Innehållsförteckning för March 2022 från Mini Magazine

We all love a turbo. The mischief of bolting in what is effectively a metal sculpture of a cartoon snail to make your car faster and angrier really does the business for us. But for this month’s cover we’ve decided to make some time for the turbo’s partner-in-crime in the forced induction strata: the supercharger. This magical little box, mechanically driven by a belt or chain from your engine’s crankshaft, exists to suck in air, compress it, then force it into the engine like some devastatingly potent wind. Net result? Loads more horsepower, the process feeding into the initial stage of your motor’s own suck-squeeze-bang-blow cycle. It’s endearingly simple in principle. Shove in more air, add a bit more fuel, and you’ve got more power, combined with a hilarious whining…

The trajectory of the Mini’s popularity runs in parallel with Britt Eklund’s movie career, each growing in stature through the 1960s and ’70s. Eklund’s then-husband Peter Sellers introduced her to the genius of the Issigonis design back in 1964, and it’s clearly an affection that endured through the ages, as she bought the Cooper Sport you see here in 2000. A late-production car in Solar Red with a full-length sunroof, she’s been the Mini’s only owner from new and has put 44,500 miles on the clock. Eklund decided at the end of last year that it was time to finally part with the Cooper Sport, and entered it into Classic Car Auctions’ December sale at Stoneleigh Park. And the selling price? The fact that it’s a low-mileage example of a…

The idea of a concours d’elegance isn’t for everyone – some enthusiasts would far rather amble among home-built projects with endearing patina and oily smears than obsess over whether all the screwheads are pointing the right way – but it’s undeniable that a stroll among some pristine and gleaming classics is a thoroughly pleasant way to pass the day. And the dates have now been announced for two of our favourite concours events on the UK calendar: the London Concours is set to take place once again at the Honourable Artillery Company in London on June 28th-30th, and the Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace is scheduled for 2nd-4th September. While these aren’t solely Mini events, there are always Minis to enjoy – and what better way to do…

Due to the uncertainty surrounding Covid, please be aware that events are subject to change. Keep an eye on the organisers’ websites to stay up to date with any developments. ■ 30th January Mini Fair Fantastic event at Bingley Hall, Staffordshire County Showground. Perfect shopping day out for Mini fans due to the large amount of Mini-specific traders and autojumblers. Plus, club stands and British Mini Club’s Show ‘n’ Shine and Premier Concours final. www.britishminiclub.co.uk ■ 17th February Brooklands – An Evening with Paddy Hopkirk The iconic motorsport venue will host an evening with the archetypal Mini legend – get your tickets early! www.brooklandsmuseum.com ■ 18th-20th February Race Retro One of the UK’s premier events for fans of machines that slide about in mud, Race Retro never disappoints with its…

Jake Kane was just 15 when he began working on this 1984 Mini Mayfair and, in reality, he didn’t know what he’d let himself in for. What was initially expected to be an easy and straightforward project quickly turned into a full bare metal restoration. Eleven years down the line, Jake continues to make progress and attention has recently turned to rebuilding the 1275cc engine. “It’s taken an age to work my way through all the welding,” he tells us. “I’ve had to rectify some mistakes I made early on.” What’s most remarkable about this project is that Jake has managed to accomplish all the work himself, learning and building up confidence as he goes along. From stripping the shell down through to all the tricky welding jobs and aligning…

Luke Spencer’s involvement with Minis may have begun with a modern BMW version thanks to a bizarre chance meeting, but recently he’s made the switch and graduated to the classic Mini scene. His 2000 Rover Mini Cooper Sportspack arrived directly from Japan, meaning there was little in the way of rust issues to sort, but that just meant he could spend his remaining budget on some cool and unusual modifications instead! Aged 17, Luke worked as an apprentice electrician, and a random chain of events one day ended up having a significant impact on his life. “I was up a ladder fixing a light outside a kebab shop; the owner was leaning against a silver BMW MINI watching me at work,” he remembers. “Suddenly the owner of the MINI appeared…

As well as films and fashion, the Mini has always been a big part of the art world. One of my favourite genres of automobiles in popular culture is the art car. In fact I would go so far as to say that art cars are my obsession; I honestly can’t think of a better alliance. Consequently this month’s Mini in the spotlight is the embodiment of a custom car and the perfect example of an art car; ‘Untitled’, or more widely known as ‘Spot Mini’, by the legendary contemporary artist Damien Hirst. Britain’s most notorious living artist, Hirst dominated the art world in the 1990s. Deliberately provocative, wonderfully imaginative and absolutely unforgettable, Damien won the coveted Turner Prize and became an integral part of the Brit It Crowd. Probably…

