Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #34

Original Beach Boys Mini Surfer survivor up for sale

The many Mini Derivatives in this new book

A Wildgoose Mini camper van in the wild

Le Mans Mini Marcos: now a comic book!

Yes, Le Mans Classic will take place this weekend but, no, 'La Puce Bleue' won't be there. A shame, I know, also because this year marks the centenary of world's most famous race. Although a major step in the Marcos' restoration was made last weekend (click) it is far from presentable at present. And so I'll just have to give up on another deadline I wouldn't have wanted to have missed...

Apart from the re-ignition of its restoration there is, however, some other really cool news. About a year ago I was contacted by Denis Bernard and Christian Papazoglakis who are respectively the script writer and artist of a great series of comic books about all the adventures that stick to the 24 hours of Le Mans. They had plans to make a special album for the Le Mans centenary with 24 of the best stories about the 24-hours races of the last 100 years. And they thought the Mini Marcos, coming 15th overall right in between the famous Ford-Ferrari War of 1966, was among those 24 best ones and deserved a place in it, too. There's no doubt I was honoured! 

And so I have made it to a comic book myself now. It's called '24 Heures du Mans - 100 ans d'innovations' and the Mini Marcos segment starts on a dark day in December 2016 when my friend Jurgen and myself saw the car - or what was left of it - for the first time on a shady address in Portugal where I was supposed to hand over a duffel bag full of money. Then it harks back to perhaps its finest hour in June of 1966, when the car held the entire audience's breath at Le Mans by having a flat tyre - with no spare at hand - right in front of the grandstand. It's something which really happened. Then over to the car's theft in Paris 1975 and to the the present day with the Marcos under restoration.

So if you are at the Le Mans Classic this weekend, do look up the publisher's stand (Editions Glénat) to purchase a copy of this great 56-page book or order it from their website here.

What? Me as a comic book figure! Finding the car in Portugal as pictured in the book

 From 24 Heures du Mans - 100 ans d'innovations

The story is titled 'La résurrection de la Puce Bleue' and is 1 of 24 in the book

 From 24 Heures du Mans - 100 ans d'innovations

 '24 Heures du Mans - 100 Ans d'innovations' is available now at 14,95 Euros only

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Another book: Richard Oakes - Master of Design

If there is one kit car designer that deserves a book of his own, it's Richard Oakes. Not even Barry Stimson can match him in sheer numbers of designs. Between the early 1970s and today Oakes designed a great number of specialist- and kit cars, from the Dutton Sierra to the Deltayn Pegasus and from Tramp buggy to Nova sports car. 

And he was responsible for several Mini based cars, too. There were of course the original Midas and its later incarnations to start with as well as the Midas Gold. But also the Indespension Jiffy, the GTM Coupe plus GTM Rossa, GTM Libra and GTM Spyder, the Domino Pimlico and its variations plus the stillborn ANT III city car (which I didn't even know about).

This book is about all of them and the author Douglas Anderson, interviewed Oakes several times and even did so to his late parents. He was also given full permission to Oakes' archives, which shows. The 176-page book is full of sketches and drawings, all reproduced superbly. The texts with these illustrations are somewhat limited sometimes, but they do match the layout particularly well. I'm sure Oakes himself will agree that it looks good. 

The book's last chapter is dedicated to the latest project: the Sprite/Midget based ADO, which is being brought to life by the author himself after another Oakes design. The number of pages this ADO project receives is perhaps relatively many compared to the other vehicles described, but it may say something about the enthusiasm of the author also, whom we can only encourage in this project. Order it directly from him for £30 plus p&p via andersonandclarkpublishing@gmail.com

Richard Oakes definitely deserved a book. 'Richard Oakes - Master of Design' is that

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Oakes was responsible for a great number of Midas and GTM designs

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Unlike his other Mini based designs, the Pimlico was still recognizable as a Mini

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The Indespension Jiffy was a commercial vehicle and it was Mini based too

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The author was given full access to Oakes archives with many sketches and drawings being printed

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Douglas Anderson's own project, the Sprite or Midget based ADO, is another Richard Oakes design

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Unipower GT book is finally here

Ah, the mighty Unipower GT! So many of us are attracted to the model and so it is great that this particular Mini derivative has finally received a tome of its own describing its creation and development. The car's history is definitely worth telling as its wasn't a particularly straightforward one with ups and downs along the way, a change of ownership half-way through its production life span and some interesting racing history too. 

