Sweden in 1995. As well as the Mini social scene, Bernie has taken his…

The 1991 Mini Cooper that Andrew Kay learnt to drive in, passed his test in, and which he used for a time afterwards, was reasonably fast, quite frugal, and above all fun. Unfortunately, in daily use it didn’t prove to be very reliable. “I owned and used the Cooper from 2002 through 2003,” recalls Andrew. “I really enjoyed driving it, but the regular breakdowns began to pall. Needing a more reliable car, I bought Vauxhall Corsas, and then a couple of Honda Type Rs. But, in 2010, I saw a Mini with a Honda VTEC conversion and the old, fun Mini memories began flooding back.” “As it happened, I was considering buying a classic, something that I could use on classic runs, cruises, or take to shows and so on.…

Garage owner and motor mechanic Lionel Weager has been around Minis since the age of 17. Most have been of the traditional variety, including a number of Coopers, some of which he used to rally. Yet Lionel admits that he also has something of a passion for what he terms ‘plastic’ Minis. “Plastic Minis, the Mini-based kit cars, really appeal to me,” confesses Lionel smiling. “In fact, I had a Mini Jem when I was just 21. Its registration was CPP 50F and the first owners on the log book were Jem Marsh of Marcos fame, and his son Christopher. Wish I’d been able to hang on to that car!” Most of us probably wish that we’d been able to hang on to certain cars. Especially seeing the prices that…

When you consider that Issigonis’ apparent dislike for stylists, and his belief that form should follow function, it’s incredible that the Mini is such a style icon. Maybe it looks so right, because every aspect of its design follows on from a crucial function – take the distinctive external seams as an example. “It made a whole range of products possible in the accessory market” A new wonder material - fibreglass - had started to make an impression by the mid ‘60s. Lightweight, strong and easy to manufacture in the most complex of shapes, this new material promised much, but as the techniques were still in their infancy, quality and consistency of the products produced could be variable… Fibreglass had an immediate effect on the car industry – everything from…

Cast your minds back to 1987 if you can, when Minis were still on every street corner and few people took a second glance if one drove past. This was the year Gary bought his first Mini, a 1972 teal blue 850 saloon with a price tag of just £35! “I was serving my apprenticeship at the time and I wanted an affordable car I could work on,” Gary smiles, “all my mates were driving around in Minis back then, so it seemed a sensible choice.” That same year, Gary met his wife to be, Karen. “When we first met I told her I had a car and she thought she’d hit the jackpot,” Gary laughs. “That was until she found out I had an old Mini that wasn’t working…

• Wirral Mini Club will kick off the 2020 event season with their annual Wirral to Llandudno Run on Sunday 12th January. The run follows the North Wales coast before heading up the Great Orme, which towers over the Victorian resort. The route then drops down onto the Prom where carpark up for the afternoon near the town’s traditional pier. The sale of run plaques allowed the Club to send £1,000 to the Claire House Children’s Hospice this year. Booking is essential as numbers are limited by the space available on top of the Orme. www.WirralMinis.com…

Naoki Baba had come all the way from Japan and was keen to tell us the story of his car, which has a fascinating history. 667 GFC was a former press car, once driven by Peter Rivière in the Autocar test run around the Mediterranean in 1959. Peter was delighted to be reunited with the car and both Peter and Naoki had a lot to say about this renowned vehicle. The Mediterranean tour was a brave move in a newly launched car but despite a handful of inevitable problems (such as rear suspension cone concerns and ignition failure in wet weather) the Mini stood up well to the challenge. The four week tour covered 8197 miles, on its return it was completely stripped by the factory so that all wear…

13th-15th September Goodwood Revival The only historic race meeting to be staged in period theme, recreating the romance and glamour of motor racing as it used to be, the Goodwood Motor Circuit comes alive for Revival, both on and off the historic track. www.goodwood.co.uk 14-15th September IOW Adventure Annual trip from Southampton to Isle of Wight via Red Funnel ferries. £31 ferry deal for your Mini to travel to IOW and back for the day or the weekend. All Minis welcome, not just MCMS member’s cars. www.westcountryminis.co.uk 15 September Stanford Hall National Mini Day The Concours at Stanford will see some of the finest Minis in the country. The standards to which they are prepared are extremely high and many hours of effort and toil go into getting the cars…

