Building a Broadspeed GT replica

I keep on receiving questions about how to build or where to buy a Broadspeed GT replica roof but I don't have any of these roofs available, leave alone that I have any knowledge to build them. What I did find was a number of photographs taken in the Church Green Engineering premises in Dorset in 1995, where Paul Weldon and Geoff Branston were building replica GTs with aluminium body conversions at the time. The cars (they built only three as far as I know) were later marketed as the Marspeed GTO and offered for sale from 8,295 GBP ex-VAT. I hope you guys will enjoy these pictures.

UPDATE 31 August: Richard Hawcroft writes: "Jeroen, I actually know the bloke who made those wire frames for the Broadspeed cars. When they had finished with them they left them outside as some sort of garden feature, I have seen photos of them with flowers and what not in them. He actually restores Astons for a living, so is used to wire frame stuff. But as far as I know that body was steel, so it was all just welded, the wire form was just the ‘buck’ for forming the metal parts." He's promised to ask him about the construction and is on a hunt for the garden ornament photographs. Thanks Richy!

A steel frame was made and fitted as a 'buck' to this (then-brand new) Mini Sprite

Picture Jeroen Booij archive 

Fast forward several weeks and some serious elbow grease and frame and Mini are blended

Picture Jeroen Booij archive 

This is another (Cooper based) car which is further ahead in the process. Note buck behind

Picture Jeroen Booij archive 

Aluminium body is clad over the frame. Note boot door which the original never had

Picture Jeroen Booij archive 

Yet another car (just three were made in total) about to receive the finishing touches

Picture Jeroen Booij archive 

And the finished product. This Sprite based car went to Japan and still remains there

Picture Jeroen Booij archive 

And this is the red Cooper based car after it was finished. I believe it stayed in the UK

Picture Jeroen Booij archive 

Rear door gives access to remarkably spacious boot...

Picture Jeroen Booij archive 

...also thanks to the folding down rear seat inside. Pretty clever

Picture Jeroen Booij archive 

Standard Mini Cooper (carburetor) engine of the 1990s

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

H734 CHR was finished in Summer 1995. Where is it now?

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Nimrod on its way to recovery in Austria

A Nimrod that was seen for sale in Germany has now finally found a new owner in Austria: Jan Krieger, who contacted me about the project. He wrote: "I found it by scrolling through Ebay to find an engine for my Mini convertible. There was an old engine with this buggy and so I found it... and bought it. Than I started Googling what this thing actually is, and read more about it. I knew Mike Jupp's (the Nimrod's designer-JB) jigsaw puzzle designs but knew nothin about the car. But the more I read the more I got hooked. So after two days I knew enough to decide it is not just an engine donor - it was one more project! And after 3 days I wanted to build one which can swim/float, too! Now that it is here I must say it looks pretty horrible, with the condition being worse than expected, although it is repairable. I might try to mould some gull wing doors for winter use, we will see. But first I need to weld a new chassis frame, repair the body and engine and rebuild the interior. I think the engine is a 1300 Innocenti with the wrong carburetors but then with this car nothin is original."

"Meanwhile I started a little research too. This Nimrod is the black one that was shipped over to Germany. It is not one of the original 4 built, Mike Jupp believes, but it's a 1983 TACCO (Talbott Alternative Car Company) made Nimrod. I found the guy who built this car as he was a member of the Nimrod Owners Club and it's the black one on the left on the picture with the 4 cars in 1985. He said it's the second and last car Nigel Talbott laid himself. All kits after that were made by professional layers so this is supposedly not the best quality one."

"I also found that the mouldings still exist by Fiberglass Applications and they are refurbishable. Anyway... when I get the car fixed I want to drive it from Austria to Mike in the UK as he wants to do some graphic on it and I want to meet some other people and look for some spare parts. Perhaps I build a new chassis, buy an old Mini and build a new Nimrod, moulding a bottom plate and laminate it together to one piece. Greetings from Austria, Jan"

The Nimrod as it was seen for sale in Germany

Picture Autoscout.de / Jeroen Booij archive

Q24 NYA is believed to be the 2nd Nimrod built by Nigel Talbott

Picture Autoscout.de / Jeroen Booij archive

Jan thinks the engine is an Innocenti 1300 but he's not sure

Picture Autoscout.de / Jeroen Booij archive 

It is now in Austria with Jan: "I must say it looks pretty horrible!"

