Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #65

Spring is in the air: project cars update (Ogle)

Spring is in the air: project cars update (Marcos)

For sale: Mini derivatives Down Under

Reptune Gullwing: yes, they really were built!

Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #53

 

Supercharged 997 Spenceley Special is rather special

Last events of the year in pictures

Broadspeed GTS raced in Adelaide Rally - plus replica in the making

Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #2:

Celebrity owned Mini Jems

Is this the sole surviving Status RR Mini front end?

...And that's a period picture of it...

Famous Foley Broadspeed GT restored Down Under

Easter racing through the 1960s

What to do in the long Easter weekend? Well, there was a time when you simply took your Mini based sports car, drove it to the racing track nearby, changed the tyres on the spot and gave it some good trashing during one of numerous Easter races organized. See a selection of photographs below. 

Have a good Easter!

Easter 1964, Bob Henderson in his Minnow GT at the Brands Hatch circuit

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Easter 1964 also, Chris Lawrence in the Deep Sanderson 105 at Mallory Park

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Easter 1967, Brian Foley behind the wheel of the Aussie Broadspeed GTS

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Easter 1968, Peter Garrad's girlfriend in the Buckle Monaco LMS at Hume Weir

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Easter 1972, Michael Gill in the Minilan at Bushy Park on Barbados

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Aussie Broadspeed GT hillclimber

A few more pictures of a Brian Foley built Broadspeed GT seen in action in Australia were unearthed by Mark Lambert recently. Mark says they were taken at the Newcastle Mattara hillclimb, probably in 1969. The same car, raced by Tom Winterbourn, was seen briefly before in historical 8mm film footage, see it here.

I did come across one more photograph of it in the files of which I don't know the source. According to my info that one was taken at the 1968 Huntley hillclimb in Wollongong, Australia but it wears the same number 58 on its doors and bonnet. Same venue after all? 

Tom Winterbourn's Broadspeed GT seen at the Newcastle Mattara hillclimb 

Picture Mark Lambert

Now that's a view! These pictures are believed to have been taken in 1969 

Picture Mark Lambert

Same car again, now supposedly at the 1968 Huntley hillclimb in Wollongong, NSW

Picture Jeroen Booij archive, source unknown

Broadspeed GT in lovely 8mm footage

Michael Wignall recently posted some interesting film footage, taken by his uncle in 1967. It shows the Tamworth hill climb in New South Wales, Australia and one of the cars seen in action is a Broadspeed GT. It's great, so thank you very much Michael for sharing. Also: Bob Williamson replied to Michael's posting and said: "That is my first Broadspeed. It was one of the Brian Foley made ones, originally owned by Tom Winterbourne, then by a doctor in Goulburn and then me and I hold it to the guy who still has it." Isn't that superb either?

I also understand the Mini Din was entered in the same race too, and I'd love to find out a little more about that car also. All I know is that it was a sleek (and pretty) Special built by Trevor Meehan with its Mini engine at the back. Any more information on the black Broadspeed as well as the Mini Din is more than welcome.

8mm Film footage of the 1967 Tamworth hill climb includes Broadspeed GT

Video Michael Wignall

Black car is a Brian Foley car, made in Australia. I haven't seen it before

Still from Michael Wignall footage

No number plates, so possibly not road registered. I would love to find out more about this car

Still from Michael Wignall footage

Not seen in the film footage but also raced at the same event in 1967: Trevor Meehan's Mini Din, seen here behind a TVR in another race. Who knows more about it?

UPDATE: Not a TVR but a J&S Hunter, thank you Scott!

Picture The Roaring Season

Australia's Broadspeed GTS is getting ready for action

It had been months since I heard of Jono Morris, the intrepid Broadspeed owner of Australia who is working hard to get his car - the only Broadspeed GTS that made it to Australia - ready. But he's getting there now. Jono wrote to me: "Hi Jeroen, I hope all is well, great to see you have a new book and the regular Maximum Mini posts are great. Well done! You will be pleased to know that the Broadspeed GTS restoration is nearing completion. The engine is not quite finished so its not back in the car yet, but otherwise it is almost complete. See attached a shot of me with the car and my son at Eastern Creek last week. Next time I hope I am driving it rather than just displaying it!"

