Bitten by the Bison (8)

It's been over a year since we heard from our mystery restorer, working on the one and only CJC Bison, better known as the Mini Lamborghini (click here for his previous adventures). As a matter of fact things didn't look good for a while. I received a message earlier this Spring: "If you fancy a nice project, I am thinking of selling the Bison – less the engine and gearbox. The grp dust is playing havoc with my eczema (indeed my skin specialist thinks it may have been the trigger for it). It would do you perfect, super rare!" I answered in shock that I believed it wasn't a good idea and - to my own surprise - he listened! He dropped me a line earlier this week with the happy heading 'Mojo returned!'. It said: "I've bought a new spraygun so I could paint the side of my Mk1 Cooper S. That went okay, and I was bored on Sunday, plus it was a reasonable day. So… Just a single solid colour has made me cheer up about it. It needs a colour sand and probably a final quick pass over coat, but all the awkward bits and the edges are done." He made my day. Keep up the spirit pal!

Work is resumed on the restoration of the CJC Bison. The body is finished now

And with a first layer of fresh paint it is beginning to look like a car once again!

Mystery Mini derivative (33)

You know Mini derivatives are everywhere, but this Mini based mystery motor was the last thing I expected to bump into while on holiday in southern France last week. It is, however, exactly what happened. I spent some time there on the Cote d'Azur where you see many Mini Mokes zooming around, and spotted this cheeky little tangarine thing in the town of Ramatuelle, not far from Saint-Tropez. Parked in between dull euroboxes it is clearly very different to a Moke. I have no clue at all what it could be as it doesn't look like one of the many other Mock-Mokes that I have come across so far. I do quite like it though, including the very neat interior it came with, trimmed in the colour of the hood. When I returned later it was still there, with no sign of its owner. Now, who can throw a light on it?

British registration is of 1963 and classifies it as a Mini Moke, which it clearly isn't

Picture Jeroen Booij

It's slab sided and all very simple, but built and detailing appear to be very good

Picture Jeroen Booij

There's a somewhat strange looking offset between bonnet and the rest of the body

Picture Jeroen Booij

I saw many Mini Mokes on and around the Cote d'Azur, but what on earth is this?

Picture Jeroen Booij

UPDATE 14 May 2013:
Mick Davey wrote: "I bought this car for my wife in 2002 and understood it was built for RAF Culdrose with a view to throwing it out of the back of a plane. It looked quite different when we first got it - no hood and a different screen surround... We sold it quite a few years ago - surprised to see it is still on the road... As far as I know, it was a one-off, built from a Mk1 Mini, spending most of its life in Cornwall. The log book states it is a Mini Moke, registered in 1963 (I do have a copy of the log book somewhere in the house) but Mokes date from 1964, so yet another mystery surfaces. I named it Mini Poke just to be awkward." Thanks Mick!

Was the 'Mini Poke' built for army purposes? One former owner says so

Picture courtesy Mick Davey

Another reader remembers it being previously green. Davey says it was red when he bought it

Picture courtesy Mick Davey

Low slung Swedish special: the Holmbarth

Not much is known about this car - a Swedish racing special with Mini or Mini Cooper power that Peter Camping found out about. It's known as the BMC Holmbarth 1100, which suggests it was equiped with an 1100 engine. The car was offered for sale in April 1970 through an ad in 'Sportvagnen och Vi' - the magazine of the Stockholm Sports Car Club. Seller was one Eriksson - there have to be more of these in Sweden - who offered it for sale for 6,500 Swedish crowns at the time. The only extra information he added to that was that it used a 10.5:1 compression and that it did the quarter mile in 14.5 seconds. Bjorn Bellander, who came past here once or twice before says he knew about the car "But the Holmbart never succeeded in racing and I never saw it on the track."

Swedish Mini powered Holmbart Special was as low as it could get. Does it survive?

Picture courtesy Sportvagnen och Vi / Peter Camping

Do we see twin SUs poking through there? 'Till Salu' sign means that it's for sale

Picture courtesy Sportvagnen och Vi / Peter Camping

The car was offered for sale in April 1970 but there the track appears to end

Picture courtesy Sportvagnen och Vi / Peter Camping

Today 46 years ago

May 1967, Zandvoort track, The Netherlands. That's Tonio Hildebrand racing the Broadspeed GTS for the first time. It's a car that we've seen here once or twice before. Side exhaust, ram pipes - this car must have been noisy. I love it.

