Classic Mini Specials and Moke E-Book

Keith Mainland

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Produced from 1959 until 2000, the classic Mini is loved by millions of owners, previous owners and enthusiasts. The Mini's creator, Alec Issigonis, was given a free hand to make a proper small car and his innovative design not only redefined the family car, but also started a revolution as a performance car. Classic Mini Specials and Moke explores the diverse range of vehicles that used the Mini shape, as well as the only variation actually designed by Alec Issigonis, the Mini Moke. In addition to the famous race and rally cars, coachbuilt conversions and highly modified saloons and commercials, Keith Mainland looks at overseas Mini and Moke production and the many factory-produced limited edition Minis. There is also advice about buying and owning your own special Mini.

Leseprobe

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

Introduction

CHAPTER 1A MINI HISTORY

CHAPTER 2RALLYING AND RACING CARS

CHAPTER 3FACTORY SPECIALS AND PROTOTYPES

CHAPTER 4AFTERMARKET PERSONALIZATION AND SPECIALS

CHAPTER 5MINI COMMERCIALS

CHAPTER 6MINI MOKE

CHAPTER 7OVERSEAS MINIS AND SPECIALS

CHAPTER 8BUYING AND ENJOYING YOUR OWN SPECIAL MINI

Index

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 Wood’s 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 don’t know the Mini’s 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 friend’s mother used to cram about eight of us into her 1965 Morris Mini when she picked us up from school on Scotland’s 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.

The Morris Mini Minor was described as ‘Wizardry on Wheels’ and revealed at the launch by a magician using the magic word ‘Issigonis’.BMIHT

The Austin was launched as ‘The Incredible Austin Se7en’, with some justification looking at what was supposed to fit into it.BMIHT

The final production figure for the Mini from its introduction on 26 August 1959 until 4 October 2000 was 5,387,862. This is not a huge number compared to 16.5m Model T Fords between 1908–27, or over 21.5m VW Beetles between 1938–2003, but what sets the Mini apart is the number of different versions of the little car. From practical saloons, estates and commercials to the more upmarket Elf/Hornet and Clubman, the sporty Cooper and the trendy Moke, the variety of factory-built Minis for different markets and trends has always been a factor in the car’s global appeal. Overseas factories helped the Mini’s global appeal and it was built in Australia, Belgium, Chile, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malta, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela. Despite a warm press reception, the Mini never conquered the United States, perhaps because it is likely that ‘size mattered’ more in the USA in those days.

The last Minis come off the production line at Longbridge on 4 October 2000.BMIHT

PROBLEM PARENTS

The Mini was conceived by the British Motor Corporation (BMC), a conglomerate of Austin, Morris, MG, Riley and Wolseley formed in 1952. In 1966, BMC became part of British Motor Holdings, which in turn merged with Leyland Motors in 1968 to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC). The Mini got its independence at BLMC in 1969 when, aged ten, it became a brand in its own right.