The Freewheelers and their Stimson (video)

The late 1960s / early 1970s British tv series The Freewheelers has come past here before, but only in 'screen grabs' (click here). This was a series about a group of teenagers who get caught up in the plans of an ex-Nazi officer; totally period and starring a Stimson Mini Bug. I asked for moving images, and now received them. Talking Pictures TV was showing The Freewheelers once again recently and days after the broadcast, a video appeared on Youtube compiling the Stimson driving scenes. I thought there were two cars seen in the series, an orange one and a yellow one, but this appears to be not the case. Ian Wegg wrote: "There was definitely only one Mini Bug used, 'RPX 885K', you can also see the registration a few seconds earlier in the Halnaker scene. The orange colour is the result of auto correction on the screen grab." He seems to be right! Oh - as you may also remember, that one car was found only a few year ago, and it's awaiting a restoration awaiting its restoration now! Enjoy the video.

Video courtesy Youtube / Colonel Buchan

Mini Magazine features Broadspeeds

When you read Mini Magazine, you may know that the Le Mans Mini Marcos project features regularly in the 'Our Minis' section, with the current issue publishing the third part of the series. But there's another reason to go and buy that mag. Together with editor Jeff Ruggles I've penned down the full story of the Broadspeed GT and GTS Works racer pairing from 1966, which has made it to a massive 9 page feature. All you ever needed to know on these cars is there. So go and buy that magazine, bound to become a collector's item...

Broadspeed Works racer and demonstrator have made it to the market recently. And to Mini Mag

Picture Mini Magazine

Third installation on the Le Mans Mini Marcos project can be found in the same issue

Picture Mini Magazine

Mystery Mini Marcoses of the Low Countries

Reader Kees Plugboer recently took a dive in his old photo-albums and out came a collection of Mini Marcos shots, taken in the 1980s and 1990s at the Zandvoort track and at a lock-up near Brussels in Belgium where he had a look at a Mk2 Mini Cooper at the time. He didn't buy the Mini in the end but took photos of the Marcoses there, some of them which he also spotted at Zandvoort earlier. They make me quite curious. Was this one collection, and what happened to it? I add some more unknown cars from Belgium to it, making this overview of Dutch and Belgian Mini Marcoses which all appear to have gone off the radar. Perhaps you know what happened to these cars?

One of several Mini Marcoses spotted at Zandvoort. This one being a Mk4, photographed in '94

Picture Kees Plugboer

Another one at Zandvoort, now in the patriotic colours of the Dutch flag. This was in 1987 

Picture Kees Plugboer

And it was joined by yet another Mini Marcos. The white car seems a Mk3, the blue a Mk4

Picture Kees Plugboer

A lock-up near Brussels in Belgium at the end of the 1980. Kees bumps into the same blue car

Picture Kees Plugboer

And the white sister racer is there, too. We can now see its (January 1970) registration 'RHR 2H'

Picture Kees Plugboer

There's yet another example, also a Mk3 I think. And it seems to wear a British registration, too

Picture Kees Plugboer

And how about this one? Another Mk3? Also in the same Belgian lock-up in the late 1980s

Picture Kees Plugboer

Was somebody hoarding Mini Marcoses here? And what happened to these cars?

Picture Kees Plugboer

This car was seen more recently (in 2014) and offered for sale in Belgium as a barnfind

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Registration dates back to 1970, too. Wide arches and rear spoiler make it easily recognizable

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

This car supposedly raced at Zandvoort in the 1980s too, but I know nothing more than just that

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Bonus car: this racy Mini Marcos was offered for sale from Belgium last week

Picture Reezocar.be

It's chassis #7109, another Mk3 that was registered in 1968. I'm not sure if it sold

Picture Reezocar.be

Another Mini Bug turns up in Switzerland

Abnother Swiss Stimson turned up last week in Switzerland, after it was seen for sale there by Michael Kaufmann. He wrote: "I found this car in Switzerland for sale. It's a Stimson Mini from 1974." Initially I thought it was the same car as this one, but having had a better look at Michael's photos, I think it's another car after all. Apart from the different number plate (from Luzern rather then Thurgau), it also misses that ghastly front spoiler of the car seen here before. The wheels are different, too, just like the rear spats, the dashboard layout, the number plate light and the front indicators. Although it bears a close resemblance, this has to be a different car.

