You may have seen enough of the royal affairs recently, but it made me remember there was a member of the British royalty with a Mini one day. I even thought it was a coachbuilt car. And, yes, it appears to be so as Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret used to drive a modified Austin Mini Cooper 'S' in the swinging sixties. The car was said to be coachbuilt although you cannot see too much of that on the pictures that I found. I also have no idea who carried out the conversion. Could it be Harold Radford? I noticed that on one picture it came with added foglights in the grille plus 'Austin Cooper' boot script on the bonnet. The car is still registered but appears to have been sorn in 1977. Could it still be in royal hands?
UPDATE 6 November 2013: Conversion was carried out by Hooper of London.
UPDATE 6 November 2013: Conversion was carried out by Hooper of London.
Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret with their Mini. I reckon they could have taken that Rolls-Royce too
June 1965: Princess Margaret takes 3-year old Lord Linley home after an ear operation.
Note added foglights in the grille and different badging on the bonnet...
...a footman opens the door, but the 3-year old Lord prefers to go elsewhere...
...but off they go in the supposedly much modified coachbuilt Mini, chauffeur driven too...
...who needs a child's seat anyway? It's all smiles buzzing around in a Mini!
But where is the car now? And who carried out the conversion?
This car was prepared by Hooper. It's history is little known other than the logbook and dash appeared for sale in the classified ads in Mini World some years ago and was passed along to a well known dealer who is now recreating the car. When I spoke to the original seller he explained how the car was broken up and all that remained was an old log book. So now you know.
ReplyDeleteThe original Snowdon car was involved in a serious accident and scrapped in the late 60s. The number plate 999FYL only was retained and eventually found it's way onto to a 1974 Mini Clubman many years later. The car is no more!
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