Monday, 22 September 2014

Rotten Wood & Picketts resurface

Not one but two 1970s Wood & Pickett Minis have resurfaced recently, with both of them are in a pretty sorry state. First is a 1275 GT based Mini Margrave of 1974 in two-tone blue with lovely leather interior in Oxblood. The car was supposedly hidden in a storage for the past 23 years but is still very complete and is now in the hands of a Mini specialist in Kent. Nothing about the car's history is known to him, but hopefully he'll find out more about it in the near future.

Secondly, a 1973 car was unearthed last week in a much worse condition. This Mini received the Margrave treatment including the Landau roof conversion by Wood & Pickett, but remarkably it was based on an Innocenti Mini Cooper. Contrary to the 1974 car, this one is missing many of its parts and restoring it would be a tremendous task, with the shell in a terrible state. The current owner, who is now selling the car, is honest about that and says: "A massive, massive undertaking which requires huge amounts of time, patience, skill and cash. But what a car this must have been and I would love to see it go to someone nuts enough to do the work rather than someone looking to steal it's id!"

1974 Wood & Pickett Mini Margrave in 'as found' condition. Its history is unknown
Picture courtesy Palmer Works S

Partially deseamed, vynil roof, nudge bars - all clear W&P features. But no Vauxhall grille
Picture courtesy Palmer Works S

Lovely Oxblood leather interior makes great contrast to two-tone blue exterior
Picture courtesy Palmer Works S

Innocenti Cooper based Wood & Pickett is very, very rare and very, very rotten too
Picture courtesy Rory

The Landau roof conversion with low rear window was seen on this car too
Picture courtesy Rory

3 comments:

  1. Hi . That Blue W&P is not a Clubman, its a 1275GT, and its it not a Margrave.

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    Replies
    1. Is it not a Margrave because it doesn't come with the signature grille?

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  2. No its not the grill alone, its the interior. The pricelists clearly mentions which items that define a Margrave, or Margrave Elite, which are even more expensive = top model.

    ReplyDelete