Meanwhile, Jono also put together a brilliant book about his car, featuring all the old pictures, newspaper clippings, advertisements, magazine extracts, programme booklets and other stuff he amassed. And believe it or not but this has become a truly fantastic document of the car's early life, counting no less then 103 pages and hundreds of historical pictures of it. It can be seen chasing other Minis, Alfas, Lotuses, big Fords and Holdens plus a JWF Milano at Oran Park, Warwick Farm, Catalina Park, Lakeside, Surfers Paradise and Bathurst. In complete anger. What can I say? Well done!

Jono and junior Morris with the Broadspeed GTS that's now almost finished

Picture courtesy Jono Morris

Jono has made a 103-page book about the Broadspeed GTS and its fantastic!

Picture Jeroen Booij

 Many, many previously unseen pictures (by me…) make it a document like no other

Picture Jeroen Booij

Clippings, ads, programme booklets describe the car's first racing seasons

Picture Jeroen Booij

I never knew Brian Foley had a brochure made of the Australian Broadspeed GT…

Picture Jeroen Booij

Car meets creator (2)

Restoration of the one and only Australian-built Broadspeed GTS is getting on well. After it had been stripped (story here) it is now painted and ready for rebuilding. Meanwhile, owner Jono Morris had a visit of the man who originally built it - Brian Foley - plus that other legendary Aussie Mini coupe builder Bill Buckle earlier this week. Jono wrote: "Hi Jeroen, I was very lucky to have both Bill Buckle and Brian Foley drop in yesterday to see the Broadspeed. We went out for lunch after and I was able to listen to some great stories about the old days and their cars. It was a very memorable day!" Isn't it great when old cars and their creators are reunited after all those years? Oh, and by the way, there is a lot more Broadspeed GT news on its way, so keep an eye on these pages if you like these cars...

The Broadspeed GTS with (left to right) Brian Foley, Jono Morris and Bill Buckle

Picture courtesy Jono Morris

Restoring the multi-colour Broadspeed GTS

I've been writing about some Broadspeed conversions in Australia lately, and to my delight I received a message from Jono Morris, who'd read it, too. Jono bought the original Broadspeed GTS that was built by Brian Foley in Australia and was dubbed 'Australias fastest Mini' for several years in the late 1960s. (a replica of it is still for sale). Jono is a huge Mini enthusiast and is currently restoring the Aussie GTS. And while stripping its body he came across several layers of history.

He wrote: "I had the front panel replaced and as you can see it is painted in etch primer. The door skins which are thin alloy were straightened out and etch primed at the same time. Back at my factory, I undertook an archaeological dig, and carefully sanded away layers of paint to see if I could find any of the original green. You can see that there was a layer of white gelcoat over the fiber glass then grey undercoat and the Castrol racing green that the car was raced in, then when Brian Foley sold it, it was painted white (a layer of grey under coat below), then yellow, then black, then yellow again, black again, then purple, then undercoat, light blue, undercoat and the current green. So it has had a few paint jobs over the years! At least I have found enough of the original green to get a good colour match. I think I will keep these patches under the tail lights as they are, and fit the tail lights over so that I don’t lose the original colour and the layers that show its history."

Jono is in touch with the car's builder Brian Foley, too: "I am yet to show him the restoration, but I will certainly be showing him the finished article and asking him to take it for a drive. Foley lives down south a fair way but Bill Buckle (of Buckle Monaco-fame-JB) lives very close to me, and I cross paths with him quite often as we share more common interests. He is a great bloke and dropped into my work today to show me his new addition to the back of his transporter that he uses to take his Gogomobile Dart to the shows. He also came in to inspect the progress on the Broadspeed. He was interested to look at how he dealt with his conversion compared to the Broadspeed!"
Thanks Jono for that, there's more to follow soon, so keep an eye on these pages.

The original Brian Foley Broadspeed GTS is now under restoration in Australia

Picture courtsy Jono Morris

Aluminium door skins have been carefully restored. Oh, and that's a Ferrari 275 GTB

Picture courtsy Jono Morris

White, green, white, yellow, black, yellow, black, purple, light blue, green and several undercoats!