I have asked Michael to make some better pictures, which he hopes to do, and I wouldn't be surprised if this car also wears a plate with 'Hesteller (builder): Lehner + Kocher' under its bonnet. I have still no idea who they were, so information is welcome. Barry Stimson couldn't remember either when I asked him last time. His comment back then: "I had only one agent in Switzerland but I also remember there was a coffee bar, in Zurich I think, called The MINI BUG. The table napkins had graphics depicting a Mini Bug....and a real Mini Bug, minus engine, set on a plinth or pole in the centre of the shop. I don't have any pix anymore…"

Information on the coffee bar is still much welcome, too!

Stimson Mini Bug was seen for sale in Switzerland. I bet it's another one from the Swiss agent

Picture Michael Kaufmann

Low quality pictures don't do justice, but it has to be a sister car to that other Swiss Stimson

Picture Michael Kaufmann

Rear wheel spats are white rather than black, and there more small differences

Picture Michael Kaufmann

This car (left) misses the front spoiler of the other (right). It also wears other wheels, spats, number plate light and front indicators and another dashboard layout. This has to be a different car

Picture Michael Kaufmann / Jeroen Booij archive

Prisoner Moke fully restored to celebrate The Prisoner's 50th

Remember the Prisoner Moke found in The Netherlands several years ago? Click here if you don't, but I'm sure many of you will recall this great find by Olivier Bos in 2011. Olivier planned to restore the car but had some setbacks and was eventually forced to sell the car. It was sold in auction in 2015 (see here) and there the trace ended, or so it seemed. But fortunately I was contacted yesterday by one of the new owners - Philip Caunt - who snapped it up at the auction together with Jeremy Guy. Philip restored the car over the past two years, just to have it ready for the 50th anniversary party of The Prisoner, held on 29 September in Portmeirion (where else?), where the illustrious series were filmed in the 1960s.

Philip wrote: "Here is 'HLT 709C', the fully restored original Mini Moke as seen in several episodes of The Prisoner, and once showing its true registration number in the episode 'Living in Harmony ' being driven by actor David Bauer as number 2. This Moke also appears being driven by Patrick McGoohan in the chase scene on the beach in Portmeirion."

"Built in May 1965, and registered in June in the London area, the car was converted by Wood & Pickett to a design which resembled a 'beach buggy' while the company 'Weircrest' were to market it. It was used in brochures, photo-shoots and publicity material, and by the London Hilton Hotel. One has to assume it was spotted by a member of the production crew as what they needed for the upcoming television show 'The Prisoner' (it actually was the other way 'round as W&P director Eddie Collins told me-JB). Based on this another 3 Mokes were converted to resemble this one, including 'CFC 916C' which was owned by Max Hora the owner of the Prisoner shop in the 1980s and 1990s. Indeed I owned and restored this Moke back in the 1990s and this vehicle now resides in Los Angeles with a Prisoner fan and Moke enthusiast. HLT 709C was taken down to Portmeirion in late 1966 to begin filming, closely followed by the other 3."

"Whilst filming it sustained damage to the front and had to be returned to London for repairs, the other Moke's covered its absence. After its fame in The Prisoner the car disappeared and its whereabouts were unknown, it appears to have spent time in the Sheffield area in the 1970s but after that the trail goes cold. It is rumoured to have been owned by a member of the production company although I have not been able to confirm this. Move forward to 2011 and it was discovered in Holland by a Mini enthusiast, still with its UK number plates, 'candy stripe roof' and Penny Farthing bonnet logo intact but obviously worse for wear."

"On to 2015 and the owner decides to sell and the car goes to auction at Car-Fest South, where after some keen bidding myself and the co-owner and long standing Prisoner fan Jeremy Guy are successful in buying the Moke. Upon taking delivery of the car (we did not view it before buying... sometimes you just know you want it!), I assessed what was needed for a full but sympathetic restoration, keeping everything I could to keep the car as original as possible, whilst obtaining anything else to bring it back to how it looked in 1966. Despite being in structurally poor condition, the mechanical side was good, including the uprated Cooper 998cc engine which was fitted in 1966 to give it a little more 'oomph' as this Moke had a towbar fitted to enable it to pull a small trailer (as seen in the series ). So the restoration began, many hours and much money was spent. Two years later on the 5th of September the MOT obtained... ready for the 50th Anniversary in Portmeirion. So here it is 51 years on from the filming here and 50 years from the series being first screened. I hope to take it along to a few shows next year ( 2018 ) and meet some of you. Until then... Be Seeing You. Philip M. Caunt" Thank you for that, Philip!

