Having returned from the UK, I can look back on a week with some fantastic meetings but also with some real downsides, too. Things started pretty gloomy when the fuel pump of my beloved Saab decided the time had come to stop pumping fuel on the night before leaving for Calais. Thanks to my garage we could fit a new one just in time, but then I still wasn't prepared for the terrible traffic jam around Antwerp, which caused me to miss my ferry. And my first appointment. More trouble lay ahead, but let's focus on the good things first: the people I met. Thanks guys, you've been great! I took hundreds of photographs, so let's scroll through a small selection here.
That's Andrew MacLean of the Scamp Motor Company welding another chassis. He's done hundreds!
Picture Jeroen Booij
While this machine has made all the body panels for all the Scamps that were ever sold
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Andrew then brought me over to a field where he knew one very special RTV had been parked up
It's certainly worth a story on its own
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This man is mister Santos and he is the curator of the UK's largest classic car collection.
The warehouse behind him stores only one half of it, but was too big to photograph in full!
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I was given a grand tour and was left amazed. While focussing on the top end of the market, this collection also houses some Mini derivatives. Hustler Sixes for example
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And how about this Wood & Pickett Mini? - a car that was previously featured in Maximum Mini
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Master of the coachbuilt Minis is Steve Burkinshaw, here in his Hertfordshire based workshop.
We had a truly lovely day and made some great plans for the future
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The number of coachbuilt Minis that Steve restored over the last decades is quite unbelievable.
And then the stories that he tells about them!
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A typical car you'd find in his front garden, one with great provenance. More special stuff behind
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Over to the Midlands. Stimson-fan Paul Wylde managed to buy this Stimson Scorcher two weeks ago. Did he want to take it out for me to do a photoshoot? Oh, yes
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And his mate George Marsh came over, too, bringing a beautifully built Domino Pimlico
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Next stop: Worcestershire, where I bumped into some genuine barn finds.
Some real obscurities there! Recognize some?
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The one I actually came for was outside. It's the long-lost Micron GT! More to follow
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Havoc struck when, on a particularly dark and deserted Lincolnshire road, out of nowhere a couple of deer stood right in front of me while I traveled at 50mph, damaging my beloved Saab
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One deer was hit at the right side and one at the left. I never found them as it was so pitch dark.
These pictures were taken the next morning
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Don't say I just hit a tree. My mate who is into the game trade told me this was the hair of fallow deer
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ABS boss Tony Bucknall made up for it though, spending much of a day to show me around his place and talk about his passion for Mini derivatives. He has quite a few!
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Oh, and did he want to push out the mighty CJC Bison for a full photo shoot, before I went to catch my ferry back? Of course he wanted that!
Picture Jeroen Booij
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