Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #125

New pictures of Unipower GT at Spa-Francorchamps

Lost Unipower GT has been hiding in basement for 54 years

 

Crashed Unipower GT repaired and raced in Denmark

Missing Unipower GT road test found

Mystery Mini Derivative (82): Danish Beach Car

The two pictures below reached me from Denmark through Michael Hansen, who wanted to know if I'd seen this car before. All he knows is that it is supposedly based on a 1967 Austin Seven. Well, I draw a complete blank here. It does look similar to the Kosellek Mini cabriolet, made in Alençon, France in the late-1960s or perhaps to the Crayford Carnival, but it's clearly different to these. Look at those fat A-pillars! And how about the massive bumpers, Volvo-sourced..? Any information would be most welcome.

A mystery Mini Beach car conversion from Denmark. I'd never seen this one before

Picture courtesy Michael Hansen

Massive bumpers and ditto grille, fat A-pillars and no doors. Who knows more..?

Picture courtesy Michael Hansen

Dutch demonstrator Biota - history unraveled (2)

More history of the orange Biota Mk1 known as the Dutch Demonstrator Biota! 

(original post of it's discovery here and history part 1 here).

René Sontrop, son of the car's builder and Dutch Biota-importer Jan Sontrop continues: "When the car was finished it was driven for quite some time on FH-plates (Dutch garage plates-JB). My dad constantly altered and improved it. Initially it used an 850 Mini engine but my dad later managed to find a Cooper 1000 for it and fitted that, which was quite an improvement. The handling of the car was superb and so much better than a TVR, which was imported by my father also, or even a Lotus 7. And my dad knew well how to drive it."

What exactly happened with the car after that is still a bit of a mystery. René: "We emigrated to France in 1973 when I was 15 and my dad sold all of his stuff in The Netherlands. He set up 'Atelier Sontrop' as a workshop and restoration company for prewar cars. I took over in the 1980s and moved to Jaguars mainly, even running a Jaguar-dealership in 1999. My father passed away eleven years ago now and my mother just three weeks ago. He was a real go-getter and did everything to sell these kit cars - he'd really fallen in love with them and used his orange car as a daily driver at the time. It brought him everywhere in Europe to promote the Biota brand. He sold one or two cars in Belgium through a garage called Francis Gueibe and I know he also tried to sell them in France, but was put off there as they wanted to crash test them first. I believe he also sold a few of them to Norway or Denmark." More research needed here.

So, is that it? It isn't boys and girls. This tale will have a surprise ending. That's up next.

Finished: the Dutch demonstrator is ready to be used as a promotional vehicle throughout Europe 

Picture courtesy René Sontrop

The promotional B&W pictures came to me through Biota owner Peter Niessen. Note garage plates

Picture courtesy Peter Niessen

Prescott Hill Ltd. became more than a Dutch Biota concessionaire. Sontrop senior used his demonstrator through Europe to promote the Biota brand

Picture courtesy Peter Niessen

René Sontrop recalls: "He was a real go-getter and did everything to sell these kit cars - he'd really fallen in love with them and used his orange car as a daily driver

Picture courtesy Peter Niessen

When it was finished it drove for quite some time on FH-plates - Dutch garage plates

Picture courtesy Peter Niessen

Initially it had an 850 Mini engine but later a Cooper 1000 was sourced and fitted

Picture courtesy Peter Niessen

"The handling of the car was superb and much better than a TVR or even a Lotus 7"

Picture courtesy Peter Niessen

The Dutch registration '17-30-RL' was issued in July 1971 and is still on it today

Picture courtesy Rob Mellaart

Sontrop took it everywhere in Europe for promotion. One or two cars were sold to Belgium through the dealership of Francis Gueibe

Picture courtesy René Sontrop

Sekura Mini now being restored

When you have read Maximum Mini 2 you may remember the one-off Sekura Mini, that half-Danish half-Scottish sports car from the imaginative Ray Innes. I visited Ray and his wife Moira in Scotland in 2011 and had a lovely time with them, with Ray telling me about his time with Sekura, but also with Ogle and Radford coachbuilders. However, I did not get the chance to photograph the Sekura Mini properly as it was stored at a farm yard under piles of rubbish...

Fast forward six years and the car is rescued from its hiding place. Ole Pedersen of Denmark contacted me about it. He knows the car found its way back to his home country once more as it is now being restored by Hans Pedersen, who worked for Sekura when it was built. Ole copied a write-up (originally in Danish), which he translated and I enclose some quotes from it here:

"In 1983, the Randers company Sekura A/S manufactured a sports car, the Sekura Mini, to demonstrate to customers what the company could do. Sekura A/S - Today Sekura Cabins A/S - manufactures cabs for tractors - and the small sports car also has more common features with a tractor - how strange that may sound: a fairly angular design characterizes the car that became designed by Scottsman Ray Innes. The car only managed to drive around 200 kilometers on a trip back and forth to Jyllandsringen, where it was presented to the press. Then it disappeared. Until the car enthusiast Hans Pedersen came to buy the Randers car many years later. Pedersen: 'Initially I asked to borrow the car to an exhibition. But it turned out that the transport costs back and forth would be too expensive. And so, instead, I asked if I could buy the car. Ray Innes would just sleep on - but we got a deal made up so I could bring the car back to Denmark.'"

