Mystery Mini Margrave looks indeed like Omar's toy

You may remember the Wood & Pickett Mini Margrave spotted in an underground car park in Cannes two years ago (see here). The question was: is it the same car as '50 MAR'? That's the Mini Margrave Elite with all the bells and whistles, also known at one stage as 'World's most expensive Mini'. Despite the horrid Mercedes-grille and landau roof conversion many details definitely pointed in that direction. The thing was that we couldn't see anything of the car's interior.

Until now, as Wood & Pickett-owner John Reynolds got in touch, writing: "Working in Nice, France today. So thrashed the hire car to the madness of Cannes to see if I could find that Mini Margrave. I could. And it was great to see a car I had a photo of on my bedroom wall growing up. Those windows are so dark! But… that orange piping and the 'super elite' armrest are there." So, what do you guys think?

There it is with a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow as a stable mate. Also a W&P car?

Picture courtesy John Reynolds

Double exhausts, triple antennas, low rear screen, modified boot lid - it's all there

Picture courtesy John Reynolds

And there's the interior - well… only just as the windows are pitch dark. It does match, though

Picture courtesy John Reynolds

And the same goes for those 10" Minilite wheels with rare spinners

Picture courtesy John Reynolds

AOM initials on door must be the car's current owner? Or are they Sheik Omar's?

Picture courtesy John Reynolds

Dusty but dry stored. Does this car get driven at all? '111 UN' is on sorn since 1999

Picture courtesy John Reynolds

Castle Combe celebrates the Mini Marcos

What a lovely day at Castle Combe to celebrate the Mini Marcos' debut of 50 years ago (updated story here)! A photographic report with excellent pictures by Stuart Watson. Thank you very much Sir!

Richard Porter's Mini Jem Mk2 heads a long line of Mini Marcoses (and another Jem)

Picture courtesy Stuart Watson

But there's even more of them. An excellent turnout of Mini Marcos Owners

Picture courtesy Stuart Watson

 

Individual: Mk4 with big rear spoiler, vinyl roof and signature Cortina rear light

Picture courtesy Stuart Watson

I like this Mk3 in full racing guise. Note the hump on the roof to gain some space

Picture courtesy Stuart Watson

Mini Marcoses are all about individuality - Note flares and wheel arches of all kinds 

Picture courtesy Stuart Watson 

Another Mk3 Marcos, the registration suggests it came over from France. Tres bien

Picture courtesy Stuart Watson

Lovely car in lovely colour and condition, or so it seems. It's another Mk3

Picture courtesy Stuart Watson

The white car is Peter Skitt's Mk1 Marcos. A very early car - seen at Blyton Park too

Picture courtesy Stuart Watson

Opening rear hatches give a big clue about the age of these three cars

Picture courtesy Stuart Watson

And that's the dynamic duo from London that has also been seen here before

Picture courtesy Stuart Watson

And a bit of a surprise! This is Gerry Bath's 'Minim' - a hill climb special of 1965

Picture courtesy Stuart Watson

Gerry Bath passed away last year and that's when the car came out of its hiding

Picture courtesy Stuart Watson

Today 50 years ago: Mini Marcos debuts

On 25 September 1965 an unusual new car made its debut at a very wet Castle Combe. It was the Mini Marcos which was not even yet officially launched until January 1966. But the car, built by Jem Marsh, driven by Geoff Mabbs and entered by Jan Odor of Janspeed Engineering, made a remarkable debut.

Autosport magazine headed 'First race - first win' and quoted Marsh before the race took place: "Don't expect too much of it - it was only completed at midnight last night and isn't at all sorted." They continued: "It had 'only' a group 2 1,293 cc Mini Cooper S engine, but even after only seven practice laps Geoff Mabbs had it in pole position for the 1,600 cc GT race. The little device went like a bomb in atrociously wet conditions, lapping all but one car to finish 81.8 secs ahead of the second man - who very nearly came under the axle also. Don't expect too much indeed!"

Geoffrey Mabbs was an experienced racing driver who ran a garage in Keynsham, Somerset. He raced and rallied Mini Cooper S's for the BMC Works team but also as a privateer with Works-support and for Janspeed from 1965-on. Both Janspeed in Salisbury as Marcos cars in Westbury were relatively close by. Unfortunately the Janspeed-Mini Marcos didn't last very long. Mabbs crashed it heavily only a week after his Castle Combe-victory during the Weston-Super-Mare Speed Trials on 2 October 1965 and the car was scrapped. Mabbs died at only 50 in 1983.

