MiniJems in The Netherlands

Back in 2020 I bumped into a genuine barnfind MiniJem in my native Netherlands. The car had been put in storage back in 1984 and hadn't moved a wheel since. It was a Mk2, complete and looking good but the papers had gone lost. The car was offered to me but I didn't buy it, which I regretted immediately afterwards (story with dusty 'as found' pictures here). It went to another Dutch chap, whom I visited half a year later. He told me he would be restoring the car but I understand he sold it on once again, now presumably with the registration (YBH 849J) put back on the car. I haven't heard from it since, but was now send the pictures below. It only seems to have been cleaned - a little. Where is it now?

Meanwhile yet another Mk2 MiniJem was found in The Netherlands, now an empty shell with all the glass. It was rediscovered two years ago now and turned out to be another car of British origins that had been laid apart in this country decades ago. I was once again interested but happened to be in the UK at the time and it went to somebody else. I hope the car will be restored also. 

Now, it does make one wonder: how many more MiniJems are there in The Netherlands? I did find another picture of one published in an old Dutch motoring magazine. The caption read: "Believed to be the only Mini Jem in The Netherlands" but I think it is not one of the two cars mentioned here..! Anyone?

This Mk2 MiniJem stood in a barn in The Netherlands for some 36 years

Picture via Eric van Haren

It was parked there in 1984 and freed from it in 2020 and looked very complete

Picture via Eric van Haren

I understand the missing registration YBH 849J has now been re-applied to the car

Picture via Eric van Haren

This is another Mk2 MiniJem barnfind that resurfaced in The Netherlands a year later

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

And then there's this, dubbed 'Supposedly the only Mini Jem in The Netherlands'...

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Barn find Unipower now sold for a very fair price

Almost forgot to mention this. I learned more about the Unipower GT that was spotted in a barn in Kent last month (click) and found out it was owned by a garage holder in Elvington named Wayne. I phoned him up and he told me he had indeed taken over the car from Nick Gerolomou. Nick now has a very poor health and has been admitted to a care home. His two daughters looked after his interests and sold his house and his cars, the Unipower to Wayne through a sollicitor. Wayne wanted to put the GT back on the road, but didn't find the time to do that while it was also not quite his kind of car. What's more: "It is sitting here and where it is now it is not doing the car any good", he added. Quite so, it seemed. 

But before Wayne took it over, Nick had already started work on the car. According to Wayne he'd paid £7,000 for the paint job alone. The rebuild of the engine, suspension and transmission had also been carried out under Nick's supervision by a company in Herne Bay where he used to live. A number of parts had also been missing but were sourced or remade, the Perspex rear screen in the first place, which supposedly came at £900. The rare headlight surrounds were also gone with new ones being found.

So Wayne told me the car had to go. He planned to sell it through a local auction house in October, but when I said I knew of several people who would be interested, he decided not to bring it to auction. His price? £17,000, which was non-negotiable. I thought that was very fair considering the work that had already gone into it and the money spent on it. With two project cars at hand I tipped a mate and told him to be quick. But he was busy and by the time he rang up Wayne the next day... it had already been sold. No surprise perhaps. Let's see where it turns up next!

One final note: this and another recently sold-and-offered-again Unipower make it seem that the prices being asked for these cars in the last couple of years are not too realistic. Here for more - note update.

This picture caught my attention. It wasn't too hard to track the car down, next

Picture courtesy Gerrit-Jan Kreeftenberg

I learned it was fully complete and for sale, too. And at an absolutely fair price...

Picture courtesy Gerrit-Jan Kreeftenberg

Original 1275 Cooper 'S' engine had already been fully restored as well as suspension

Picture courtesy Gerrit-Jan Kreeftenberg

 A £7,000 paint job had been carried out, rear screen remade and missing parts sourced

Picture courtesy Gerrit-Jan Kreeftenberg

This Unipower GT was one of the very last cars made and first registered in 1969

Picture courtesy Gerrit-Jan Kreeftenberg

Graham's mad Minis, Marcos and Ogles

About seven years ago I wrote about the mad Mini engines built by Graham Cooper (click here). In an old baptist chapel in Sedgley, West Midlands, Cooper (no relation) built some truly overbore engines with 1400; 1450; 1465; 1500; 1520 and even a 1556cc version, based on a 970 'S' block, using 170 thou thin-ring sand cast pistons and a unique Laystall Engineering crank. According to Car & Car Conversions magazine it was even reliable! There was also a much-modified Mini with a chopped, deseamed, lowered and much-raked body and I thought I'd never find out more about that.

