ABS to relaunch Alto Boxer kits

Don't think the Mini derivative is dead. After last week's launch of the Mengers Beach Mini (click) it is time for the next relaunch: that of the Alto Boxer. You will know by now that ABS Motorsport boss Tony Bucknall has a great ability of tracking down long-lost Mini based kit cars or their moulds, and he did just that with the moulds for the Boxer a while ago. He wrote: "They were stored in a lockup/garage, which was collapsing and it was at a point it had to be cleared."

Remarkably, an extra front end that came with the set is different to how we know it. Tony: "That front end mould isn’t the Boxer, but yes it's certainly for a Mini, the door and scuttle all look right. And yes there will be enough height clearance where the rocker top is. I don’t recall such a front end ever being on the market though." Same here.

The Alto Boxer never was a great seller but Tony never the less made a set from the complete moulds and will be happy to sell you one if you like. He continued: "I am going to offer the Boxer composites separately and as base kits for people to do their own cabrio conversion if they choose to. The actual body kit will work with out the Mini being cabrio’d however I am not sure how it would look! I have set up a section on the website for Mini based kit car composites, and will add the pieces as I get time (click here). I will also add the Stimson bug and the McCoy parts as I get time...       

Kudos to you Tony!

The Alto Boxer was a Targa conversion with a wild body kit of the 1990s

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Ultimate conversion? Very few were sold up until 1997 when production was stopped

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

But ABS boss Tony Bucknall found the kit's complete set of moulds recently

Picture Tony Bucknall

This is the mystery mould coming with the lot. Tony and I have never seen it before

Picture Tony Bucknall

A brand new set laminated from the moulds - kits are being offered by ABS now

Picture Tony Bucknall

All the different body parts for the Alto Boxer are there, including the hardtop

Picture Tony Bucknall

The kit exists of a great number of bits. The Boxer used Peugeot 205 rear lights

Picture Tony Bucknall

Rare example of a Alto Boxer Mini with not the full kit fitted to it. 

This one was restored over a long period of time by Scotsman Andy Middleditch

Picture courtesy Andy Middleditch

Mini Coupe - made by Browne & Sons Ltd.

This car has found its way to Maximum Mini several times before. Last time was in 2015 (click here), when it was offered for sale in Connecticut, USA. I always thought it to be an ABS coupe-conversion but its background story was slightly different. ABS boss Tony Bucknall told me at the time it was made from the same moulding, but: "This is one of the conversions done by a company in Norfolk. I purchased a really strange set of body kit moulds and the roof moulding from a gentleman who had ceased trading several years prior. The only images I have seen where that Clubman which was used on a black and white advertising flyer."

Well, now that the car has been offered for sale once again, this time with auctioneers Barret Jackson, the mystery of that Norfolk company seems to be solved. From the ad: "The roof was replaced with a fiberglass unit. This alteration changed the roofline behind the front seats, making it more streamlined. The work was done early in the car's life in Norfolk, U.K., by Browne & Sons Ltd." The car was sold in auction last weekend, see the ad here.

This 1975 Mini Coupe was made by Brownse & Sons of Norfolk in the UK

Picture Barret Jackson auctioneers

The car supposedly made it to a flyer also. Anyone here who has a copy of that?

Picture Barret Jackson auctioneers

ABS took over the roof moulds and made a few also, but it remains a real rarity

Picture Barret Jackson auctioneers

Back from the UK - what a trip!

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

Picture Jeroen Booij

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

Picture Jeroen Booij

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!

Picture Jeroen Booij

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 

Picture Jeroen Booij

And how about this Wood & Pickett Mini? - a car that was previously featured in Maximum Mini

Picture Jeroen Booij

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

Picture Jeroen Booij

The number of coachbuilt Minis that Steve restored over the last decades is quite unbelievable. 

And then the stories that he tells about them! 

Picture Jeroen Booij

A typical car you'd find in his front garden, one with great provenance. More special stuff behind

Picture Jeroen Booij

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

Picture Jeroen Booij

And his mate George Marsh came over, too, bringing a beautifully built Domino Pimlico 

Picture Jeroen Booij

Next stop: Worcestershire, where I bumped into some genuine barn finds. 

Some real obscurities there! Recognize some?

Picture Jeroen Booij

The one I actually came for was outside. It's the long-lost Micron GT! More to follow

Picture Jeroen Booij

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

Picture Jeroen Booij

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

Picture Jeroen Booij

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

Picture Jeroen Booij

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!