The book's author is Gerry Hulford, a man who knows the marque. Hulford is a Unipower owner since 1971 and owned several GTs since. He knows many of the car's owners too and runs the Unipower GT Owners Club & Register. He has been thinking about writing a book for years - and here it is in 172 pages and illustrated with many photographs. "In 1976", he writes in the preface "I was fortunate enough to purchase all the surviving factory paperwork, drawings, parts lists, documentation and production records." So the book promises a real must-have for us aficionados.

And it does share some in-depth information. And while there are lots of pictures, too, I was disappointed though by the small number of previously unseen ones, which might be expected from the preface. Most of them are well-known with better quality ones available and I also recognized several of my sourced from this very website! And there's something else. I am not a great adept of chassis number listing, which Bugatti and Ferrari owners can't seem to live without these days. Well, chassis numerology seems to have penetrated deeply into this book with Hulford using these numbers throughout. That doesn't make this an easy read, you really need to concentrate. 

The inclusion of a production register in the back of the book is welcome and fascinating, though, listing all cars produced by chassis number. Some years ago I sorted my own Unipower GT files and had to decide that the car's chassis numbers were the way to go. Perhaps the devil is in the detail by my own list doesn't always match this one. This may say something about my own numerology, but I'm not sure!

So, yes, this is a book which tells you an awful lot about the great Unipower GT and it will get you through the Christmas days but don't expect a light-hearted read. It's available from the club website here at 39.95 GBP plus p&p (and import fees when you live outside the UK like me). 

Finally there is a book dedicated to the great Unipower GT

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It does tell the in-depth story of the creation of the car, spread over 172 pages 

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Piers Forrester brought the glamour to the Unipower marque when he took over production

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Gerry Hulford's own and well-known racer gets much of the attention here!

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More racers are described in the chapter on racing, including the lightweight cars

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Fascinating is the production register of cars in the back of the book

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A new Peter Filby book: Cars through the mists of time

Motoring journalists usually can't be bothered with the obscure corners of the automotive world. But from somewhere in the 1970s to deep into the new millennium there was the great exception known as Peter Filby. His books and articles were full of detailed information about the strangest of vehicles but they were well written and full of wit also. Looking back we have to be thankful to the man who documented so many of these contraptions for posterity. I do prefer his early stuff before Cobra and Seven clones took over the alternative cars scene as he wrote about many of the Mini based cars and owned quite a few of them, too.

So when I heard that he'd just finished a book titled 'Cars through the mists of time' about the approximately 100 cars he owned himself in the last 55 years, I knew I wanted a copy. In Filby fashion the 89-pager is self-published and hard to find. From the foreword: "It's admittedly an exercise in self-indulgent memories. I was just doing it for myself, my family and perhaps a few close friends. And even the family weren't particularly interested!" You'd better be quick to order one if you want one, too (I found my copy through Steve Hole's TKC webshop).

It's like going back in time when reading about how he bought and sold all these obscurities, which he often hated. About the Maya GT that became known as 'The Maya Maynot': "Whatever changes were made, it remained a horribly basic, undesirable car, but for some reason I kept it for several years." About the brown Peel Viking Minisport that was named 'The Flying Turd': "In terms of styling, accommodation and Mini based performance, it was a truly awful contraption". You'd be surprised to read that the great kit car writer, in all honesty, detested working on his own cars and "hates to get my hands dirty". He must have spent fortunes on them. "Only the great accountant in the sky knows how much money they've all cost me!" 

Ever wondered what cars Peter Filby owned himself and what he really thought about them? 