Wrong. I was lucky to finally get in touch recently with Graham, now in his mid-80s. Although he owned dozens of Minis, he does remember that particular car: "I was building the engine for myself, just to see what could be done. A chap named William Cole came in and just said: how much is that gonna be? I want it and I'm gonna pay for it. He did the body that you have seen on that picture. The engine was dead reliable, we only kept on changing the head gaskets because they blew out at 8,000rpm. When Car & Car Conversions wrote about me, that was good, but we couldn't cope with the work. I was a one-man band, you see, with just my wife doing the accounts."

I also found that Graham had raced both an early Mini Marcos as well as an Ogle himself at Mallory Park in 1966! Unfortunately he doesn't remember much about the Ogle. Or actually: the Ogles, as he owned two of them: "I was buying and selling the odd car at the time and had two Ogles. They just went to people who wanted something else. But I don't even remember what colours they had." And the Marcos? "Well, that got out of control and ended upside down. There was no roll cage and it had pushed a round hole just above my head."

Thank you never the less Graham!

These are not Graham's cars, but the man did race both a Mk1 Mini Marcos as well as an Ogle in the UK

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The mad Mini GT 1500, with 1556cc engine by Graham Cooper and body by Bill Cole

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Spring 1966: Cooper at Mallory Park in the Mini Marcos, which ended upside down

Picture Andrew Griffiths

Original ABC Tricar owner calls in

A lovely message from John Byfield: "Hello Jeroen, I have just found Maximum Mini website and spotted my old car there. I owned BFD141J from new, 1971-1974. It was bronze yellow then as you can see. It had superb handling but a large frame tent forced its sale in '74. I did the ACU 24-hour road rally in it a couple of times, once with Trevor Powell, his car had a Clubman front and bigger engine."

"The ACU is the National body regulating motorcycle sport in this country and in the 1970s they ran a 24-hour road rally for motorcycles and three-wheelers. It was for 600 miles and competitors had to navigate between various checkpoints around the country. I managed to win the 3-wheeler class one year in the ABC. The rally still exists although in a different format. Thanks to your website I am now in touch with Trevor Powell, whose father built the Tricars and he is restoring the first car. Regards, John"

The last sign of life from John's old car car dates back to 2021, when it was spotted by reader Grant Cox in a garden (click here for more). Is it still there?

 

John Byfield's ABC Tricar, which he bought new in 1971 and used twice in the ACU Rally

Picture courtesy John Byfield

'BFD 131J' does survive - only just. It was seen in a garden a couple of years ago (click)

Picture courtesy John Byfield

The many faces of a wild custom Mini of the 1970s

After two recent articles, here on Maximum Mini, reader David Kiss decided to drop me a line. The reason was that two of the cars described brought back some sweet memories. David wrote: 

"Dear Jeroen, Not sure if you would be interested but I have been inspired to write following two of your recent blogs about custom Minis. In brief, I was given a 1961 Mini on my 17th birthday (1971), I kept this car for 12 years over which time it morphed from a humble 850cc into a 1750cc (Maxi/Allegro) powered custom, similar custom De Ville type build to the recent pics of '50 MAR'. (click here for the recent article about that)"

"I sold the car in 1983 as it was unsuitable for my new married life....(it may still be out there?) Re DART: my (late) dad was also in the RAF and Dizzy Addicott was a pal of his, I remember my (late) mum saying "He was a real speed freak". I'm sure I met him many years ago as a young boy but have no real recollection of him (recent article here). If my 1750cc Mini is of interest I do have quite a few pictures of it during my ownership. Keep up your great blog. Regards, David Kiss" 

Well, I did like that, and asked David for the pictures he mentioned. The next day I received a whole lot of them, with clear descriptions, too. David added: "I'll attach a set of pictures of the car over my ownership showing the various stages of its 'development'. I'm not sure how much detail you wanted me to go into but I'll waffle away and you can pick and choose as you like should you wish..... As I mentioned, I was given the car for my 17th birthday (1971), a 1961 bog standard cherry red 850cc Morris Mini Minor in pretty sound condition. My Dad and his brother-in-law ran a local Morris garage and the car was a 'trade-in'. With my Dad running a garage I had been interested and driving (in a field) cars since I was 11 years old. I used the car daily, generally flat out like all seventeen year olds... The poor old thing soon expired and with the desire to go faster I replaced the engine with one from a BMC 1100..."