Pedersen plans now to fully restore it and take the car once again to Sekura to show it. Some of the employees at the company will still remember it. He also plans to show his special sports car at a big annual classic car meeting in Denmark in February next year. I love that it's been cared for, and don't think it could have found a better home.

That's how the Sekura Mini came out of its Scottish hibernation where it stood so many years

Picture Hans Pedersen

And that's the chassis in the process of being restored. Car should be ready soon by now

Picture Hans Pedersen

Early 1979 sketch by Scottish draughtsman Ray Innes, who designed it

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

An early model of the car, photographed in Ray's garden back not too long after the idea came about

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The car being constructed in Ray's studio. Body is ready to be fitted, like all the mechanicals

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Bonnet on, seat in, car is taking shape here. Ray had good memories of building it

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Ray Innes back in 1983 with the finished result in front of his studio

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

And... Ray in 2011 in the same studio, still keen to draw!

Picture Jeroen Booij

Autumn sonata (2)

Okay, one more autumn posting. Not of a Stimson Safari 6 nor of a Unipower this time - this is the Wood & Pickett Mini Margrave of Danish Mini fan, coachbuilt Mini expert and great Maximum mini friend Jens Christian Lillelund. He wrote: "Autumn has reached us, but the weather was great today, so went for a long drive in the W&P. Unfortunately have they predicted colder weather so its only a matter of time untill I can't drive anymore, as they will put salt on the roads." Love it!

Gorgeous car, gorgeous surroundings. Jens Christian restored his W&P over a long timespan

Picture: Jens Christian Lillelund

 It's probably the only Wood & Pickett Mini with Janspeed turbo power

Picture: Jens Christian Lillelund

Video: challenging a big Ferrari in 1967

I wrote about the Cox GTM of Dagobert Swensson racing at the Bengtsfors Ring some time ago (click here). Now it appears not to be the only Mini based sports car competing in Sweden against much more powerful machinery. On 16 September 1967 there was an early Mk3 Mini Marcos, driven by Bo Elmhorn and challenging the bigger cars on the Roskilde Ring, including Björn Bellander's Ferrari. And not without merit! Gosh, does this chap fly with his little Marcos, trying to pass Bellander from the inside! Together with Pico Troberg, Elmhorn was the Swedish importer for the Mini Marcos and I understand that his red little racer survives in the USA today. Check out the great period film footage here. Thanks again to Peter Camping!

Update: Roskilde Ring was and is in Denmark, thanks Dennis Overgaard Nielsen! (and shame on me).

Start grid with Elmhorn's Mini Marcos behind the Ferrari of Bellander in the middle

Picture courtesy Björn Bellander

Elmhorn's Mini Marcos flies over the Roskilde Ring, seriously trying to beat the big guns

Picture courtesy Björn Bellander

Together with Pico Troberg, Bo Elmhorn was responsible for Mini Marcoses in Sweden

Picture courtesy Björn Bellander

Dennis' Danish derivative

It's been a while since I got a message from the enthusiastic Dennis Overgaard Nielsen from Denmark, sharing his latest acquisition of a Mini Marcos with a nice slice of sporting heritage, or so it seems. For work Dennis travels to Japan every so often and if he's not there he will find some car related stuff closer to home to write about for his blog (click!). Anyway. Dennis wrote: "Here are some pics of my very latetst car. I have actually just bought it and haven't even had the time to collect it. The car's chassis number is 7012 and it was previously restored by the Mini Marcos owners club before it was imported into Denmark a couple of years ago by a lady. Unfortunately it was not done in the correct way. So right now I am waiting for an export certificate on the car from the British DVLA. As soon as I have that I will pick up the car. As said this car is chassis number 7012, and is one of 50 Mini Marcos chassis to be homologated in 1968 for motor sports, as you can see on the attached homologation attest."

"My plan is also to use it for historic racing, and it will be built with a Cooper S 1275 engine and full roll cage. There are some parts missing, most are not a problem to source, items such as brakes and such. It is also missing its original dashboard, but I have discovered that Rae Davis in the UK can produce new 'works' dashboards. The sunroof also need to be filled, and right now I am contemplating wether to remove the unoriginal rear hatch or not. The hatch might prove practical with a full cage in the car."

"This is the car's history that I know of. Please feel free to publish a few words/pics about it if you think it is worthy of your site. I would be delighted to hear if any of your readers knows more of its history."

So here we go. Readers - come in please!

Mk3 Mini Marcos comes in Royal Blue. Sunroof has to go, rear hatch too?

Plan is to fit a 1275 Cooper 'S' engine here to get the car to the track 

Current dashboard will be swapped for a works replica dash

Papers indeed show that '7012' was 1 of 50 homologation specials