Picture Jan Krieger

Jan wants to restore it never the less and drive it over to the UK when finished

Picture Jan Krieger

Plywood floor is mostly gone. Chassis is very very rusty, too

Picture Jan Krieger

"First I need to weld a new chassis frame, repair the body and engine and rebuild the interior"

Picture Jan Krieger

Q24 NYA had been off the radar for ages - it was seen here at the 1985 Stoneleigh Kit Car show

Picture Mark Thursfield / Mini Marcos Owners Club

London, August 1971, Emperor Rosko, Stimson Mini Bug

About 50 years ago American-born deejay Emperor Rosko was the man to listen to when pop music was your passion. The BBC Radio 1 DJ seemed to be a real-life Austin Powers at the time if you ask me. I was sent this lovely picture of Rosko with some dolly birds in a Mini Moke in Central London, taken in August 1971. The Moke doesn't seem to have been quite a standard car with those extra headlights, but look behind it. That's a Stimson Mini Bug. I checked the registration and think it may well have been 'NCD 897G', which was sold back in 2011. That's 10 years ago also! Where is it now..?

DJ Emperor Rosko with three dolly birds and a Mini Moke in London, August 1971

Picture Getty images

Groovy, Baby! Emperor Rosko was at the height of his fame in the late 1960s / early 1970s

Picture Getty images

The girls are Sherri Lynn, Sue Bond and Sue Shaw, but look behind: there's a Mini Bug

Picture Runamoke

Same car, I think, as seen offered for sale back in 2011 and looking for some tlc

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

NCD 897G must have been the same car. Where is this Stimson Mini Bug now?

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Taylorspeed Jem - only 4 built says reader and Jem owner

An interesting message from Carlo Meschino of Australia, who owns an Australian built Mini Jem - number 5 from Down Under with only the first four cars built by John Taylor, he believes. Carlo wrote:

"Greetings from Adelaide, South Australia. My name is Carlo Meschino and I am the registered owner of the original Taylorspeed Jem RKP-850 built by Sigmund Kwiatkowski which was featured in the February 1974 edition of Sports Car World. I bought the car in 1977 from Sigmund who abandoned it in his back yard serving as a dog kennel where the soft interior was totally chewed up. He had bought himself a DeTomaso Pantera. The body however, is unmolested and in exceptional structural condition. As John Taylor only built 4 Taylorspeed Jems, then the one I have would be the 5th Australian built Jem and the only one to my knowledge that has provenance. I also own the rights to the registration plates RWW-019 but not the car being the original Taylorspeed Jem built by John Taylor featured in the June 1969 edition of Sports Car World."

"I met John Taylor at his Lotus dealership Taylors of Medindie in Adelaide who gave me 20 minutes of his time not long after buying mine. He was an interesting, well accomplished and very helpful person. He gave me some of the original type written documents setting out the prices for the Jem when first marketed but he had moved on. I also met Sigmund Kwiatkowski’s business partner, Neil Murrie at his Henley Beach Road Petrol Station back in the day, a real nice fellow. He had himself made his own Taylorspeed Jem for racing which was up for sale and out of my league but I was fortunate enough to score a brand new high rise bonnet to suit a Webber carburettor which was hanging off the service station workshop wall for $40.00."

"Research suggests that the John Taylor’s original car was storm damaged by cyclone Tracy in 1974 in Darwin Northern Territory, Australia and later sold with its eventual fate unknown. (see more here)"

"One of the John Taylor built Jems was shipped over to America in early 1970 as a promotional vehicle and it can be identified by its straight flat dashboard whereas the Kwiatkowski/Murrie built Jems had incorporated a curving centre console with the dashboard (that car can be seen here)."

"Other Taylorspeed Jem variants exist as a number of bodies were built and sold by Kwiatkowski locally and to interstate buyers who then rebadged the body or added further modifications such as the square bottomed rear window etc. The variant branded the Alda Jem advertised in 1970 in Sydney (click here) would have been an original John Taylor Taylorspeed Jem as Kwiatkowski/Murrie only started building Jem bodies in 1973/74."