HEAD MASTER Q I’m thinking about buying a bespoke cylinder head for my road Mini. I’m using this car frequently on long trips, so reliability is essential. If I’m right the modifications on these heads include narrowing the valve seats for better flow. Does this mean the head needs to be removed frequently and have the seats re-lapped? Alan P A Fitting a modified cylinder head should not affect the reliability of the car in any way providing your chosen vendor sells you a suitable specification head for your application. The valve seats tend to be made narrower than the mile-wide standard ones, but this does not make them any less durable. They only need to be as wide as the seat on the valve, or maybe a smidgen wider.…

The concept of the mashup – that is, creating new songs by blending existing songs together – reached its zenith in 2001. It’s an established and vintage formula of course, stretching right back to the dawn of music itself, and touching down over the generations on such luminaries as Frank Zappa, John Oswald and Negativland, before enjoying a startling renaissance at the turn of the millennium. The ethos was given a label in the mid-eighties when David Quantick decreed in the NME that the cyclical recycling of ideas meant that ultimately pop will eat itself (a certain band took their name from this – see if you can guess which one…), and it all came to a head when 2manydjs released their first legal mashup album, the iconic ‘As Heard…

The ever-present spectre of Covid-19 continued to stalk through the automotive scene through 2021, but thankfully the Mini Sport Cup still enjoyed a pretty decent turnout at each of its events across last year’s calendar. Things really hotted up toward the end of the season; there was a close battle for the championship, with it all coming down to the final round at Glyn Memorial Stages at the end of November. Ultimate honours went to Clive King and Anton Bird, taking the trophy for first place overall, and there were a host of other trophy-winners too: Shane Gamble and Bob Ward took first place in Category 1, Andrew O’Hanlon and Kevin Hogan in Category 2, and Peter Ellerby in Class B2. Harvey Stevens and Lawrence Selly were victorious in Class…

As part of its MINI Electric partnership with Earthwatch Europe, MINI has planted a further ten ‘Tiny Forests’ across the UK. The idea is to boost biodiversity in urban areas, and create accessible green space for communities to reconnect with nature. In December the latest MINI Tiny Forest was planted at NHS Littlemore Mental Health Hospital, near MINI Plant Oxford, in partnership with Green Templeton College and the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare; young apprentices from the plant and patients from the hospital helped to plant the 600 densely-packed native trees, plants and ground cover, which should attract hundreds of new animal and plant species over the coming years. Louise Hartley, Tiny Forest Programme Manager at Earthwatch Europe, said “Tiny Forests provide rich opportunities for connecting young and old alike with…

There have been interesting rumblings emanating from Bicester in recent years, as its former WW2 RAF bomber training station pivots to become Britain’s leading hub for historic motoring and engineering. Bicester Heritage has made a name for itself as much for its popular Scramble events as for the myriad specialist businesses on site, and an offshoot of this is the new Scramblers club. This burgeoning collective, which is free to join, is something its organisers see as an active membership: they want members to feel involved and to have a voice in the club, and each month they’ll be coming up with a theme culminating in an exclusive ‘Scramblers Assembly’ event. These assemblies are held in association with the on-site brewery Wriggly Monkey and are only available to members -…

There’s a point somewhere in our collective sphere of consciousness at which art and science collide, blurring the lines between what is artfully scientific and what’s scientifically artistic. Look at fractals and Mandelbrot sets, or the twisted physics of M.C. Escher’s lithographs, or da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. The periodic table of elements has a functional artistry to it. You might even argue that it’s impossible for science to exist without art, and vice versa. And so it is with this Mini. The aesthetics may be subtle but these still waters run deep; there’s a crisp cleanness to the manner in which it presents itself, a beautiful simplicity that will appeal keenly to a certain type of enthusiast. But what we’re looking at here is a bit of a sleeper. A…

When the Mini exploded onto the world stage in 1959, it achieved that rarest of all car marketeer’s dreams: classlessness. Irrespective of which model you’d ordered, it looked as good parked outside Harrods as it did the local paper shop. It cut the same dash at Newmarket as it did at the supermarket. It was as suitable for a Lord as it was scrimped and saved on the ‘never-never’ for your nan. This truly was a car for the people, no matter where they stood on the socioeconomic ladder. This was all very well, of course, until a select number of those fortunate enough to be nearer the top of said ladder decided they’d rather like theirs to look a bit more special than the ones they’d seen parked outside…

