Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #78

John Lennon's Radford Mini De Ville replica is a real stunner

Julien Vernaeve passes away at 94

Yet another Mini based oddity from the BP Build-a-Car Contest

Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #61

Barry's Big Sale - all these cars are now for sale

New picture emerges - but where is this Mk2 Biota now?

The Aga Khan's Wood & Pickett Mini Margrave

Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #41

Yet another Ogle SX1000 barn find!

New info on Prince Troubetzkoy's coachbuilt Cooper

Great film footage of Australia's fastest Mini in 1968

The many faces of a wild custom Mini of the 1970s

After two recent articles, here on Maximum Mini, reader David Kiss decided to drop me a line. The reason was that two of the cars described brought back some sweet memories. David wrote: 

"Dear Jeroen, Not sure if you would be interested but I have been inspired to write following two of your recent blogs about custom Minis. In brief, I was given a 1961 Mini on my 17th birthday (1971), I kept this car for 12 years over which time it morphed from a humble 850cc into a 1750cc (Maxi/Allegro) powered custom, similar custom De Ville type build to the recent pics of '50 MAR'. (click here for the recent article about that)"

"I sold the car in 1983 as it was unsuitable for my new married life....(it may still be out there?) Re DART: my (late) dad was also in the RAF and Dizzy Addicott was a pal of his, I remember my (late) mum saying "He was a real speed freak". I'm sure I met him many years ago as a young boy but have no real recollection of him (recent article here). If my 1750cc Mini is of interest I do have quite a few pictures of it during my ownership. Keep up your great blog. Regards, David Kiss" 

Well, I did like that, and asked David for the pictures he mentioned. The next day I received a whole lot of them, with clear descriptions, too. David added: "I'll attach a set of pictures of the car over my ownership showing the various stages of its 'development'. I'm not sure how much detail you wanted me to go into but I'll waffle away and you can pick and choose as you like should you wish..... As I mentioned, I was given the car for my 17th birthday (1971), a 1961 bog standard cherry red 850cc Morris Mini Minor in pretty sound condition. My Dad and his brother-in-law ran a local Morris garage and the car was a 'trade-in'. With my Dad running a garage I had been interested and driving (in a field) cars since I was 11 years old. I used the car daily, generally flat out like all seventeen year olds... The poor old thing soon expired and with the desire to go faster I replaced the engine with one from a BMC 1100..."

"On recently checking the 240TPG on the DVLA system I see that the last change of owner was in 2007 so one never knows if it's still out there... as many others I would quite like to see if it's still about, perhaps even owning it again... curiously I now own another 1961 Cherry Red Mini, however, very standard, very original! Well I hope I've not rattled on to much, Best regards, David."

It's just lovely David. Thank you very much!

"This picture shows the car with the 1100 engine fitted. Note the 12" wheels as per BMC 1100 and also other go-faster mods!"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"A bit later and now repainted (very dark brown) plus flame motif. Paint work was courtesy of the firm I worked for at the time, we repaired all the new Toyotas that were damaged in transit, they were all imported back then, 1973-ish"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"The company had a low-bake oven system and the flames were designed and painted by one of the very talented staff. The car had also acquired a BMC 1300 by then and was relatively now quite a fast machine. The 1300 worked well for some time but I eventually wore it out so what next..."

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"This picture shows a Maxi 1500 engine basically installed. I had to cut and extend the front of the subframe to fit the larger engine and subsequently modify the front of the car. Many other items had to be fabricated, driveshafts, engine mounts etc. It was quite an awkward job but I was able to use the facility of dad's garage (and his help), which got the project completed. Note the DAF's: the garage had lost it's BMC dealership and was now a DAF agent!"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

The 1500cc car with David as its builder and proud owner in the mid-1970s. Note Jaguar leaper

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"The grille is from a Vauxhall VX4/90. The bonnet was held in place with four large dome-headed bolts and had to be removed completely for access to the engine"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

Much-modified and fast, but not enough for David at the time. There was more to follow! 

Picture courtesy David Kiss

 "Here the car is seen with another modified Mini that I came across (1975). I can't recall what mods it had. Shortly after this picture was taken my modified front subframe failed, so back to the drawing board. I then decided that more radical changes should be carried out..."

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"Bodywork mods, shortened rear side windows, de-seamed, small rear window etc etc... I had some wheel discs made as there was very little choice of alloys wheels that suited, but I didn't proceed with these. Note the hardboard template on the bonnet, this was used to make up a veneered dash, (Mk2 Jag) instruments were fitted behind smoked glass panels, illuminated when the ignition was switched on. An old friend was an excellent woodworker and made me up the dash to an exceptionally high standard (as good as a Rolls), sadly I never took any pictures of this. I had considered Merc headlamps but again this did not materialize"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"Now painted and complete with two tone vinyl roof... all the rage at the time. The engine, waiting to be fitted is a tuned 1750cc Allegro SS, note that the subframe is standard so as not to suffer the same issue when fitted with the 1500cc engine. It was the oil filter that was problem but this latest incarnation has a remote system as can be seen. The car still has an extended nose to house the radiator etc... I had also modified the bonnet and it now hinged forwards"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