"On recently checking the 240TPG on the DVLA system I see that the last change of owner was in 2007 so one never knows if it's still out there... as many others I would quite like to see if it's still about, perhaps even owning it again... curiously I now own another 1961 Cherry Red Mini, however, very standard, very original! Well I hope I've not rattled on to much, Best regards, David."

It's just lovely David. Thank you very much!

"This picture shows the car with the 1100 engine fitted. Note the 12" wheels as per BMC 1100 and also other go-faster mods!"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"A bit later and now repainted (very dark brown) plus flame motif. Paint work was courtesy of the firm I worked for at the time, we repaired all the new Toyotas that were damaged in transit, they were all imported back then, 1973-ish"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"The company had a low-bake oven system and the flames were designed and painted by one of the very talented staff. The car had also acquired a BMC 1300 by then and was relatively now quite a fast machine. The 1300 worked well for some time but I eventually wore it out so what next..."

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"This picture shows a Maxi 1500 engine basically installed. I had to cut and extend the front of the subframe to fit the larger engine and subsequently modify the front of the car. Many other items had to be fabricated, driveshafts, engine mounts etc. It was quite an awkward job but I was able to use the facility of dad's garage (and his help), which got the project completed. Note the DAF's: the garage had lost it's BMC dealership and was now a DAF agent!"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

The 1500cc car with David as its builder and proud owner in the mid-1970s. Note Jaguar leaper

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"The grille is from a Vauxhall VX4/90. The bonnet was held in place with four large dome-headed bolts and had to be removed completely for access to the engine"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

Much-modified and fast, but not enough for David at the time. There was more to follow! 

Picture courtesy David Kiss

 "Here the car is seen with another modified Mini that I came across (1975). I can't recall what mods it had. Shortly after this picture was taken my modified front subframe failed, so back to the drawing board. I then decided that more radical changes should be carried out..."

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"Bodywork mods, shortened rear side windows, de-seamed, small rear window etc etc... I had some wheel discs made as there was very little choice of alloys wheels that suited, but I didn't proceed with these. Note the hardboard template on the bonnet, this was used to make up a veneered dash, (Mk2 Jag) instruments were fitted behind smoked glass panels, illuminated when the ignition was switched on. An old friend was an excellent woodworker and made me up the dash to an exceptionally high standard (as good as a Rolls), sadly I never took any pictures of this. I had considered Merc headlamps but again this did not materialize"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"Now painted and complete with two tone vinyl roof... all the rage at the time. The engine, waiting to be fitted is a tuned 1750cc Allegro SS, note that the subframe is standard so as not to suffer the same issue when fitted with the 1500cc engine. It was the oil filter that was problem but this latest incarnation has a remote system as can be seen. The car still has an extended nose to house the radiator etc... I had also modified the bonnet and it now hinged forwards"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

This shows the modified bodywork in its full glory

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"This is when I put it up for sale due to getting married and not being a suitable family car. With the 1750 cc engine it was quite a thing to drive, it had lost the nimbleness of the original Mini but was mighty fast, with its 5-speed gearbox it would cruise at 90mph and was capable of 120mph+ Of course today there are many easier engine conversions with the abundance of front wheel drive cars but back then this was limited more or less to BMC/BL cars... the only other engine that may have been a candidate back then was the V6 Ferrari Dino engine..! out of my price league though"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

Wood & Picketts on BBC footage, including '50 MAR'

This lovely little video from the BBC archives, shows some rather outrageous Minis. The most interesting ones, if you ask me, are the two Wood & Pickett Mini Margraves at the start. And they are two very well known cars, too. The blue one is a car used at the Earl's Court Motor Show of 1978 of which we now can see its registration: 'WOE 951T' (which was last taxed in 1989, or so it seems). 