The Mini Marcos Owner's Club will be celebrating the historical win with a meeting at Castle Combe this Saturday during the Mini Action Day. On the Sunday they have organized a drive through Wiltshire and Somerset visiting some of the places associated with 50 years of Mini Marcos production. A week later the Castle Combe Autumn Classic will take place and enthusiasts Gary Marlow (who owns a very early Mk1 Mini Marcos in racing guise) and Pete Flanagan (who owns the Janspeed Unipower GT as driven by Mabbs) will be there "on a bit of a Geoff Mabbs celebration" Unfortunately I won't be there, but hope to be able make a nice report next week.

UPDATE 28 September: Pete Flanagan has some amendments about Mabbs and his cars. "The Janspeed Marcos wasn't destroyed a week later after it's Combe debut because I have it entered for a race in 1966 along with the 2nd 998cc Janspeed Marcos (they ran two). Mabbs was a bit of a celebrity down at Castle Combe in the 60s and had he lived longer I'm sure would be just as well known now.
Mabbs has a part of the Lyden Hill rallycross circuit named after him : 'Mabbs' Bank'. It was so named after he rolled the works Austin 1800 'Landcrab' there in 1969 and the name stuck! Many other cars have fallen victim to Mabbs' Bank since then!" I'm not sure about the Mini Marcoses though, but would like to find out more. Fact is that one was crashed heavily at Weston-Super-Mare. Who has more information?

Mabb's Mini Marcos about to make its debut at a wet Castle Combe on 25 September 1965

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

"The little device went like a bomb in atrociously wet conditions", wrote Autocar

Picture courtesy Autocar magazine

The car at the Weston Super Mare Speed Trials a week later, just before being crashed

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Geoff Mabbs, seen here on the 1963 Monte Carlo Rally in 997 Cooper. He died in 1983

Picture courtesy Pete Flanagan

Jan Odor (left) and Geoff Mabbs with the Unipower GT they entered after the Mini Marcos' crash

Picture courtesy Pete Flanagan

The end of the Martini Mini

I often wonder why there are so little Mini based cars from the continent. Italy, France, The Netherlands, Belgium - there have to be more cars built then the handful that I know of. Or how about Germany? The only German Mini based car that I know of is the Martini Mini ASC (for Austin Cooper 'S'), built in 1964 by Willi Martini. Martini ran a BMW dealership on the Nurburgring track and had already rejoiced the German cottage industry with some low volume production cars before he turned a wrecked Mini into something very cool (design buy Uwe Bahnsen, built with BMC dealer Dieter Mohr). Anyway: the car was campaigned seriously at the 'Ring (10:50 lap time at the then-22.8 kms long track) and transformed into a Mk2-version before it was crashed heavily in June 1966 by driver Ralf Juettner. One picture of the wreck was published in Maximum Mini 2, but there are several more, donated to me by Wolfgang Thierak. Below a selection of them. Oh - and if you do know of any other continental Mini derivatives - do let me know.

This picture was published in Maximum Mini 2, but there are quite a few more…

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Look at this one of the wreckage being loaded on a trailer. It's amazing Juettner got out unhurt

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The crashed Martini Mini arrives at the Martini garage - now the home of BMW Motorsport

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Onlookers aplenty. I don't know who the 'driver' is. Could it be Ralf Juettner, who escaped unhurt?

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The leftovers must have formed quite an attraction in between the BMWs at Martini's garage

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The Austin Cooper 'S' engine is clearly visible here. The car got scrapped, but the mechanicals?

Picture  Jeroen Booij archive

Unipowers for sale

I get often asked if I know of a certain Mini based car for sale. Mind you: I'm no dealer and am not too much interested in the buying and selling side of cars. But now all of a sudden no less than three Unipower GT owners asked me to see if I know somebody to buy their cars. The first two asked me to do so in private, so I can't say much about them here unless you are really interested and prepared to pay top prices for top cars (which they both are - drop me a line if you are) - sorry!

But the third of them can be shared here freely. That car, chassis number 36713, is a Mk1 and is one of a few cars delivered to Spain (see one here, one here, another here and yet another here) and prepared as a race car from the start. This one actually was the car entered in the 6-hour race of Barcelona and later owned by Spanish MP Miguel Arias Cañete. It's been modified and, for example, now misses the signature gear lever placed into the door sill. But it seems to be a fantastic car to me overall. What's more: it comes with full FIA papers and is ready to race. See the ad here. Oh - and do bring it over to Blyton Park next year when you buy it!