Dealers and manufacturers are always amongst the first to find reasons to celebrate, and there is nothing quite as exciting as the release of an anniversary model. It may come as no surprise that the Mini saw a lot of these! First in line was the 1100 Special that came out in 1979 to celebrate the Mini’s 20th birthday, followed every five years by a brilliant series of cars... the Mini 25, 30, 35 and 40. As well as these standard anniversary cars, there were special editions to commemorate anniversaries in specific markets and the Mini Jubilee of 1975 was one of these. Dreamt up in The Netherlands this Mini was created to mark five years of British Leyland there. For BL, reaching the five mile mark didn’t exactly come…

MINI BUG 1 The original Stimson Mini Bug 1, once advertised as ‘the ugliest car around’, was claimed to be the world’s first buggy based on Mini components. Kits cost £170 and extras included a wraparound Perspex windscreen (these have been illegal for some time). The later glass screen is a must. MINI BUG 2 Announced at the 1971 Racing Car Show, the first three were actually Mini Bug 1.5s as the Mini Bug 2 wasn’t quite finished. The Bug 2’s main differences over the Bug 1 are the smoothed-out styling and lift-off one-piece front body. The price was still £170, and around half of the 160-strong production run is thought to have been exported. The Bug could have garnered even more sales, as British Leyland was interested in selling…

“We’d let the bodyshop do their job and eradicate all the rust completely” FLEXIBLE CLUTCH Q I’ve just bought a 1982 Mini City which has a 1380 MED engine fitted with a verto-type clutch, but I can’t get the clutch to work. I’ve fitted the correct pushrod but when the clutch pedal is pressed, the bracket to which the slave cylinder is attached flexes by about 20mm. I’ve tried attaching a bolt through the hole at the bottom of the plate into the clutch housing (into the hole where the throw-out stop goes) without luck. The car has stood for over two years. Could the clutch plate be sticking? I can’t find these symptoms in my Mini and Metro manuals. Karl A A part could be missing. The slave cylinder…

Having rushed to complete my red Mini Mayfair in time for an epic trip to the far reaches of the Balkan countries last year, all wasn’t well. Whether it was dodgy fuel or just a poor set-up is unclear, but despite a lengthy session on the rolling road prior to departure, I couldn’t stop the car from repeatedly covering its spark plugs in carbon. The fuelling was adjusted as best I could using the mixture screw, but I knew it needed sorting when I returned home, with fingers crossed that I hadn’t washed the bores. The rebuilt bottom end was barely 5000 miles old, but I have to confess to a rookie error. I’d simply fitted an MG Metro head that I had ‘in stock’ (albeit converted to unleaded) and…

The last Mini In The Park I attended as editor, the show was still held at Cornbury Park in Oxfordshire. The show continues to go from strength to strength, and this year – incredibly, it’s 23rd - a new venue in the shape of Mallory Park Race Circuit promised to give the event a boost. In all the years I’ve been around cars and car magazines, I’ve never visited the Leicestershire circuit. So I was delighted to find that it’s not the usual barren ex-airfield type of place you might expect, but enjoys a lot of green areas, lots of banking to give a natural arena, good hard standing for trade and show cars, and a Mini-perfect race track. It felt as if the show had come home - can’t…

• The famous Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb provided the destination for the Diamond Anniversary Mini Tour, organised by Mini Cooper Register member Jim Partridge, on Sunday 25 August - the day before the Mini’s official birthday. On a gloriously sunny day, the National Motorcycle Museum saw 42 Minis and MINIs arrive to check in and receive instructions and their road book. The new Longbridge shopping centre provided the first stop before the Minis pulled up in front of the gates of what is currently the base of MG Motor UK but, for all Mini enthusiasts, the home of the iconic car. At Shelsley Walsh, drivers joined the cars that had been arriving from the beginning of the day, with one of the highlights being interviews with Russell Brookes and ten…

Usually a June event, the National Metro & Mini Show at the British Motor Museum moved to the weekend before the IMM to encourage visitors from further afield to attend both. It worked, even attracting cars from Chile which took 8 weeks to get shipped over! One of the highlights of the day was an impressive display from the 59 Register, who provided 47 unique examples and were well deserving of the Best Club Display gong. Owners came from all over the world to be a part of it, with three cars from Denmark, one from Sweden, one from Guernsey and two from Northern Ireland. It was great to catch up with Lars Søe-Jensen, owner of the oldest surviving production line Morris whose story we told in our September issue.…