This shows the modified bodywork in its full glory

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"This is when I put it up for sale due to getting married and not being a suitable family car. With the 1750 cc engine it was quite a thing to drive, it had lost the nimbleness of the original Mini but was mighty fast, with its 5-speed gearbox it would cruise at 90mph and was capable of 120mph+ Of course today there are many easier engine conversions with the abundance of front wheel drive cars but back then this was limited more or less to BMC/BL cars... the only other engine that may have been a candidate back then was the V6 Ferrari Dino engine..! out of my price league though"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

Wood & Picketts on BBC footage, including '50 MAR'

This lovely little video from the BBC archives, shows some rather outrageous Minis. The most interesting ones, if you ask me, are the two Wood & Pickett Mini Margraves at the start. And they are two very well known cars, too. The blue one is a car used at the Earl's Court Motor Show of 1978 of which we now can see its registration: 'WOE 951T' (which was last taxed in 1989, or so it seems). 

The other car is least as interesting: it's the infamous '50 MAR' built for in 1974 for Al Sharif Omar Almandily. W&P boss Eddie Colins told me about that: "One of the novel things in his car was that he had not one but two telephones. He was a crazy man who rang up himself asking how he was doing!" Although several people doubted the survival of this lavish W&P Mini, it was believed to survive in an underground parking in Cannes, France, but modified with a rather ugly Mercedes grille, white painted roof and different registration (III UN). With the BBC footage unearthed we can now confirm it is indeed the same car: on the video it is seen with the later modifications, but still wearing the '50 MAR' plate.

The infamous '50 MAR' in its original guise, built for Al Sharif Omar Almandily

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Not one but two telephones plus television on board - 'illegal in the UK' 

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The car as it was seen last May by Paul Blank. We can now confirm it is indeed the same

Picture courtesy Paul Blank

It is joined by a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow in an underground parking in Cannes, France

Picture courtesy Paul Blank

Current plate is 'III UN'. Unfortunately this very special Mini is not much cared for

Picture courtesy Paul Blank

1978 show car on the Wood & Pickett display in London. We learn this was registered 'WOE 951T'

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The two seen together in the BBC footage that was undisclosed earlier this week

Picture still BBC Archives

MG Mini Sedanca on a road trip

Whilst the one-off MG Mini Sedanca came back from Denver, Colorado to Bristol in the UK in 2019 (click here), it is now touring the country or so it seems. The car was seen recently at the Lakeland Motor Museum in Cumbria, which jumped to the opportunity to shoot the pictures added below. The museum added: "This is a unique type of Mini called a 'Sedanca'. Only one was made, and the info sheet points to it being built in 1973. It is still on the road, and the owner popped into the museum on a current road trip! gullwing doors were initially planned for this model, but a side screen door was eventually used."

Thank you Lizzi for for letting me know!

Built by former Stewart & Ardern employee Niall Gilmartin in 1973: the MG Mini Sedanca

Picture Lakeland Motor Museum

'870 CJW' comes with Triumph 2000 headlights and Austin 1100 indicators - amongst others

Picture Lakeland Motor Museum

Rear side windows turned upside down, fully closed boot lid, recessed tank cap

Picture Lakeland Motor Museum

Gilmartin planned to make gullwing doors, but that proved to be one step too far

Picture Lakeland Motor Museum

This is a well-traveled car if we have to believe the stickers and decals at the back

Picture Lakeland Motor Museum

Unravelling history - NJC Mini

It is one of my great frustrations when I can't quite find out the origins of a Mini based car. And the coachbuilt NJC Mini was a prime example. Who was behind it? How many did they build? Who did they sell their cars to? And what did the NJC name stand for in the first place? The only clue had been an article in Cars & Car Conversions magazine, but that mostly trumpeted over the car's appearance and build while it didn't say much about its origins. 

But then I got in touch with Nick Cloot recently, who had in fact been one of the persons who built these cars back in the late 1970s. What's more: he was more than happy to tell the tale of how they came about. He thinks as many as 9 may have been built although not all of those have been accounted for as of yet. The NJC Minis had some fascinating details in- and outside, among these wheel arches hand made in steel and strong enough to jack up the car, Storno radiophones, airconditioning systems and - the piece-the-resistance - electronic dashboards. The first of them was sold to a Lebanese businessman for use in central London, with more to follow.

I'd photographed a car years ago, which now seems to be the sole survivor (unless you know better). Together with all the information from Nick and some historical material he'd kept, the full story of the NJC Minis is now published in MiniWorld magazine's May issue. Oh - and we now know what NJC stands for, too! It's for Nick and John Costalas, who were the car's instigators.