Flares, fat tyres and FIA papers: this Unipower GT road legal racer is for sale

Picture courtesy Patrick Kaufmann

The same car during the Barcelona 6 Hours of 1968. It's always had the same registration

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Japan Mini Day 2015: Derivatives theme

The 23rd Japan Mini Day will this year take place on November the 1st at the Lake Hamana, west of Hamamatsu (where well-known specialist Dinky Inc. is based). What's more: this year's theme is Mini derivatives, with several very interesting cars expected - as you'll know the country hides a vast number of Mini variants and specials. Unfortunately I won't be there, but will let you know when I receive pictures. More information can be found here.

Poster art for the 23rd Japan Mini Day. Note Broadspeed, Mini Marcos and Unipower

Picture courtesy J-MSA

Mystery Mini Coupe getting less mysterious

Michael Nahar of Connecticut, USA got in touch as he'd seen a Mini Coupe. This Mini Coupe. And he wondered if I knew more about it by now as he was offered the car recently. Well, I didn't know more but thought it may well have been an ABS roof conversion and so asked ABS boss Tony Bucknall. Tony came back instantly: "Hi Jeroen, that is one of the conversions done by a company in Norfolk, it's the same moulding, yes. Unfortunately our Coupe roof was taken off the sales list two weeks ago as we took the mould out of the storage container to make one for a customer in Ireland, only to find the mould has been effected by Osmosis and is now useless. So that clubman is even rarer now!"

I asked him if he remembered the name of the Norfolk company, but unfortunately he did not: "I purchased a really strange set of body kit moulds and the roof moulding from a gentleman who had ceased trading several years prior. It was late 90's when I bought them, so it may well have been trading in the 80's. The only images I have seen where that Clubman which was used on a black and white advertising flyer, and a red mini with the body kit fitted, the body kit had a large box shape on the front bumper/grill area, it looked like a cage on the front of the car!" I hope he or somebody else will be able to find that ad one day.

Meanwhile, Michael had a look at the car earlier this week and came back to me, too: "I was let down by the car's detailing, with the fiberglass clearly visible from inside. Under the rear screen, pop rivets are visible through the paint and the same goes for the boot. I believe it will need some work where the fiberglass is mounted on the steel body although the car seems to be sound structurally. The doors close beautifully and the seems are all okay. It's a pity that the rear side windows have just been glued in though. What do you think?" Well, I quite like the car, even alone it was for its rarity. You won't find another in the USA - I'm quite sure of that!

A Mini Coupe, believed to have been created in Norfolk in the 1980s

Picture courtesy Michael Nahar

That's a British plate dating back to 1974. But the car ended up in the USA

Picture courtesy Michael Nahar

Detailing could be better, but the colour scheme is definitely cool. Is that a Marina logo?

Picture courtesy Michael Nahar

More about the Unipower meet

As you may have known, there was a little group of devoted Unipower owners in the south of the UK back in the 1980s, who regularly met up. Tim Carpenter was among them: "The first Sunday of the month we used to have a pub meeting in Brockham, Surrey but most of the guys came over in their daily drivers as their Unipowers inevitably were in some state of disrepair. But the pictures of the cars together were taken at a meeting at Syon Park in July 1991, which was organized by Gerry Hulford. The Heritage Motor Museum used to be part of the park at the time. These days it probably is a hotel."

"The green car belonged to Peter Beale, who lived in West London. You can see his car is on the original Mk1 Cosmics, which my car originally had, too. You can also see that all the cars, except for mine have an air dam at the front. They are from a Golf Mk1, but I didn't think it needed one. People said it does get very light at the front at speed but I remember it felt all right to me when I drove it once at Goodwood when it was just finished, although it was hardly run in at the time."

"I believe Peter's car was sold to Japan (yes, it's been seen there, now painted silver grey-JB) but I don't know what happened to the other two: YLN 4G and NPN 16F. As you can see they both have the black windscreen surround and this was original to the cars, I believe they were both Mk2s. On the other pictures taken inside the park you can see a yellow racer. I don't think this is the Le Mans car, but another. It was Gerry's, as was the two-tone car, which was in fact the 75th and last car built. That went to Japan, too."