The other car is least as interesting: it's the infamous '50 MAR' built for in 1974 for Al Sharif Omar Almandily. W&P boss Eddie Colins told me about that: "One of the novel things in his car was that he had not one but two telephones. He was a crazy man who rang up himself asking how he was doing!" Although several people doubted the survival of this lavish W&P Mini, it was believed to survive in an underground parking in Cannes, France, but modified with a rather ugly Mercedes grille, white painted roof and different registration (III UN). With the BBC footage unearthed we can now confirm it is indeed the same car: on the video it is seen with the later modifications, but still wearing the '50 MAR' plate.

The infamous '50 MAR' in its original guise, built for Al Sharif Omar Almandily

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Not one but two telephones plus television on board - 'illegal in the UK' 

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The car as it was seen last May by Paul Blank. We can now confirm it is indeed the same

Picture courtesy Paul Blank

It is joined by a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow in an underground parking in Cannes, France

Picture courtesy Paul Blank

Current plate is 'III UN'. Unfortunately this very special Mini is not much cared for

Picture courtesy Paul Blank

1978 show car on the Wood & Pickett display in London. We learn this was registered 'WOE 951T'

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The two seen together in the BBC footage that was undisclosed earlier this week

Picture still BBC Archives

MG Mini Sedanca on a road trip

Whilst the one-off MG Mini Sedanca came back from Denver, Colorado to Bristol in the UK in 2019 (click here), it is now touring the country or so it seems. The car was seen recently at the Lakeland Motor Museum in Cumbria, which jumped to the opportunity to shoot the pictures added below. The museum added: "This is a unique type of Mini called a 'Sedanca'. Only one was made, and the info sheet points to it being built in 1973. It is still on the road, and the owner popped into the museum on a current road trip! gullwing doors were initially planned for this model, but a side screen door was eventually used."

Thank you Lizzi for for letting me know!

Built by former Stewart & Ardern employee Niall Gilmartin in 1973: the MG Mini Sedanca

Picture Lakeland Motor Museum

'870 CJW' comes with Triumph 2000 headlights and Austin 1100 indicators - amongst others

Picture Lakeland Motor Museum

Rear side windows turned upside down, fully closed boot lid, recessed tank cap

Picture Lakeland Motor Museum

Gilmartin planned to make gullwing doors, but that proved to be one step too far

Picture Lakeland Motor Museum

This is a well-traveled car if we have to believe the stickers and decals at the back

Picture Lakeland Motor Museum

Nick's Unipower GT - found in a barn

I lost track of Nick Gerolomou who I saw last in 2016 to celebrate the Unipower GT's 50th anniversary (click here). Nick bought his Unipower in the early 1970s from dealer Monty & Ward, drove it for a few years only to put it in storage back in 1977 (click here for more). He planned a restoration but I don't know how far he ever got to it, and the last thing I heard is that he was in hospital with some serious ailments. I've tried to get in touch but to no avail and can only hope he is okay.

What happened to his car? I had no idea either but was much surprised to be sent a picture from it last weekend. It turned out to have been taken by a fellow-Dutchman who bumped into the car in the UK by pure chance. I got in touch and he was kind enough to go back and take some more pictures. This left me in no doubt that it is indeed Nick's GT, a very late car, and it certainly seems that the restoration has been started. I've tried to obtain more information from the owners of the barn, but haven't heard from them yet. Do get in touch when you are the new owner as I'd love to hear from you.

The Unipower GT of Nick Gerolomou was found in a barn in Kent last weekend

Picture courtesy Gerrit-Jan Kreeftenberg

 This is a very late car, first registered in 1969 or 1970 in Scotland

Picture courtesy Gerrit-Jan Kreeftenberg

 Nick bought the car from dealer Monty & Ward in the early 1970s and stored it in '77

Picture courtesy Gerrit-Jan Kreeftenberg

 "Monty told me that mine was the last car made, being pushed out of one end whilst the recievers came in the other end. Its a nice story if nothing else."