Picture courtsy Jono Morris

Sideways to victory... Jono is eager to retain as much of the car's origins as possible

Picture courtsy Jono Morris

Broadspeed GT: replicas and resurrections

The interest in Mini derivatives appears to be rising, and so it may not be a surprise that someone is once again planning to offer a replica of the 1966 Broadspeed GT. I cannot tell you much as there is nothing certain for now, but as soon as there is news, I will let you guys know. It did make me wonder what other replicas/resurrections and what else have you, were ever fabricated with the Broadspeed GT in mind, and I came up with the following.

1. The Broadspeed GT by Brian Foley (1967)

Australian BMC and Alfa-Romeo dealer Brian Foley teamed up with Ralph Broad to produce Broadspeed GTs Down Under in 1967 after they calculated it was cheaper to build the cars locally then to import them from the UK. The Australian built GT differed in several ways from the British Broadspeeds, also because they were based on Aussie built Minis. Only four were built of which at least two survive.

Brian Foley's Broadspeed GTs were based on Australian Minis. 4 were built

Picture courtesy Craig Watson/The Mini Experience 

2. Graham West's car (1971)

This is a bit of an oddball. Graham West of Burton-on-Trent managed to buy an original but unused Broadspeed GT roof/rear section in 1971 and decided to graft it on a Mk2 Mini with flared arches and E-type inspired interior. The engine was a bored out 998 Cooper. Less then a year after having finished it, he offered it for sale for 860 pounds with only 7,000 miles on the clock. Registration: WUX 421.

That's Graham with his car, built from a Mini Mk2 plus original Broadspeed section 

Picture courtesy Hot Car magazine

3. Roadworks Design replica GT (mid-1980s)

The roof/rear section that Chris Stinton of Roadworks Design in Queensland, Australia, offered for sale was meant for enthusiasts wanting to turn their own Mini into a Broadspeed GT replica. It is unknown how many were fabricated, but several are known. It appears that the roofs were based on the Australian Broadspeed GT by Brian Foley, as they came with the small number plate recess of these cars.

A Roadworks Design replica GT being built. Note Aussie number plate recess

Picture courtesy Craig Watson/The Mini Experience

4. Downton GT by the Symbol Mini Company (1996-1997)

Stewart and Paul Mickleborough of Norfolk restored a genuine Broadspeed in the 1990s and decided to take a mould of the roof/rear section and offer replicas after the job was finished and the car was sold to Japan. They teamed up with Ralph Broad too, but could not use the Broadspeed name because that was taken by the Essex-based company of the same name. Eventually the car was marketed as the Downton GT and a conversion was offered at 4995 GBP ex VAT. Only one car was finished but two more roof/rear sections were sold and built as Downton GTs.

The Downton GT couldn't be named Broadspeed GT, but was very accurate copy

5. Broadspeed GT replica by Broadspeed Engineering Ltd (1996)

Simon Empson set up Broadspeed Engineering in Colchester in 1995 to sell and restore an impressive quantity of Minis and Mini derivatives of which quite a few went abroad. One of these was a Broadspeed GT. After the Mickleborough brothers came with their replica, Empson decided to do the same. His company offered replicas of the GT and GTS from 15,000 pounds. It is, however, unknown if any were ever built.

Simon Empson's Broadspeed Engineering offered a GT replica, too

6. Mini / Marspeed GTO by Church Green Engineering (1996-?)

Paul Weldon's father set up a restoration business Church Green Engineering in Semley in the early 1970s. By 1994 his son offered the Walker Minisprint; a year later his foreman Geoff Branston designed a Broadspeed GT lookalike (it wasn't an exact replica) with aluminium roof/rear. The conversion alone came at 8295 GBP ex VAT ex works and was meant for brand new Minis. There were agents in Germany and Japan, but in the end only three cars were built. One remains with the German agent; another with the Japanese one.

The full production run of the Mini/Marspeed GTO at Church Green's premises

Picture courtesy Richard Heseltine

7. Private ventures

A few people have been inspired to build a Broadspeed GT replica of their own as a one-off.

An all-steel Broadspeed GT replica, built by an enthusiast in Australia

And another private venture, like the one above this one's from Australia, too

UPDATE 31 JANUARY 2013: Four more Broadspeed GT replicas unearthed! Click here

UPDATE 21 February 2014: And even more Broadspeed GT replicas on their way! (click here)