Picture Jeroen Booij

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

Quite a line up of Mini derivative shells and moulds!

Arch Maximum Mini enthusiast Tony Bucknall of ABS MotorSport has been buying, selling, building and modifying Mini based cars and moulds for them for decades now, and continues to do so. As a matter of fact he has just emptied one factory of its composite shells and moulds as he plans an expansion of his premises. That gave quite a nice overview of Tony's projects, amassed over the years. Mind you: there is lots more in ABS' Alladin's cave, but what we see here, from left to right:

McCoy moulds with extra moulds for skirts plus the estate (McIvoy)
Mould for a lowered Mini race shell with added arches
Mould for a MiniSprint replica
Complete shell for a Stimson Mini Bug
Shell for a space framed MonteCarlo Mini
Shell for a space framed Mini Dominator
A complete full fibreglass bodied FRA Mini
Complete shell of a TiCi including moulded-in interior
Complete shell of a Domino Pimlico
Complete shell of a Phoenix Estate
MINI Countryman display shell

Thank you very much for sharing Tony!

Panoramic view of some of Tony's projects, shells and moulds

Picture Tony Bucknall / ABS MotorSport

This is the McCoy with all the moulds including those for added skirts plus the estate option

Picture Tony Bucknall / ABS MotorSport

Space framed Minis? Tony is your man if you want to build one

Picture Tony Bucknall / ABS MotorSport

A Stimson Mini Bug in its bare essence

Picture Tony Bucknall / ABS MotorSport

FRA Mini, TiCi, Domino Pimlico or Phoenix Estate, you'll find it here!

Picture Tony Bucknall / ABS MotorSport

Mystery Mini Coupe getting less mysterious

Michael Nahar of Connecticut, USA got in touch as he'd seen a Mini Coupe. This Mini Coupe. And he wondered if I knew more about it by now as he was offered the car recently. Well, I didn't know more but thought it may well have been an ABS roof conversion and so asked ABS boss Tony Bucknall. Tony came back instantly: "Hi Jeroen, that is one of the conversions done by a company in Norfolk, it's the same moulding, yes. Unfortunately our Coupe roof was taken off the sales list two weeks ago as we took the mould out of the storage container to make one for a customer in Ireland, only to find the mould has been effected by Osmosis and is now useless. So that clubman is even rarer now!"

I asked him if he remembered the name of the Norfolk company, but unfortunately he did not: "I purchased a really strange set of body kit moulds and the roof moulding from a gentleman who had ceased trading several years prior. It was late 90's when I bought them, so it may well have been trading in the 80's. The only images I have seen where that Clubman which was used on a black and white advertising flyer, and a red mini with the body kit fitted, the body kit had a large box shape on the front bumper/grill area, it looked like a cage on the front of the car!" I hope he or somebody else will be able to find that ad one day.

Meanwhile, Michael had a look at the car earlier this week and came back to me, too: "I was let down by the car's detailing, with the fiberglass clearly visible from inside. Under the rear screen, pop rivets are visible through the paint and the same goes for the boot. I believe it will need some work where the fiberglass is mounted on the steel body although the car seems to be sound structurally. The doors close beautifully and the seems are all okay. It's a pity that the rear side windows have just been glued in though. What do you think?" Well, I quite like the car, even alone it was for its rarity. You won't find another in the USA - I'm quite sure of that!

A Mini Coupe, believed to have been created in Norfolk in the 1980s

Picture courtesy Michael Nahar

That's a British plate dating back to 1974. But the car ended up in the USA

Picture courtesy Michael Nahar

Detailing could be better, but the colour scheme is definitely cool. Is that a Marina logo?

Picture courtesy Michael Nahar

MiniSprint shells back in production

Good news from ABS Motorsport's Tony Bucknall, who writes: "Hello Jeroen, I am sure you are aware, but just in case you are not, the Sprint shells are now back in production. After a long drawn out issue with a company in Scotland who 'loaned' the moulds from the previous owner to produce electric cars, but did nothing but make a few shells and damage the moulds. The moulds now belong to ourselves ABS Motorsport, have been refurbished, and are back in production." And Tony decided to offer a whole range of possibilities, from an empty shell only for space framed cars to a full carbon fibre composite body kit with all the necessary parts with prices ranging from 800- to 7,495 GBP, see here for the full product portfolio.

