A Wood & Pickett mystery Mini

Trevor Ripley owns a lovely Mini Cooper 'S', which was coachbuilt by Wood & Pickett, but what misses is the history from its early days. He wrote to me hoping I could possibly fill in a bit: "Hi Jeroen. With recent forum posts referring to W&P, it has prompted me to have another go at trying to research the history of my W&P Cooper S, built 20/12/66 and first registered 9/2/68. It must have been at W&P for conversion in 1967. After Hayley Mills' but presumably before Lawrence Harvey's cars. Any ideas where this fits in?"

I had a good look to see what I thought and wether I had any pictures of it or of similar cars. Well, there are some clear similarities to other early W&P converted cars but nothing substantial unfortunately. Trevor did tell me a bit more though:

"I bought the car 15 years ago. The guy I bought it from had it since 1991. The previous owner to him was a lady from West-London. I have googled her address and satellite image shows a large house with swimming pool, so she sounds to have been pretty well off. No records going further back unfortunately. It looks like the car remained in the London area until I got it. Supplied new to Ironbridge Garages, Southall, Middlesex as Tartan Red / Black. Then presumably to W&P. There must have only been very few MK1's converted by W&P as Mk2's were out in Autumn 67 onwards. The car is still totally original as from W&P. Unrestored and doesn't need it. It would be great to find who the original owner was but I doubt I will ever know unfortunately. Unfortunately I should have requested a history check from DVLA when I first got the car when I had the chance. Nowadays they will not give any information due to the GDPR rules. Hopefully something may come to light in the future. Cheers. Trevor"

Maybe someone out here knows more about it?

TGP 222F is a rare Mk1 Mini Cooper 'S' that received the W&P treatment

Picture courtesy Trevor Ripley

Original Tartan Red just visible under bumper. But "Unrestored and doesn't need it"

Picture courtesy Trevor Ripley

Early Wood & Pickett Minis had a dashboard like this. Not yet full of gadgets

Picture courtesy Trevor Ripley

Seats are Microcell Recliners. Also note matching rear seat and door cards

Picture courtesy Trevor Ripley