"Next, there was a kit car show at Hindhead which ran every year in the middle of the summer and I think some of the pictures were taken there in the mid-1980s. One of the cars was the two-tone Mk1 which was owned by Simon Lee. He worked for Janspeed at the time and the car was beautiful. It was an early car, too, with a chassis number under the 10-mark and I remember it really was pretty."
Thanks Tim for all the memories and pictures. I need to make a big update for my Unipower register as more information has come up since the last time I updated it. Who knows what else this may lead to.

 Four Unipower GTs. Closest car to the camera, YLN 4G, is a Mk2. Note (Golf sourced) air dams

Picture courtesy Tim Carpenter

 The orange one, another Mk2 and registered NPN 16F, was also a regular during the meetings

Picture courtesy Tim Carpenter

 The green car belonged to Peter Beale. It's silver-grey now and resides in japan

Picture courtesy Tim Carpenter

More cars, including Tim's (centre) the last one built (far right) and a wide bodied racer 

Picture courtesy Tim Carpenter

 Not the Le mans racer, is it? I believe this car to be in Japan now, too, but I'm not sure

Picture courtesy Tim Carpenter

Hindhead mid-1980s: This early car belonged to Simon Lee, who worked for Janspeed. It's in japan now, too. Behind the Mini Marcos another Unipower, registered HNK 8G

Picture courtesy Tim Carpenter

That's it. It was painted black later and offered for sale for 1,600 GBP (see here). The man carrying the books is Peter Beale, the man in the green sweater is Simon Lee

Picture courtesy Tim Carpenter

Unipowers meet up

When I caught up with Unipower GT owner Tim Carpenter last year (more here) he told me he had a stash of pictures somewhere of a meeting he attended with his car back in the mid-1980s and later. If only he could find them, scan them and pass them over… Well, fast forward a year and a bit more and they are here. And what a beautiful set of photographs it is! Meanwhile I had another long chat to Tim, who does remember bits from those days after having seen the pictures again. So here is a starter. Enjoy it for now, more to follow!

4 Unipower GTs on a hot day in July 1984. What happened to them? Watch this space

Picture courtesy Tim Carpenter

Greenwood's 'sidecar' at its prime

Thanks to an observant reader I was sent over these great pictures of Owen Greenwood's infamous 'sidecar' creation. They are all pictures I never saw before and I quite like them. It also struck to me that the 'four-wheeled motorbike', as the thing was named soon after it entered the sidecar championship in 1965, appears to be road registered at one point. I can't find anything on '139 GYN' though. What's more: I don't think that is Owen Greenwood at the wheel, but who is it then? And how about the lady passengers? 

Anything goes: 1960s paddock scene includes a clever piece of British engineering

Picture via Michael Craig

Mind that aluminum body… Greenwood Special weighed just over 300kgs

Picture via Michael Craig

Mini sidecar became the terror of the tracks in the mid-1960s, pulverizing the championship

Picture via Michael Craig

Oops! Things didn't go well all the time though. Double rear wheels can be seen here

Picture via Michael Craig

Ruud's restoration

Ruud de Leeuw has just finished the long-term restoration of his Mk2 Midas and got in touch. Unfortunately he wasnt able to bring it over to the Eurgeio Meeting last weekend but he may be there next year. He tells me the car needed a full nut and bolt restoration and that is what he just did. The body was repaired and resprayed, the subframes sand blasted and epoxy primed. All the rubbers in the car's suspension were replaced by Polyflex, the interior now sports new carpets and mats while the reupholstered seats were sourced from a Mazda MX5. The Metro loom didn't fit very well and so Ruud decided to make a new one by himself. The Metro 1275 new uses a stage 1 kit plus stage 3 cylinder head. Well done, love it!

Oh - and what's more: Ruud bought my GTM Coupe years ago and, now that his Midas is finished, thinks about selling that again. See the market place section of this website (here) to find out more and get in touch in touch with Ruud.

Midases came in self-coloured gellcoat, much prone to fade, so this one was nicely painted

Picture courtesy Ruud de Leeuw

That's one sharp looking Midas - the splendour of a true Richard Oakes design!

Picture courtesy Ruud de Leeuw

The kits came with wiring looms fitted when new, but Ruud replaced his, as he did with the engine

Picture courtesy Ruud de Leeuw

Fresh interior with retrimmed Mazda MX5 seats and plenty of chrome-bezeled gauges

Picture courtesy Ruud de Leeuw

Recognize this? It was owned by your's truly years ago. Ruud is now offering it for sale again

Picture courtesy Ruud de Leeuw