Picture courtesy Gerrit-Jan Kreeftenberg

 The car's dashboard, full of gauges and switches, makes it easy to identify the car 

Picture courtesy Gerrit-Jan Kreeftenberg

The car came with a 1275 engine, which looks to have been restored already 

Picture courtesy Gerrit-Jan Kreeftenberg

 Nick Gerolomou with the car in his own barn, when I visited him in Kent in 2014

Picture Jeroen Booij

Tracing the DART's origins (2)

Following the earlier contact I had with Nigel Fraser Ker (click here), Nigel became very curious about where exactly the workshop could have been, where Edmond 'Dizzy' Addicott built his DART. I had one old picture of the outside of the premises, showing just a part of it plus a sign for a company named 'Wakefield & Sons'. After a while Nigel came back to me about it: "Crikey!" he wrote, after he'd found reference to Wakefield & Sons in an online issue of ‘Byfleet Heritage’. What's more: there was further reference to the place: "We began our tour at Parvis Bridge where the boathouse still looks pretty much the same. To the right of the bridge were Wakefield & Sons who made Formula 3 racing cars. After passing the cricket club and Mr Derisley’s highland cattle you came to the War Memorial..." etc.

Nigel: "Parvis Bridge is right next to where BAC was based and where Dizzy worked, and only 11 miles from where I am now. Incidentally, when I used to work at the Brabham F1 team, some of the fabricators had worked at Brooklands. Many of the skills used in building aircraft during the Second World War were the same as those needed to build racing cars prior to carbonfibre becoming the favoured material. What appears to be an aluminium-bodied car that you can see in the photographs (it is in fact steel-bodied - JB) would almost certainly have needed a very skilled craftsman to make - I don't think even Dizzy could have done that one! A job for people working up the road at Brooklands, I'm sure. These buildings look like they are old enough to the place in the photo. I wonder if they are the same? Perhaps I can pay them a visit - it would be great fun locate the site of Dizzy's garage!"

Another day passed. Then: "Dear Jeroen, I have found it! The building is a mile or two further to the west than I believed, but the good news is that it is still there. I will visit it as soon as I can and find out what the current occupiers know about its history."

And yet another day went by. "Hi Jeroen, I'm happy to say that I have now visited the workshop in Byfleet and have walked through the door shown in the photograph! This is what I found out... The building is actually associated with the canal that it is next to - the canal was built in 1653 and the building has been in existence since at least 1760. It was originally single-storey, but had the additional floor added some time later. There is a 19th century building/shed next to it and in the 20th century this had been used by an engineering company but the people who run the canal boat business at the wharf (Stuart and Julia) don't know anything about them. The couple arrived 20 years ago and when they got it the buildings had been empty for at least 10 years, and had been previously occupied by a company which made exhibition stands. Some time before them, it had been owned by Wakefield & Sons, but they had moved to West Byfleet. Stuart remembers that his father used to bring his car to Wakefield & Sons to work on. Stuart and Julia don't know anything about the motor racing or Mini Marcos history of the building, although over the years several people have visited them and said that they remembered the car workshop on the site, which is now all owned by the National Trust, including the canal."

"Two points to note: They were interested that the upper outer walls (which are now wooden and dark coloured) are white in your photographs. They don't know how that happened. Was it external cladding? I wondered if the upper wood is new. They are positive that the pictures of Dizzy working in an office are definitely not taken in that building - there are no windows of that style there. Stuart has heard that before WW2 the site had been used by ERA, and that they would take the cars to Brooklands for testing. However, I can find no verification about this, but I might see if there is an archivist at Brooklands museum who can help. That's about all I found out. Please feel free to use the attached photographs and any of the above as you wish. Stuart and Julia were amazingly helpful and spent about an hour with me, talking about the history of the site. They were fascinated to see your pictures. I hope this is of some small background interest to the whole Mini Marcos history. Regards, Nigel"

I absolutely love it!

Dizzy Addicott's workshop in 1963. The 'Wakefield & Sons' sign was the clue to its whereabouts

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The same workshop in Byfleet, Surrey, 60 years later in 2023. Not much has changed!

Picture Nigel Fraser Ker

The building, now owned by the National Trust, exists since at least 1760 and is now a boat wharf

Picture Nigel Fraser Ker

"The current owners don't know anything about the motor racing or Mini Marcos history of the building, but over the years several people have said that they remembered the car workshop"

Picture Nigel Fraser Ker

Excuse me, I simply could not resist doing this...

Picture editing Jeroen Booij