His latest book is just about that

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'RBL 25F' was the first of two Unipower GTs owned by Filby and the start of a life long affair with specialist sports cars. What happened to the car?

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Repainted twice and the subject of many an Alternative Cars magazine article, 

Filby's Maya GT became known as the Maya Maynot (and it survives, too)

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The second Unipower - LTM 80G - was a Mk2. "I loved it so I kept it more than ten years." 

It's still in the UK, under restoration today (click here)

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"Horribly basic". The Peel Viking Minisport was painted brown and nicknamed 'The Flying Turd'

It's another survivor although now in a slightly different hue

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Jack Fisher's Specials make it to print

Several of you tipped me off about a new book by Peter Speakman and Kenny Baird, which came out last month, describing the doings and dealings of Scotsman Jack Fisher. Fisher famously ran a garage and dealership in Edinburgh and competed in a great number of cars, the majority of them designed and built by himself. From his own memory there were 22 of them, and they are all described in this lovely little book, some in a few lines only; others more extensively. You have probably heard of the Mini based Fisher Spyder (here) and Fisher GT ('Maximum Mini Find of the Year 2020' - more here) but there were clearly more than these alone! 

Like Colin Chapman, Trevor Wilkinson, Eric Broadley and Jem Marsh - to name just a few - Fisher, too, started small with an Austin 7 Special, but later cars also used Fiat, MG, Riley, Jaguar, Alfa-Romeo and Lancia power. The Mini based GT and Spyder are relatively extensively described here with some new information and a few new pictures (to me, at least). But I was also surprised to read there were plans to come up with a Formula Junior car using a mid-mounted Mini engine/gearbox as well, and that as early as 1959! From the book: "This was advanced thinking for the time, as FJ cars of this period were mainly front engined. The project was subsequently aborted as Jack felt the rapid development of the Ford FJ engine would leave the BMC unit uncompetitive." Now that would have been a novelty!

Apart from the 22 cars there is a chapter devoted to competition history and one to the Fisher Specials as they are today. The Fisher GT was originally painted silver - a colour photograph taken back in 1965 is there to prove it - and it will be repainted in that hue, too. Other then so many books repeating old information and pictures, this is just about the opposite. It's small and only for the happy few who know about these cars or are interested in them, but it will be right up their street, too, as it is made with genuine enthusiasm for these cars. It's 120 pages in a small format but no doubt worth the 20 pounds including postage and packing. Buy it here.

Jack Fisher stars on the cover of a lovely little book about the man himself and his cars

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The Fisher GT was one of the Mini based Specials built by Fisher. It was found only recently

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The Fisher GT Mk2 was also Mini based but saw a greater number of incarnations...

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...and was eventually turned into the Fisher Spyder with Gropa Spyder body

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The history of Fisher's Specials is illustrated with some unique historical material, too

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Book: La Mini de mon Père

French fellow-writer and Mini-man Enguerrand Lecesne pumps out his books at a considerable higher rate than I do! And I was both surprised as I was thrilled to find his latest work in the post this week. It's called 'La Mini De Mon Père', which makes it the latest volume in the French '... De Mon Père'-series. This series has proved to be a big hit in France for years now, starting with Citroëns, Renaults and Peugeots, but now expanding to non-French vehicles also.

It's not the first and most definitely not the last book covering the Mini's story from conception to the end of production in 2000 and using stock photography mostly. But at least Lecesne is trying to focus on the French market when he can, illustrating his words here and there with a picture of Alain Delon behind the wheel of a Moke or French singer Christophe (real name Daniel Bevilacqua) looking ever so cool leaning casually on his Paris-registered Cooper 'S' - this one really should have been on the book's cover!

It's when he focuses on France when things get interesting, I think. There's a spread on Taka-Hira's creations as there is one on the wacky Hrubon Phaeton / Schmitt and one on the Quasar Unipower. The derivatives chapter is not too long, focussing on the Mini Marcos, Broadspeed GT, Unipower GT, Mini Jem, MiniSprint and aforementioned Quasar, but it has some lovely photos of Marcoses and a Jem raced and rallied by Frenchmen which make it worth the purchase. 120 pages and you can find it here.