Back in Portmeirion after 50 years! Original Prisoner Moke is now fully restored

Picture Mandy Brookes

Philip restored the car in honour of the series. Prior to The Prisoner is was slightly different

Picture Mandy Brookes

Surrey top and interior are resplendent once more with correct 'candy stripe' fabric

Picture Mandy Brookes

Penny Farthing bonnet logo was 'worse for wear', but Philip managed to save it

Picture Mandy Brookes

Driving this through 'The Village' has to be the ultimate Prisoner experience! That's Philip Caunt behind the wheel, who now owns the car together with Jeremy Guy

Picture Mandy Brookes

Midas to Venice (and back)

Summer is over, but we've got the memories and the pictures to look back upon. Dutchman and -woman Ruud and Thirza de Leeuw took their Midas to Italy. Ruud wrote: "We went to Venice first and then to Tuscany and just had some minor troubles. In Austria it rained so heavily that the water began to work its way to the inside, but in Italy it was so hot that even the bottles of wine opened themselves! Because of constant high speeds oil consumption went up and we had to fill her up with a total of seven litres on 4,000 kms. Unfortunately water started leaking into the cylinder head, too, and we've temporarily solved this by adding an add-on to the cooling water (it worked)." I say: well done!

Austrian rain krept inside, but there was plenty of Italian sun to let the Midas dry again

Picture Ruud de Leeuw

Ruud and Thirza own the Midas for a couple of years, but the car came only on the road in 1989

Picture Ruud de Leeuw

"In Italy it was so hot that even the bottles of wine opened themselves!"

Picture Ruud de Leeuw

1275 Engine used 7 litres of oil and water started leaking into the cylinder head...

Picture Ruud de Leeuw

...But that didn't deter Thirza and Ruud to enjoy the car and Italy to the fullest!

Picture Ruud de Leeuw

Who coachbuilt Dame Margot's Mini?

There was some consternation lately about the sale of a Mini that was coachbuilt for the late ballet dancer Dame Margot Fonteyn (1919-1991) earlier this month. The car is an 850 Morris Mini Minor that was built in October 1961 and sold to Fonteyn and her Husband Roberto Arias, who was the Panamanian ambassador in London. '300 BXM' still retains its diplomatic CD plate under the rear number plate. In late '61 the car was sent to a London coachbuilder for paint and wicker work to be added and a change of colour is recorded in January '62 on the log book to black and yellow. Question now is who carried out the conversion? It's not unlike the mystery surrounded by Enzo Ferrari's Mini Cooper...

Bill Bell owns the unique VandenPlas Mini, which was built in April 1960 and which is believed to be the very first Mini to have been coachbuilt. He has been investigating the Margot Mini further and writes to me: "She kept it until 1972 when she moved to Panama to nurse her husband (he’s been shot and paralysed in the failed coup in Panama). The car was next given to their friend Keith Money, who was a painter, photographer and author. He owned it for the next 20 years but hardly used it. Still with a documented 25,000 miles on the clock it’s just been sold from long term storage having been used very little in the last 40 years. We have been trying to establish if Hooper (Motor services) Ltd. did the work over a year before the Sellers car. It can also have been been FLM Panelcraft who built some very special cars including a FX4 black cab with wicker work for a close friend of Margot and Roberto's: Nubar Gulbenkian."

"Either way the Sellers Hooper is a copy of this cars colour scheme and exterior look but taken to a whole different level. Any help would be very much appreciated in tracking down some early history of the car and the Hooper or Panelcraft records from the early 1960’s. It was obviously coachbuilt a good while after the VandenPlas Mini and after the Zagato Mini Gatto, but a good 12 months before the Sellers Hooper. Did Peter Sellers see Dame Margot driving her car around London and wanted the same look?"