The next step in the electrification of MINIs is due to come sooner than expected, with the first wave scheduled to arrive in 2023. That’s when we’ll be seeing an all-new and all-electric 3-door hatch, and you can see from these prototype images that the key design features of the new-era MINIs will be retained, such as the floating roof, frameless glass and friendly round-rimmed headlights. Interestingly it looks like the model will be shrinking a little too – perhaps not quite down to original R50 size, but certainly more compact than the current hatchback with markedly shorter overhangs. Does this mean that it’ll have that characterful wheelat-each-corner handling? We certainly hope so. The new EVs will be built at the Oxford plant, and the really exciting news is that…

VAN WILDER Sale price: £22,750 Photos: Car & Classic ■ This kind of restoration is very much our cup of tea. It might look like a regular old-school load-lugger that wheezes along on the gentle breeze created by its 848cc motor, but there’s actually some pretty fiery stuff going on behind the scenes. This pint-sized commercial is secretly hiding the guts of a Cooper S under the skin! The story goes that after a long life of service and ten different owners, the van found itself unceremoniously dumped in a scrapyard in 2019, bleakly awaiting the sweet embrace of the reaper. But then a hero stepped into the arena, cape flapping in the wind, keen to save the van and create something exciting. Having restored several Minis before he knew…

SUVs are everywhere these days, aren’t they? It used to be the case that if you wanted a practical family car, you got a three-box saloon. If you wanted a practical family car and you also had a dog, you got an estate. But these days? The default is to get a colossal road goliath, something ludicrously large designed to keep your family safe by simply ploughing through anything that appears in its path should the necessity arise. Interestingly, however, there is precedent for these modern SUVs in some pretty intriguing classics. The Jeep Wagoneer, for example, predated by some margin Range Rover’s idea of turning off-roaders into luxury cars. The Matra Rancho brought chunky plastic-clad off-roader style within a more affordable price bracket. And then there was the Minus…

ISSUE 309 DECEMBER 2020 MKI RETRO RACER K-ENGINED CLUBBY MINT CABRIOLET MODDED MINIVAN ISSUE 310 JANUARY 2021 KITTED VTEC INJECTED MINIVAN CARBON HILLCLIMBER RALLY INSPIRED MKI ISSUE 311 FEBRUARY 2021 TWIN R1 ENGINED ‘Z’ K-SERIES CLUBMAN SUPERCHARGED 998 IMPORTING MINIS ISSUE 312 MARCH 2021 HYDRAULIC’D 1380 1600 VAUX ENGINED GOODWOOD HORNET WINGED CUSTOM ISSUE 313 APRIL 2021 TRICK STREET RACER RALLY INSPIRED 1340 RETRO SALOON COOPER SPORT 5 ISSUE 314 MAY 2021 140 BHP SPORT HIGH SPEC COOPER BREWER’S COOP FINAL CUSTOM PICKUP JUNE 2021 ISSUE 315 LUXE MPi PICKUP TYPE R CLUBMAN WOLSELEY 1000 COOPER & TRAILER ISSUE 316 JULY 2021 RACE CLUBMAN ESTATE K-SERIES STREETER JC’S COOPER S MINI MARCOS MKVI ISSUE 317 AUGUST 2021 HAYABUSA Z CAR ROAD RALLY SDL STREET RACER BEAULIEU REPORT ISSUE 318 SEPTEMBER…

There’s probably a certain type of car that springs to mind when younger fans hear the word ‘Knightsbridge’ – Bugatti Chirons, Lamborghini Aventadors, Porsche 918 Spyders, rarefied hypercars slithering past Harrod’s at look-at-me speeds as flames lick from the tailpipes. But to an older generation, the SW1 postcode will always be characterised most colourfully by the Mini, and it’s this old-timey nostalgia that the suits at HQ sought to evoke with this new-for-the-new-millennium special, the Mini Knightsbridge. Offering a heady mix of classy appointments and sporting prowess, this special edition – launched in March 2000 – was a sort of last hurrah for the platform, taking the already impressive Cooper Sport and ramping up the fanciness. Exterior colour options comprised British Racing Green, Black, or Sienna Gold, while interiors came…

We sometimes feature some fairly outrageous cars in this magazine. You might have noticed. There’s a lot of enormously skilled people out there whose proclivities verge on just the wrong side of utter lunacy, and that’s a very good thing indeed for the retro car scene. But, of course, we don’t all ride unicorns to work and feast on ethereal mead and moonbeams – most of us, whether we like it or not, have to live in the real world. And the real world sucks. It’s full of tax bills, low-battery warnings, speed humps, and germs. So we just have to make the best of it, don’t we? But before you pour yourself a double and start shaking your fist at the sky at the futility of it all, let’s…

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