'La Mini De Mon Père' by Enguerrand Lecesne is out now

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Coachbuilt Minis chapter includes the creations of Roger Taka-Hira

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While the Mini derivatives one starts with Mini Marcoses being raced in France

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More of them here. The psychedelically painted car was French also and is still missing

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The Quasar Unipower was another French affair which made it to the book

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Excess all areas - right up our street

Some books are announced so long in advance that, when they finally arrive to still your hunger, they can almost only be disappointing. The very opposite goes for 'Excess all areas', the latest book by prolific writer and fan of automotive obscurity Richard Heseltine about British kit cars of the 1970s. When I heard of it only a week ago, I ordered it straight away, received it on Friday and had a lovely weekend reading it! This is a great fun book, with much more than just Mini based cars, but all right up our street in creativity, ingenuity or just plain wackiness.

Staying with the Maximum Mini-theme here, over 30 Mini variants make it to this 122-page book with some far-out fun facts I didn't know. How about William Towns' Hustler being originally made for Jensen Special Projects as a car for Third World parties? Or how about the Ranger 4 project being sold to Beirut, where the factory was 'levelled by Syrian troops during the siege of Achrafieh'? Heseltine also solves the mystery of Eartha Kitt being an alleged TiCi owner: "She was keen keen to buy a TiCi, but her manager demanded one to be supplied for free, Hill (the manufacturer-JB) declined." Best bit is the last chapter on Specials which describes some of the most obscure contraptions.

If you like this stuff, there's more good news. From the introduction: "Low-volume specialist sports cars from the likes of TVR, Lotus, Clan and Gilbern that were offered as component packages with brand new parts will appear in a subsequent volume. On a similar note, replicas from marques such as Albany and Dri-Sleeve that were sold in complete or knock-down form with new running gear don't apply here. They, too, will feature in subsequent books in what we hope will be a series spanning the entire history of the British specialist car industry." Hoorah! Order it here.

The Nova nicely sums up the madness of the '70s, but 'Excess all areas' is right up our street, too

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Status and Stimson are favourites with excessive offerings all the way in the 1970s

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Minette, Mini Beaver and Mini Jem give an idea of the spectrum of ideas

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Dutch Buggy book is a real labour of love

This is a bit of a Dutch week, here on Maximum Mini. First there was this barn find Mini Jem (here) and the Dutch-built Nieuwenhuis Special on Zandvoort (here); this time it's a Dutch book about buggies. And what a book! Authors Henny Jore and Jan van der Lit worked 10 years to get their 2 kilograms heavyweight buggy bible in print, which I know was not always easy. The 352 pages tome features anything buggy in The Netherlands and you'll be surprised to learn how many cars were manufactured or made it over to there.

The majority of these cars is of course VW powered but it wouldn't be featured here if two buggies using Mini power weren't made in The Netherlands, too. They were the Barclay Mini Bug, a Dutch version of the Stimson Mini Bug built in Helmond, and the Moonbug, which was a Dutch Siva Buggy made in Amstelveen. The authors managed to track down the instigator of the Moonbug project, Peter Pijpelink, which led to new insights and a number of pictures that were new to me.

But those two cars are just examples of an incredible variety of Dutch buggies and the work that has gone into the research for this book has been enormous. 'Buggy's, Baja's, Kitcars & Replica's', ISBN 978909032659, comes in Dutch and has forewords by American buggy inventor Bruce Meyers and British buggy authority James Hale. It is available through its own website here.

Buggy's, Baja's, Kitcars & Replica's by Henny Jore and Jan van der Lit is a massive book

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The Barclay Mini Bug is the Dutch version of the Stimson Mini Bug made in Helmond

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While the Moonbug is the Dutch-made Siva Buggy. New insight come to the light

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Second half of book is dedicated to another 350-odd buggies and kits that were available in Holland

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Peter Sellers' Minis star in 'Mini 60 Years'

With the Mini having its 60th anniversary this year, there will be lots of things Mini to see and do as there will undoubtedly be new books out also. First in line that I know of is Giles Chapman's 'Mini 60 Years'. Giles was kind enough to send me a copy, so let's have a little look at it here.