A full grid made for a terrific sight in front of a packed Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM) crowd, with two races on the Sunday following Saturday qualifying. A startline crash in the opening midmorning event saw a safety car period before the action fully got going, but thereafter Aaron Smith, Rupert Deeth and Kane Astin put on a great show for the live streaming cameras, Miglia championship leader Smith eventually getting his nose in front on his local circuit from Astin and Deeth, followed by Mark Sims and Niven Burge. The Libre battle lost class polesitter Peter Hills early, leaving Rob Davis to open out his points lead once more when Phil Harvey pitted before the chequer. In the Se7ens, Spencer Wanstall was holding a narrow lead before he spun…

ZEE CHANGE Name: Stuart Swales Car: Zeemaxed Mini • Stuart was at MITP with his family and they all had a brilliant time – they were especially keen to tell us how much they liked Mallory Park as a venue. “It’s so much better than Santa Pod. I really like it.” Stuart’s passion for his car runs so deep that he has even had it tattooed onto the back of his calf! “I always wanted a Zeemaxed Mini since I was a kid. I built this one in the shed with my Dad. It took us two and a half years. The car had no sills and no floor. We had to give it all new panels, including the roof.” “It came with an ERA body kit but I managed…

The Mini’s 60th birthday has rightfully been commemorated all over the globe, but when it came to celebrations, this was undoubtedly the daddy. Every five years, the nomadic International Mini Meeting comes to England, with team Bristol taking over hosting duties for the Mini’s diamond anniversary year. Interest was at fever pitch for this one, with representatives from a record 50 countries in attendance. People had even shipped their cars from as far afield as Chile, Hong Kong and New Zealand to be a part of it, with others covering huge distances by road. In all, almost 7500 weekend visitors passed through the gates at Washingpool Farm in Easter Compton, making it the biggest IMM in the event’s 41-year history. And that’s without the 1300 people who joined the party…

Curiosity and determination. A massively powerful pairing that has fuelled endless discoveries and goals, great and small. Like getting man on the moon, curing certain illnesses, the realisation that quaffing excessive amounts of alcohol leads to miserable mornings after… and the creation of the automobile. Rashpal Singh, inhabitant of Ipoh in Malaysia, has both in spades. He is the most enthusiastically inquisitive man I have ever met. When he first contacted me he had been given a Mini, wanted to initially restore it, then modify it a little in terms of improving the suspension and brakes so that it looked great and drove really well. Small snag - he had absolutely no mechanical or engineering background. At all. But - as already stated - he had curiosity and determination. An…

MINI SPORT VENTED BRAKE KIT £799.01 Designed to convert an existing Mini disc brake assembly this Cooper four-pot alloy caliper brake kit has been specially developed to maximise your Mini’s braking performance whether being used for road, rally or race. The 8.4 inch vented alloy caliper kit is easy to fit and can be used under any 12 or 13 inch wheels. • 01282 778731 • www.minisport.com MINI SPORT COOPER S WORKS MPI CONVERSION KIT £2,346.31 Enhance your Mini Cooper driving experience with this Mini Cooper S Works Plus Alloy 1275cc MPi conversion kit. Renowned worldwide for their sheer quality and reliability, this conversion is suitable for all twin point Coopers from 1997 onwards. Available as supply only or with the added option of having it professionally fitted by the…

There have been 24 hour races for 2CVs for nearly 30 years and about 8 years ago some Mini teams got invited as numbers were dropping off. The entry fee is around £2,400 between four drivers so for around £600 each you get around 7 hours in the car. Circuit racing costs me around £400 for an hour; Hillclimbs are around £110 for four minutes! For this year at Snetterton we were restricted to 998 engines to a very modest state of tune - a bit faster than the 602cc of the 2CVs but not that much, as surprisingly they corner well on 135 section tyres – well-lowered and don’t roll. The Mini teams are ex Mighty Mini folk in what are 90’s cars; pretty standard spec with 165 Yokahama…

Finally, after years of saving, this month I managed to put down a deposit on a garage of my own. And what a garage it is, with enough space for three Minis, or two and a car trailer plus tools. There’s definitely a lot of work ahead but it’s a long term project, and as an added bonus there’s a house attached. The Mini was first to move, followed by the contents of the previous house and garden. Huge thanks go to my parents for helping cart vans’ worth of stuff across Leicestershire over a weekend. It was quick break for Dad on his Mini City project while the paint dried. The final touch to his restoration came with a set of replacement green side stripes and City graphics, delivered…