Tonio Hildebrand racing the Broadspeed GTS with its original UK registration EOP 88D
Picture Jeroen Booij archive / Auto Revue magazine

The Summer of '69... with a Caraboot

Remarkably, some of the best comments here come in from Australia. This one about a Bulanti was great, or how about the tale of Jack Kaines' Ecurie de Dez? Now, Doctor Rudy Rencoret of Sydney is next. He dropped me a line or two about a holiday he and his wife Sylvia undertook decades ago. He wrote: "In the Summer of 1969 we went around England and Scotland for about six weeks in my Caraboot. I rented it from a Mister Theobald in Preston, Lancs, who I might have found when I was looking for a caravan to pick up in Lancashire. This after I passed (successfully) my specialist medical degree in London. It was a marvellous holiday, starting in Windermere, on the Lake District, up to the Highlands of Scotland, down to the East side of England, then the Midlands, South of England, the West Country down to Land's End and up again on the West side this time, including Wales and finishing in Liverpool. We spend the boat a full day sailing on Coniston Water on the Lake District. The only inconvenience with the boat was that it was quite heavy, and so were the oars."

"It was only in Dorset when I was attempting a rather steep road beyond Portland that the little 850cc Mini engine decided that it was a bit too much and stalled. When I was going up that hill I started in 4th gear, then I had to engage 3rd, 2nd and finally, 1st gear, as the steep part of the road was too long. The poor old 850 cc engine stalled, and I could not go any further. I asked my wife to leave the car and with great difficulty I reversed it in that very narrow road. I could see a steep fall into the Channel on my reverse mirror and the little brakes were hot and unable to hold it. Had I reversed the other way I would have finished in the English Channel, Caraboot and all. But in the end we made it and continued with our trip. I may add that the engine temp never went above normal that afternoon. The Caraboot behaved splendidly, low on petrol and created a little sensation wherever we went. When we stopped for shopping in a small village and came back to the car we usually found it surrounded by people who wanted to know all about it. A number of people thought we were a bit mad, and so we were. But it was just wonderful." And so is the story, thanks again Rudy!

The Caraboot and a young Mrs. Rencoret, somewhere in the UK in the Summer of '69

Picture courtesy Rudy Rencoret

The Rencorets in the place where they spent much of June and July of that year: in the Caraboot

Picture courtesy Rudy Rencoret

Mini based camper was a joy to drive, says reader. Only trouble was to tackle a Dorset hill 

Picture courtesy Rudy Rencoret

Great holiday memories include cooking in the Caraboot's tiny kitchen

Picture courtesy Rudy Rencoret

Mystery Mini derivative (32)

There have been umpteen cars built in the spirit of the good old Mini Moke. And the one you see here is no exception to this rule. Question is what it is exactly. According to reader Roald Rakers it was probably built in The Netherlands during the reign of the now abdicating Queen, but that's were the information ends. So there we go: who knows more about this squarish Dutch mock-Moke?

This Mini Moke lookalike is supposedly built in The Netherlands. Who can confirm this?

Picture through Roald Rakers

The lost Coldwell GT of Macau

Ah - the Coldwell GT. Another legendary Mini derivative of which just four were made by Bill Needham in the late 1960s. As a matter of fact the very first car he built has intrigued me for a while now. It was Needham's own racer, which he sold in 1970 to a chap in Singapore planning to race it there. Probably to a man named Tony Lam as this name is painted on the car in old pictures that I found. In one local report the driver is named 林昔時, but I guess that could be the same name. There's not too much known about where he entered the Coldwell racer, but fact is that it made it to the Macau Grand Prix at the Guia circuit in November 1970. With start number 55 it qualified 21st there and had to start from the back of the grid. In the 45 laps race it did finish as a respectable sixth overall, though, with a works entered F2 BMW gaining first position and lots of more powerfull stuff to compete against. Not bad at all.

All in all an intriguing story, I think. When I asked Bill Needham some years ago about the car and its destiny he told me he believed it was crashed later as the new owner sent him a letter asking ‘Can you repair this part?’ while on a picture of the car - that his wife managed to dig up - accompanying the letter he had penned a circle around the complete front end! Needham never heard anything anymore and assumes the car is still there. Now that would be a cold case I'd like to investigate. Anyone out here with friends in Singapore's and / or Macau's historic racing scene..?