Firstly this is a book on the Mini rather than on its unofficial offspring, so expect the car's full history from the very start-on, with the obligatory chapters on it's birth including the Suez Crisis and microcars, but also on Issigonis, Cooper and rallying. Also the New MINI gets full descriptions in no less than three chapters. Unfortunately the chapter named 'A World of Different Minis' only just squeezes in the variants and derivatives, mentioning only the well known ones.

But the coachbuilt cars come off better here, especially the ones commissioned for Peter Sellers, who is generally claimed to be the inventor of the coachbuilt Mini genre. This is a particularly nice read and Chapman writes that Sellers had three Minis coachbuilt for him, the first of them by Hooper, the second two by Radford, of which the last one came with a hatchback and was for his then-bride Britt Ekland. He must be right there. Funnily, I just received a picture of one of the Sellers' cars with its current owner and think it must the car featured in the book.
Anyway: buy this book if you want to know more about the Mini in general.

Mini 60 Years by Giles Chapman focuses on the Mini's history in general

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But a few derivatives managed to squeeze into the 176-page book also

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I found the chapter on the Minis owned by Peter Sellers most interesting

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Sellers' Mini as seen in Chapman's new book with its current owner in the Far East. 

Note lavish Mercedes and Rolls-Royce models parked behind it

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New books from France and New Zealand

Enguerrand Lecesne, the French author of 'Mini Cooper et 'S' de la serie a la competition' and 'Mini histories inedited', has just come up with a new title: 'Mini Toute l'histoire'. And as the title suggests it is a book that covers the Mini in all its aspects. From the very early prototype stage to the last car off the line in 2000. It's not alone in covering this subject as others have made books chock full of any aspect of the Mini before, but it has to be the first in French. That it is virtually impossible to describe all aspects of the Mini is of course no news. Such a vast subject simply cannot even be covered on the 192 pages that Lecesne uses for it. Other then his earlier books, which focussed more on the French market and its drivers, this one simply is more general. One of its chapters is dedicated to Mini derivatives, though, telling the story of 33 of them in brief. And some have a nice slice of French history attached to them. My car is in it, too! The book is beautifully presented and available direct from the publisher ETAI here.

Mini Toute l'Histoire by Enguerrand Lecesne, available now

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The book covers a chapter on Mini derivatives, too. Here Marcos, Jem and Deep Sanderson

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And more… Biota, ABC, Aurora, Landar, Status, ERA, Midas…

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It's the first book that mentions the survival of the Le Mans Mini Marcos! Lecesne also (re)searched the car for years

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Meanwhile, I had also received not one but two books from New Zealand author Patrick Harlow, not brand new ones but ever so fascinating. Patrick focuses totally on New Zealand cars and wrote these two books about them. 'Alternative Drivestyles' covers a grand amount of New Zealand custom built cars, and features anything from Lotus Seven-clones to fantastic DIY-creations named Urba-Car, Tri-Via, Brownie's Joy and Four-B-Two. Not much Mini-based cars in here, though. That's the territory of Harlow's 'New Zealand Manufactured Cars'. A vast 307 pages encyclopedia covering just about anything on wheels made in New Zealand with the idea of being marketed and sold. That means a comprehensive history on the cars of Ferris De Joux (fascinating) but also full stories on the Magnum Spectre (Harlow owned one of them), the little-known Everson Cherub, the Ibis and RD Wasp. This is a reference work unlike any others.

Alternative Drivestyles - New Zealanders have some great DIY skills

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New Zealand Manufactured Cars - this is more of an encyclopedia

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Mini de Joux - the story of Ferris de Joux' Mini GT is told in detail

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As for the Magnum Spectre. Harlow owned one of the two cars made for a while

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