"The original Taylorspeed moulds still in existence and show the back window or body was never changed or modified (click here). I have shown an account for three of the original John Taylor built Taylorspeed Jems and I have an inkling (but could be wrong) that the 4th car unaccounted for is the one raced by Sue Elliot in Western Australia having seen the bare body by chance when buying a cylinder head from the owner in Western Australia whilst on holidays in the late 70’s but I can’t remember if the body had the moulded centre console as part of the dashboard. Cheers Carlo."

That's quite a lot of information! Thank you for sharing Carlo, and please keep me posted on your car's restoration.

'RKP-850' was the fifth Mini Jem made in Australia, says reader Carlo Meschino

Picture Carlo Meschino

It was not made by Taylorspeed but by Sigmund Kwiakowski, who built and marketed the Jem also

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

That's Carlo's Aussie-built Jem, awaiting its restoration. He bought it in 1977 from Kwiakowski

Picture Carlo Meschino

"I also own the rights to the registration plates RWW-019 but not the car", says Carlo

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Gerry Anderson's Mini Moke camera car has a twin!

An article about the special Mini Moke six-wheeler camera car that was used by filmer Gerry Anderson for his UFO series has recently been brought under the attention. Reason for me to dig deeper into its history. You can see the earlier article with several pictures here. I've now included many more and found out quite a lot more also.

I must admit I'm not so sure anymore wether the vehicle was made solely for Gerry Anderson, as I found it could be hired for many years by camera and filming equipment supplier Samuelson Film Service Ltd. of London, which offered an incredible collection of machinery to the filming industry. The number of camera cars alone was truly impressive with all sorts of camera vehicles. And the Moke was not alone either, as there were two of them. You've seen the first one, an Austin Mini Moke based six-wheeler registered RYW 677F in September 1967 as used for filming UFO. I have scraped together several new images of that car and they are all attached below.

But there was a second car, registered OYF 445F as a Morris Mini Moke in June 1968. Like its Austin sister car this one was also fitted with a 1300 engine for extra power and also came in blue with maroon accents since these were Samuelson's company colours. Both cars had names of their own also: Sam Minimook and Sam 'Casperised' Minimook, with the latter being the Morris and having extra additional camera platforms and adjustable tubular extensions to mount cameras in every possible position. I have found several pictures of that car, too.

Some of these are 'behind the scenes' shots taken during the filming. One shows OYF 445F at the set of the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Brodie. Another shot of it was taken during the filming of Dad's Army in 1970. Funnily the Morris can be seen in action in one movie also: The Games, about a couple of athletes preparing for the Olympic Games with them being filmed from the Morris Sam Minimoook. Avid Maximum Mini reader Henk van Brakel saw the car in action in London in the early to mid-1980s and was quick enough to point his camera at it. Anyone who recognizes the backdrop from a particular movie..? 

The last sighting of the Morris car was in 1988 when it was part of the famous Patrick Collection in Birmingham and on display in its museum. Is it still there? It was last taxed in December 1985 while its Austin sibling was last taxed in May 1987...

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RYW 677F was a six-wheeler Mini Moke that could be hired to the filming industry, here during filming of Gerry Anderson's tv-series UFO in 1970

Picture ufoseries.com

Another shots of it in action filming Ayshea Brough (not Wanda Ventham as I thought before)

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

These behind the scenes pictures keep on turning up, this one being a new one also

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Another behind the scenes shot from UFO (1970) with RYW 677F again visible

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

This is an unusual picture with the hood up and a Dutch (1969) number plate. Why was that?

Picture Scouse73 / Flickr

The Moke as the center piece on the cover of Samuelson Film Service Ltd's 1975/6 brochure

Picture Samuelson Film Service Ltd

But it wasn't alone. There were two of them named Sam Minimook and Sam 'Casperised' Minimook

Picture Samuelson Film Service Ltd

The latter was a Morris registered OYF 445F and is seen here during the filming of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in 1969, filming actress Maggie Smith. Director Ronald Neame is in the car

Picture Rotten Tomatoes 

And it can be seen - only just - in the background here, during filming of Dad's Army in 1970

Picture The Mirror

And not just behind the scenes. It's seen briefly on screen in the 1970 movie The Games

Picture imcdb.com

Spotted in action in London by Henk van Brakel in the early to mid-1980s. What were they filming?