The picture that was sent to Bill Needham with the complete front end circled

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Before the race. Tony Lam's name is painted on the Colwell's ultra-low roof

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

And again, behind the single seater. The car is tiny and so is the man leaning against it

Picture courtesy Natalino Couto

Needwell's ex racer at the start grid of the 1970 Macau Grand Prix. It came 6th overall

Picture courtesy Motofan.com.hk

Rear view was never the GT's strongest point. The light blue car is an Elva Mk7

Picture courtesy Motofan.com.hk

The Coldwell GT in hands of Tony Lam during the GP. Things were fine back then

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

A map of what the Macau Guia Circuit was like back in 1970. A lap was (and is) 3.8 miles 

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Racing 1967 style

When Richard Heseltine drops me a line it's always something that cheers me up. And when he e-mailed me yesterday it was once again the case. This time because he attached another lovely old picture with a Mini derivative in action (more here and here), now a Mini Marcos and definitely a Mk1. Richard wrote: "I've been reading about Mini Marcoses for sale on your excellent site and thought the attached might interest you. The pic shows Andy Barton's Mini Marcos at the Rufforth circuit near York in May 1967. I have no further info, other than car 141 (Lotus Eleven) belonged to David Taylor. Note the Cox GTM and Ginetta G12 in the background - fab stuff! I wonder where these cars are now. As an aside, Barton previously raced a very hot Morris Minor and went on to be a hugely successful Formula Libre driver in assorted single-seaters. Bye for now, Richard." Thanks again mate! Perhaps another reader here knows more about either Barton's Marcos with its ultra-wide JAP Magnas, the Cox GTM wearing number 133 or one of the other cars?

Andy Barton's Mk1 Mini Marcos in good company at Rufforth airfield in May 1967

Picture courtesy Richard Heseltine

More Mini Marcoses for sale

Fancy a Mini Marcos? Several have turned up for sale in the last weeks or so, and in all different parts of Europe, too. None of them is a Mk1 or Mk2 - the one I'd prefer - but still you might find something of interest. Prices vary wildly, too.

There's a quite nice Mk3 to be found in The Netherlands (see ad here)

Picture courtesy marktplaats.nl

An Appendix K racer with Swiftune prepared engine is for sale in Portugal

Picture courtesy racecarsdirect.com

A Mk4 in the UK with much modified body work (not my taste but who am I?)

Picture courtesy ebay.co.uk

And a shabby Mk3 in Belgium, unsold at auction but it may still be snapped up

Picture courtesy Francois Tasiaux

All parts are there, but layers of dust suggest neglect of some years at least

Picture courtesy Francois Tasiaux

Where is John Lennon's Mini?

Coachbuilt Minis of 1960s celebrities have a strange habit to seemingly disappear. Remember Enzo Ferrari's Mini Cooper, converted by an unknown coachbuilder? Or The Monkees Mike Nesmith's cool Radford? Or how about Mick Jagger's '67 Wood & Pickett? Footballer George Best's white Radford? Comedian Laurence Harvey's W&P? Anyone? Well, and then there's John Lennon's Mini, a black 1965 Austin Cooper 'S' equiped with black bumpers, wheels and pitch dark tinted windows by Harold Radford coachbuilders, too. It was registered LGF 696D not earlier then February 1966. Perhaps because Lennon was on tour in the USA for much of '65? Or because he wasn't a keen driver who only just had his driver's licence?

Anyway: after I wrote about it a few weeks ago (click here) I received a message from an anonymous reader. He wrote: "Hi. I've been into coachbuilt Minis for over 35 years and have followed up stories about this special breed of cars for years. As far as Lennon's Mini goes, when he moved to the USA he gave it to his then-butler, who in turn travelled the UK on his narrow boat and the car was carried around on this. But due to this it didnt last long thanks to rust, and it was scrapped. That's one story I heard. Then about 20 years ago I answered an ad about a half restored Radford Mini for sale in Holmfirth. The guy wanted 4,500 pounds for it. Once I was interested he told me if I gave him the asking price, he had the registration documents and logbook for Lennon's car. After that I never heard from him again." Strangely, the DVLA database says that LGF 696D is still on the road. Now who ever said something about Lennon's death and conspiracy theories..? The pictures below are screen grabs from 1966 footage that can be seen here.

A black Radford Mini arrives in London. Pitch dark windows give no hint to who's inside

Picture courtesy imcdb.com

The car, registered in February 1966, is of 1965 vintage - the year Lennon got his driver's licence

Picture courtesy imcdb.com

It's him! Lennon steps out of chauffeur driven car. Where is his Radford Mini de Ville now?

Picture courtesy imcdb.com