Keith Mainland - Classic Mini Specials and Moke

CLASSIC

MINI SPECIALS

AND MOKE

OTHER TITLES IN THE CROWOOD AUTOCLASSICS SERIES

AC COBRA Brian Laban

ALFA ROMEO 916 GTV AND SPIDER Robert Foskett

ALFA ROMEO SPIDER John Tipler

ASTON MARTIN DB4, DB5 & DB6 Jonathan Wood

ASTON MARTIN DB7 Andrew Noakes

ASTON MARTIN V8 William presland

AUDI QUATTRO Laurence Meredith

AUSTIN HEALEY Graham Robson

BMW M3 James Taylor

BMW 5 SERIES James Taylor

BMW CLASSIC COUPS James Taylor

CITRON DS SERIES John pressnell

FERRARI 308, 328 AND 348 Robert Foskett

FORD ESCORT RS Graham Robson

FROGEYE SPRITE John Baggott

JAGUAR E-TYPE Jonathan Wood

JAGUAR XK8 Graham Robson

JENSEN INTERCEPTOR John Tipler

JOWETT JAVELIN AND JUPITER Geoff Mcauley & Edmund Nankivell

LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH Peter Dron

LAND ROVER DEFENDER, 90 AND 110 RANGE James Taylor

LOTUS ELAN Matthew Vale

MGA David G. Styles

MGB Brian Laban

MGF AND TF David Knowles

MGT-SERIES Graham Robson

MAZDA MX-5 Antony Ingram

MERCEDES-BENZCARS OF THE 1990S James Taylor

MERCEDES-BENZ FINTAIL MODELS Brian Long

MERCEDES-BENZ S-CLASS James Taylor

MERCEDES-BENZ W124 James Taylor

MERCEDES SL SERIES Andrew Noakes

MERCEDES W113 Myles Kornblatt

MORGAN 4/4 Michael Palmer

MORGAN THREE-WHEELER Peter Miller

PEUGEOT 205 Adam Sloman

PORSCHE CARRERA THE AIR-COOLED ERA Johnny Tipler

RELIANT THREE-WHEELERS John Wilson-Hall

RILEY RM John Price-Williams

ROVER 75 AND MG ZT James Taylor

ROVER P5 & P5B James Taylor

SAAB 99 & 900 Lance Cole

SUBARU IMPREZA WRX AND WRX STI James Taylor

SUNBEAM ALPINE AND TIGER Graham Robson

TRIUMPH SPITFIRE & GT6 Richard Dredge

TRIUMPH TR7 David Knowles

VOLKSWAGEN GOLF GTI James Richardson

VOLVO P1800 David G.Styles

CLASSIC

MINI SPECIALS

AND MOKE

KEITH MAINLAND

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2015 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2015

Keith Mainland 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 002 7

Every reasonable effort has been made to trace and credit illustration copyright holders. If you own the copyright to an image appearing in this book and have not been credited, please contact the publisher, who will be pleased to add a credit in any future edition.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

I have a passion for Minis that the previous owner of Wood & Pickett (WP) recognized when he stipulated my involvement in the future of the company. Actually, I only see myself as the current custodian of WP because I believe the business has a longevity that will outlast me. I also see the charismatic founders, Bill Wood and Les Pickett, as the people who really gave WP its personality when they moved out of Woods front room to join the coachbuilding community in Abbey Road, Park Royal in London.

Despite WP probably being best known for Clubmanbased cars, my real passion is for round-nosed Minis and that is what I have tended to collect since making Minis my day job. Of my collection, my own favourites are an early 1960 Morris Mini Minor in Clipper Blue that has many prototype features and my British Motor Heritage-built pickup with concealed door hinges, slightly longer cabin, Cooper S running gear and SPI engine. Two very different Minis that both put a big grin on my face.

If you dont know the Minis story, or even if you do, this book has a wealth of information about the incredibly varied range of vehicles that the Mini has become since it was launched in 1959 using the magic word Issigonis. Most of us who are addicted to Minis have our own fantasy garage of at least half a dozen Minis we would like to own and, looking through this book, I have realized I really ought to have a Minisprint!

Happy reading,

Michael Standring

Custodian

Wood & Pickett Mini Centre Ltd

INTRODUCTION

My real interest in Minis is quite a recent thing, even though the Mini was well represented in my childhood collection of Corgi and Dinky toys. Our family cars were the larger BMC saloons that my father needed for business, but a friends mother used to cram about eight of us into her 1965 Morris Mini when she picked us up from school on Scotlands frequent rainy days.

As a reader of CAR magazine from age ten, I learnt more about the exciting foreign cars of the late 1960s and early 1970s until a group of cool students in my home town prepared an orange and black Mini for the Players No.6 Autocross Championship. My family used to go to watch them compete in frantic, muddy races around fields in Lanarkshire and Ayrshire, as well as going to Blythswood Square for the Glasgow start of the Monte Carlo Rally and the International Scottish Rally. So I was there in 1970 when Paddy Hopkirk gave the Mini its last International outing on the Scottish Rally.

My first job was in a Fiat garage and I drove many Fiat 127 superminis, but the car I actually bought when I left the motor trade in the late 1970s was a Teal Blue 1974 Mini 1000. The Mini had rust in common with my Fiats and was nowhere near as civilized, but the steering on 10in wheels and the lift-off oversteer were a revelation. I eventually sold it to my brother to replace his 1972 Clubman.

Fast-forward forty years and my wife and I are buying our first car, a BMW MINI. Angelica would really rather have a proper Mini (as well!), so we start looking around to see what we can afford. This research and coming across Minisprints got me hooked and led to me writing this book, as well as building a Neville Trickett Mini-sprint. My trips around the Midlands and South East England as well as the Northerm and Southern Ireland to gather information for this book have been great fun.

I want to say a special thank you to my cousins, the Allports, and Hugo and Rosemary Cowan for putting me in touch with some very special Minis, and finally to my wife Angelica for sharing my enthusiasm for cars and hers for the Mini.

Could be my first Mini. One careful owner, probably not the others. SUE GORDON-SMITH

CHAPTER ONE

A MINI HISTORY

By the time the last classic Mini left the production line at Longbridge in 2000, BMW was already busy investing in its Oxford plant to produce the new MINI. Longbridge is synonymous with Mini production, from the first Austin Se7en through to the final Rover Cooper Sport. The Mini launch declared the Morris Wizardry on Wheels and the incredible Austin Se7en. The end of production was equally carefully stage-managed as the last Mini produced was actually dark blue, but the Rover Cooper Sport given that accolade and presented to the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust is red, because it was felt to be the most fitting colour for such an important Mini.