Two NJC coachbuilt Minis outside the NJC works in Watford in the late 1970s

Picture Jeroen Booij archive courtesy Nick Cloot

So far this CCC article had been the only source of info regarding the NJC Minis 

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Three cars in that feature - 'RGK 55R', 'HHC 99' and 'PNM 835R'

Picture Jeroen Booij archive courtesy Nick Cloot

The Escort air conditioning unit in what seems to be the sole surviving NJC Mini

Picture Jeroen Booij archive courtesy Nick Cloot

This is a view of the electronic dashboard in one of the cars

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Nick Cloot in the late 1970s wearing an NJC Car Conversions T-shirt

Picture courtesy Nick Cloot

NJC bought their leather directly from Rolls-Royce and used RR colours for their Minis

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

At least three of the Minis were equipped with Storno 9 radiophones

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Full story of the NJC Minis in this month's MiniWorld magazine

Picture Jeroen Booij archive courtesy Nick Cloot

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

John Lennon's Radford Mini: a replica is in the making

This posting about the Radford Mini De Ville of John Lennon keeps on drawing attention and comments since it was posted almost 10 years ago now. Meanwhile we know a little more about the car (click here) but it seems unlikely to ever resurface again. 

In that light Fred and Tony Waters of Nippy Cars in Somerset have been asked to build a replica of it, including the hatchback door, Aston Martin DB5 rear lights, pitch dark 'Shadolite' windows and all the other special (Radford) features it had.

Fred wrote the following: "We don't often speak about the cars we do but this one deserves an exception. In 2021 we were asked to do a replica of John Lennon's Radford Cooper 'S'. Not too much was known about the cars details and only a few grainy pictures and short cinefilm clips of it exist, many stories of the car existing and its demise float around. I'm proud to say my dad has done an amazing job making a steel tailgate for the car, Aston Martin style rear lamp clusters, all correct and original Radford parts are being used where possible. It wasn’t planned to announce the build just yet but things happen. I’d like to take the chance now to thank Chris for entrusting us with the build, he’s very excited about the progress and so are we. Pictures will follow but not just yet. Stay tuned, but here is one to wet the appetite."

It seems likely that the car will debut at the London Classic Car Show in Olympia next month when the three existing Beatles Minis are announced to be on display.

UPDATE 1 March 2023: The show is over and the three original cars were there looking splendid. Unfortunately they weren't joined by the Lennon replica for reasons known to those involved alone.

Aston Martin rear lights, hatchback, piano black paint: John Lennon's Mini will be replicated

Picture Nippy Cars

Schwarzenbach's Super Mini survives

About three years ago I wondered if anyone knew more about a coachbuilt Mini shorty from Switzerland. Click here for all the pics. It took two months for an answer to come in the shape of little 1970s French book, which mentions the car as the 'Schwarzenbach Super Mini', made in 1971 in Thalwil, Switzerland. Possibly by a multi millionaire named Urs Ernst Schwarzenbach, I thought, who owned a palace in Morocco, the Grand Hotel in Zürich and had his own polo team with 600 horses while he married a former Miss Australia. (Click here).

That is still not confirmed. But what about the car itself? I know by now that it's a survivor, as Alexis Ducrot contacted me about it a while ago. He wrote: "Hi Jeroen, I hope you are well! Your article reminded me of something that I wanted to share with you. Please see attached a picture of the same car, back in 2010, for sale at Classica Motors of Geneva, maybe it changed of owner since 2010 but maybe they can give details and info on such a rare car! Best Alexis Ducrot." Well, well, that was good! The interior looks fantastic, but what a pity the car was repainted at one stage in a much more ordinary metallic green with standard 1990s 12" alloy wheels and plastic arches! I haven't found out much more since, but who knows...

Schwarzenbach Super Mini of 1971 looks every bit the coachbuilt Mini inside

Picture Classica Motors Geneva, via Alexis Ducrot

The exterior, however, was given a revamp which didn't do it much good if you ask me

Picture Classica Motors Geneva, via Alexis Ducrot

The fantastic four

Not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 fine coachbuilt Minis are lined up in the showroom of Woodham Mortimer in Essex now, or in their own words: "The finest Collection of Minis in the world has now landed at our Chelmsford HQ". All four of them are stunning cars which certainly don't come cheap. If they do sell for the prices mentioned they will break all records. The cars are:

BGJ 947B

1964 Austin Cooper 'S' based Radford de Ville hatchback, sold new to the UK and seen in a number of period publications. Asking price £240,000.

CPF 3H

1970 Morris Cooper 'S' based Radford / Freestone & Webb Mini de Ville hatchback, sold new to France. Asking price £155,000.

YYU 292H

1969 Morris Cooper 'S' based Wood & Pickett Mini Margrave, owned by a number of celebrities in the UK. Asking price £140,000.

LCV 236E 

1968 Morris Cooper 'S' based Wood & Pickett Mini Margrave, left hand drive and originally sold to the US. Asking price £140,000.

The fantastic four: coachbuilt Minis join at Woodham Mortimer's shop in Essex

Picture Woodham Mortimer