Picture Henk van Brakel

This picture was taken in Samuelson Film Service Ltd's workshop in 1980. Note blue hood

Picture Samuelson Film Service Ltd

Eventually the car ended up in The Patrick Collection in Birmingham. This is it in 1988

Picture Henk van den Hurk / Autovisie

In The Patrick Collection again, note odd badge Samini-Moook. Where is it now..?

Picture Elliott Brown

Ringo Starr's hatchback Mini restored

Right before the world got acquainted with Covid early last year, I was in the UK to speak to Steve Burkinshaw, the master restorer of coachbuilt Minis. Steve showed me around his workshop where one of the cars under restoration was the famous Hooper hatchback of Ringo Starr.

He usually doesn't restore cars for others, but when a Mini with a strong connection to The Beatles comes around he'll make an exception, so the Ringo Starr hatchback ticked all the boxes. As a real Beatles-fan it is a car he has loved for decades, but one he could never afford. But when the famous Mini was sold a few years ago, it was nothing more than logical that it ended up here after all. It was urgently in need of a restoration and Burkinshaw turned out to be the only one with the expertise. 

Steve told me: "It was bought by Geri Halliwell, you know, from The Spice Girls, and together with her husband Christian Horner they sometimes come here in one of those very special Aston Martins, to see how things are going. The whole street comes out to have a look then!” Previously, the couple also bought Paul McCartney's Radford Mini, which was restored in this workshop also. Steve: "Ringo only had his Mini from 1966 to 1968 and after him there were several owners who gave it a number of modifications of their own. I first saw it when it was owned by an antiques dealer, but by that time someone had already given it a makeover somewhere in the early seventies, all in the fashion of the day. They had removed the rain gutters; the original wheel arches and put it on polished Wolfrace wheels. The sidelights in the b-pillars were also removed with the holes filled, while the original Regal Red, a Rolls-Royce colour, was changed to blue with silver and later to red with silver. It was in a very bad state. A 1992 magazine article mentions how they carried out an earlier restoration and it's interesting to read how they got it wrong then”. 

That's all been put back now, and last week he dropped me another line: "I’ve now finished the work on the Ringo Hooper, which is being collected this Friday, I thought I’d never finish it!" It looks marvelous in pictures and I can't wait to see the real thing when traveling is allowed once more. Thanks Steve!

LLO 836D - Ringo Starr's Mini is fully restored to its original condition again

Picture courtesy Steve Burkinshaw

The hatchback conversion was famously made so that Starr could carry his drumming gear

Picture courtesy Steve Burkinshaw

The car has had a number of colour changes in the past and was restored at least once before

Picture courtesy Steve Burkinshaw

1275 Cooper 'S' power, naturally. Steve's attention to detail is fantastic

Picture courtesy Steve Burkinshaw

The car's interior is luxurious but not over the top, typical for a Hooper  

Picture courtesy Steve Burkinshaw

'Mister Margrave' Steve Burkinshaw in his workshop last year. Ringo's Mini at the back

Picture Jeroen Booij

"It was in a very bad state and it's interesting to read how they got it wrong earlier"

Picture Jeroen Booij

Quasar Unipower film car survives in France

The Quasar Unipower seen in the French movie 'Elle boit pas, elle fume pas, elle drague pas, mais... elle cause!' driven by the late Mireille Darc (film footage here), appears to survive in great shape in Toulouse, France. 

A number of pictures of the car were posted recently by French garage 'Old Cars City' which did some maintenance work on it, adding: "The owner has had it for a long time, it's part of a collection of over 30 unlikely cars." Apart from the French cult movie, the car with plates '610-VA 75' was seen in a few publications in the period as well.

Quasar Unipower film star survives in Toulouse, France in long-term ownership

Picture Old Cars City

The car is said to be part of a 30-car strong collection. That's a Bond three-wheeler next to it

Picture Old Cars City

Chrome passenger bar is missing, number plates have changed but this is said to be it

Picture Old Cars City

1100 engine with automatic transmission was standard equipment for Quasars

Picture Old Cars City

Same car seen here with Mireille Darc driving it in the 1970 French cult film named...

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

...'Elle boit pas, elle fume pas, elle drague pas, mais... elle cause!' in which Darc plays a TV host

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

'610 VA 75' is seen here with its creators Emanuelle and Quasar Khanh plus children in Paris 

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

And again in a saucy cover shot for French Adam magazine

Picture Jeroen Booij archive