Meanwhile, the Peel Viking body moulds have also turned up for sale again (see here and 4 years ago, here), and I thought they were also ABS's. I was wrong, as Tony states: "I have never had the Peel Viking Moulds, we could never come to a deal over them, they are still owned by the same person who has had them for years. I brokered a deal to hire the moulds and we offered a hybrid of the Viking and a Sprint (here) as the waist line was the same so it would have been a possible conversion for us to do, but the deal was withdrawn when the moulds where apparently sold. But they are still with the same owner. I do have an interesting project that I will be playing with later this year subject to our touring car work letting me have some free time, I will try and keep you in the loop as it progresses!" Do keep us posted!

Composite Sprint shells are available now from ABS Motorsports in Lincolnshire

Picture courtesy Tony Bucknall

Fully space framed Minis remain popular and a ABS' Sprint shell is very light

Picture courtesy Tony Bucknall

The moulds for the Peel Viking are still for sale, too, but ABS have nothing to do with these

Picture courtesy Andy Carter

An ABS Freestyle down the street

I would never have believed that a Mini based buggy has been lurking in a barn about a mile from my house, but it turned out to be just so! Some years ago I came across a local Mk1 Mini Marcos and found another Mk1 a year later, which lives in Finland now, but both of these weren't as close by as the car below. A neighbor told me last week about it. He'd been chatting to a local man with a project car - Mini powered and rear engined - in his garage very, very local to where I live. I had no idea what to expect but was hoping for a good old DIY design, the quirkier the better. You can imagine my curiosity when we went there to have a look. I was somewhat disappointed when the car in question turned out to be an unfinished ABS Freestyle, but had to admit this was all rather nice to see one such car so close by.

The project was started at around 2003 by Wim Lubbers in his father's garage. Wim's dad Martin even built a little extension for him to work on the ABS. Wim got quite far and placed a 998 engine, fitted all of the suspension, brakes and steering. He also sourced headlights, ATS 13" wheels and most of the other parts necessary. But then he got married, had children and the project stalled. The wiring loom was never fitted and the plans to take it over to the UK for registration never materialized. And so the Freestyle, some fifteen years later, still resides in the purpose made extension while it never turned a wheel under its own power. Wim may finish it one day, he's not sure yet. If he decides to sell it, I'll let you know. Meanwhile, have a good look around your place - you never know what to expect.

An ABS Freestyle on a mile's distance from my house - I wouldn't have believed it!

Picture Jeroen Booij

Wim Lubbers started the project of building it in 2003 but never finished it

Picture Jeroen Booij

All of the suspension in place, although rubbers may need replacing after another 15 years…

Picture Jeroen Booij

Clutch, brakes and steering rack are all fitted in ABS' frame but need finishing touches

Picture Jeroen Booij

Engine is a 998 and is just about ready to be fired up. The Freestyle never ran

Picture Jeroen Booij

New derivative is a cross breed

It's not every day that a brand new Mini derivative is offered for sale, so when that does happen it surely deserves attention here. Well, there we go. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Sprint GT by ABS Motorsport of Market Rasen. No, it's not a resurrected MiniSprint and neither a reborn Broadspeed GT. According to ABS "This Sprint GT GRP bodyshell is a sleek interpretation based on a mix of the MiniSprints and the Broadspeed GTs from the 1960's and 70's."

But you'd be foulish not to spot the real basis used for the new Sprint GT: it is the Peel Viking Minisport as designed by Peel Engineering on the Isle of Man in the mid 1960s. ABS started offering repro Viking shells some time ago, but very few were made. Perhaps it could do better with a new nose and a new name? The original Peel Viking Minisport's front section was swapped for that of a Minus Mini (not a MiniSprint), and there you have the basis for a Sprint GT. 

The GRP shell is bonded and laminated at the seams and has reinforcement around the subrame and component mounts. For 3,995 pounds you can buy one with doors (they are shorter than the standard Mini's doors), but it comes without a roll cage, which ABS advise you to fit. Click here to order yours.
Personally, I would prefer a repro Peel Viking MiniSport over a ABS Sprint GT, and in fact ABS is not the only company selling that. Andrew Carter of Nottingham, who took over the original Manx moulds in 2002 can build you one, too, for 3,685 pounds. Click here for more. What would you do?

A repro Peel Viking Minisport shell (left) is turned into the ABS Motorsport Sprint GT (right)

Original Peel Viking nose (left) is swapped for that of a repro Minus Mini (right) to form Sprint GT