"Len Chandler was in touch with Geoff Francis in the early 1990’s over his own wicker clad Mini. Geoff was the third generation of his family to carry out the art of coach lining and painting monograms etc and told him that the first Mini he ever applied the wicker to was the Margot Fonteyn Mini. Geoff worked from the coach houses at Buckingham Palace as a freelance. So he did all the wicker for all the major players like Panelcraft, Hooper and later Radford and W&P? Hooper where the official Royal approved coach builder for a long time before when we’re talking about, so it’s just an educated guess that Hooper where given the job and got Geoff in to do the job. But I can’t prove it yet. Geoff had a big black book of all the cars he ever did (some form of accounting book I guess) with each registration number and what he did and the cost. 300 BXM was in that book... Len and his wife sat and read that book for themselves and saw the Margot Fonteyn car in there. He can’t remember dates from over 20 years ago but he says it was in there 100%. Where that book is now is any ones guess..."

Dame Margot Fonteyn with her Morris Mini. The conversion dates back to late 1961 / early '62

Picture courtesy Keith Money via Bill Bell

Margot in the passenger seat in February 1964. Note that the interior was hardly changed

Picture Dove/Getty 

The car as it is now. Still very original and with just 25,000 documented miles on the clock

Picture Bill Bell

It is a very early coachbuilt Mini and even outdates the Peter Sellers Minis by Hooper and Radford

Picture Bill Bell

Original paint colour is still visible everywhere in the interior. Dame Margot was a small lady!

Picture Bill Bell

This Austin FX4 taxi cab was coachbuilt by FLM Panelcraft for Nubar Gulbenkian, a friend of Dame Margot. Were they the ones who did her Mini, too? Or was it Hooper?

Picture Bonhams auctioneers

Little Red Booster, the space framed Elf

I promised a little update on the Philip Oram Riley Special, also known as the Little Red Booster, that was bought by Scotsman Kevin Murray earlier this year (see here). I found an article on the car in an old issue of Auto Performance magazine and another written by the car's builder himself on the MiniSpares website. Welshman Oram bought the car in 1974 as a standard Mk1 Elf (for 55 pounds) but started modifying it immediately. Several engines went in, from 850 to Austin 1100, and MG 1100 rebored to 1150. Oram: "We toured Scotland in it, went on honeymoon to Cornwall, went camping in it all over the UK I finally insured it in my own name as it was in my Dads name for years. I also took it over to the 1980 Le Mans race and toured Brittany.

In the early 1980’s rust was eating its way into the body and so Oram decided it needed work and so started to drastically modify it as a fast road car with... a spaceframe. Most of the steel body was retained although the front was treated to a fibreglass flip front with impressive 4" bulge. The arches were widened with an equally impressive 5" flares all-round and the boot lid was now fibreglass, too. Now a short stroke 1298cc race engine was used to drive it and when finished after some 18 months, it was for the first time used for a hillclimb or sprint event every now and then. Oram: "I looked at 1430cc engines but I knew I needed a lot more power to be competitive. I wanted to supercharge the car but it was working out too expensive so the chap who sold me the short stroke engine managed to get me a lot of the turbo parts from British Leyland and from the racing Metro Turbos that Tony Pond raced in the BTCC’s. Turbo, head, block, dog box etc... I first ran the car at Pembrey and got my first award: a 3rd in class…I was chuffed to say the least as the car was still running low boost. We then fitted a 15lb actuator plus a bleed off valve for even more boost and the car really took off, literally it was a real handful as it could spin its wheels in any gear on road tyres... 'The Little Red Booster' was born. It was given that name by a fellow competitor. We had a great summer racing and I won a several events and famously beat a SWB ex works Audi Quattro Sport in Gurston Down’s 100th meeting by a 100th of a second."

However, when the regulations changed in 1991, the Elf could no longer race and was taken off the road and stored in Oram's garage. He then started a family, raced different cars (among them a Cox GTM) and almost sold the Little Red Booster. Almost. It stood there for years and years until the plan came to rebuild it with a very different engine. Oram started modifying the space frame, but that's when Kevin came in and took it home to Scotland. What's next? I'll give you another update when there's news.

