When Chris Rees announces a new book it's something to look forwards to. When he announces a book called 'The Complete Catalogue of the Mini' it's hard to find some sleep until it arrives! Well, that may be a bit of an exaggeration but this tome was eagerly awaited at Maximum Mini towers anyway. Chris wrote about low-volume sports cars before and is an authority on three-wheelers (one review here). He also proof-read Maximum Mini 2 and Maximum Mini 3 (so blame him if you find any bad grammar in them) and supplied me with some great photographs for these two books. This book is a grand update on his 'Complete Mini', which was published in 1994. In short: this man knows his stuff.
It comes in 248 pages and 14 chapters of which - my opinion - the last two are the interesting ones: 'Factory one-offs and prototypes' plus 'Coachbuilt Minis'. Chris focusses purely on anything that somehow managed to keep the Mini's original shape. That means no Mini based sports cars and kit cars here, but still quite a few quirky stuff that stands out from the Mini as your mother knows it. 'Factory one-offs and prototypes' covers the BMC or BL-built Beach Cars, the four-doors, twinis and hatchbacks plus the many prototypes that were bound to replace the Mini at one stage. But you will also find the Healey Mini roadster and Autocars Marcos here. Not exactly official prototypes, but ones with stories worth telling, too. The 'Coachbuilt Minis' chapter is more of a surprise with, apart from Hooper, Radford and Wood and Pickett, also more on the obscure Mini-outfitters who had a hand in turning unsuspecting Minis into miniature Rolls-Royces. Most descriptions are brief here, but exceptions are made for the MiniSprint and the Broadspeed and its replica-offspring. This chapter also features Convertibles, Coupes, Glassfibre Rebodies, 'Front & Rear end conversions' featuring some of the stuff by Kelform, Scorpion, Biota and Status plus 'The Outer Limits' with camper conversions, fire engines and invalid carriages. The book's blurb mentions 160 coachbuilt versions, but including all the convertibles and coupes, rebodies and conversions I counted no more then 90 of them, which at least leaves something to be desired.
The Complete Catalogue of the Mini comes at 35.00 GBP / 59.95 USD and is published by
Herridge & Sons in the UK. ISBN: 9781906133726
Picture Jeroen Booij
Factory one-offs and prototypes-chapter includes Healey Mini roadster
Picture Jeroen Booij
Coachbuilt Minis starts with the well-known conversions from Hooper and Radford
Picture Jeroen Booij
But contains stuff like the Tickford Mini, Marcos Checker Mini and New ERA Mini, too
Picture Jeroen Booij
… and my favourites: Front and rear end conversions, where the Mini shape starts to evolve...
Picture Jeroen Booij
Considering getting the book though was wondering how it compares to Jon Pressnell's Mini: The Definitive History book and whether it provides any new information otherwise not found elsewhere in previous books on the Mini?
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about ordinary Minis so I can't tell! Prefer this one over Pressnell's though. It's better on the oddballs.
DeleteI see, does it break any new ground regarding the Mini replacement prototypes?
ReplyDeleteI knew these cars already but I do not know if you do.
DeleteGot the book, agree that it has more on the oddballs though it also omits the likes of the ADO34/35/36 sports-cars and Austin Ant as well as the Tony Spillane Daihatsu-engined Mini turbodiesel prototype.
ReplyDeleteWas hoping it would go into more depth about any other little-known proposed engine updates or replacements between the existing A-Series production units to the 9X and K-Series engined-prototypes.
Also interested to know more about the 1973 Clubman wide-body prototype, particularly how much wide it is compared to the existing Clubman or Innocenti Mini / Austin Metro as well as whether it is somehow related to the alleged E-Series engined Clubman prototypes that were tested by BL.
Have to say that the 1975 Redbird front-end conversion looks much tidier compared to the Autocars Mini prototypes.
Quite liked how the hatchback and 4-door prototypes are on opposite pages as if to say that the Mini could have achieved so much more then what it already managed to accomplish over its production life.