There's no doubt Philip drove the car in anger! Still road legal here

Picture courtesy MiniSpares

Turbo charged Elf became soon known as 'Little Red Booster'

Picture Brian Davage

2500 hours of work went into rebuilding a standard 1963 Mk1 Riley Elf into this

Picture Brian Davage

Cover star of Auto Performance magazine in 1981

Picture Jeroen Booij

Flip front hid 1298cc engine, good for 125-130bhp at the flywheel

Picture courtesy Minispares

Le Mans Mini Marcos: wheels and much more

Time for a little update on the Le Mans Mini Marcos project. I spent the last couple of months mainly on tracking down parts for the car, some of which proved very difficult. To start with the wheels, I managed to track another ultra-rare set. Working from an ever-growing photographic database, I found out that monsieur Hrubon and his little team probably used three sets of wheels at Le Mans, one of them being early magnesium Minilites, the other two ultra-rare magnesiums made by Deep Sanderson man Chris Lawrence and his mate John Pearce (of later JAP Magna fame) in 1964. They are slightly different from the later magnesium Tec-Del Minilites, although you have to know. I think Lawrence and Pearce may well have sold the design to them. How many sets they cast back in '64 is also unknown, but there cannot have been many. Two, three, four perhaps? The Deep Sanderson 301 Le Mans entry used them in 1964 (not during tests and not in '63 when they ran on steels) but the only (kind of) current pictures of these wheels that I knew of could be seen on a Unipower GT that's in Japan. That was all. Now, as I wrote before Philippe Quirriere found what has to be the original set of my car back in his vast stock, but I recently got hold of another set! Mini racer Bob Bennetts contacted me months ago that he had a set of four, too. It took some time to negotiate with Bob, but eventually we managed to make a deal and I picked up the wheels last August in the UK. By this time they are fully refurbished and shod with the correct Dunlop Racing tyres, ready to roll.

Oh, and there is much, much more. I now also have complete sticker sets as worn at Le Mans, not one but two of the correct Sprinzel Rallye 2 seats, the five Marchal parking lights needed, which are very hard to find if you don't want to spend 200 pounds each on them and even the ultra-rare fuel filler cap that was a mystery for such a long time! I'll make more pictures soon.

The wheels on my wagon, set 1: Lawrence/Pearce made magnesium wheels in white

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Set 2: the same Lawrence/Pearce made wheels, but now with the outer rim unpainted

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Set 3: the early magnesium Tec-Del Minilites in black used at the rear

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

This set of the 1964 Lawrence/Pearce wheels turned up recently. They are fully refurbished now

Picture Jeroen Booij

Seen here in similar colour scheme, as used on the 1964 Deep Sanderson 301 at Le Mans. 

This set may well be the same one as seen above..?

Picture Jeroen Booij archive 

This Unipower GT wears them at the front, too. The car is in Japan now. If you have ever come across these wheels yourself, please let me know

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Barclay Mini Bug resurfaces

Visitors of the Maximum Mini display at the IMM 2016 in Belgium may remember a bright orange Barclay Mini Bug. This is a rare version of the Stimson Mini Bug built under a license in Holland (more here) and I thought it could well be the only survivor. Well, it isn't. The owner of the orange car, Andre de Wit, has now found another! It's not much more then a bare shell, but Andre says a full build/restoration is planned never the less. He tells me: "The guy, at one stage, had two of them together with his father. One of these had become so detoriated as it stood outside for most of its life that they decided to scrap it. This one does have a registration number and comes with all the necessary parts." Isn't that just great? Thanks Andre!

The Barclay Mini Bug, a Stimson Mini Bug built under a license in Holland

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Andre's Barclay at the Maximum Mini display in 2016, together with Schmitt and Twinny Scamp

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

That's Andre with his ultra rare Barclay that he restored over a period of time. His first!

Picture Jeroen Booij

And that's the second example he now has! It's just a bare shell, but all the parts to turn it into a car are there. What's more: it comes with a Dutch registration number, too

Picture Andre de Wit

Moulded-in Barclay Mini Bug name in his first car leaves no doubt about its Dutch origins

Picture Jeroen Booij

...and the same name in the second car. Previous owner even had another but scrapped that

Picture Andre de Wit