Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #126

New Zealand racer Rhubarb 1 survives

New Zealand Status Minipower info found

New Zealand mad Mini Coupe used Atkins supercharger

Le Mans Mini Marcos - 60 Years ago exactly

ESC's Edgar Salwegter speaks (2)

Following yesterday's discussion with Edgar Salwegter of ESC (here), I was eager to find out which of the Status Minipowers had been the one that made it over to New Zealand. Edgar recalled it was red and was seen in a book. There had been two red Minipowers in a number of publications, wearing the registrations 'PNG 433M' and 'VCL 738K'. We found out it was the latter, as seen in Peter Filby's 'Amazing Mini'.

Edgar bought the car in The Netherlands, took only the chassis to New Zealand and... scrapped the body! Edgar: "Then it became the white ESC in NZ. At least you know what happened to it. I will try and find out what happened with the next chassis in the jig."

A couple of days later he came back: "Hi Jeroen, I spoke to Angus Fogg and he has the jig for the chassis, but he does not know where the spare chassis went to. We have an all-Brits and Euro car show this weekend I will have a look and see for any new things pop up in the mini section. Angus also said he has had a few e-mails from you before."

That's right. I'd contacted Angus before about one car in New-Zealand in particular, which I had labeled as a Minipower also (this one) and showed Edgar the pictures, too. He replied: "It does look like a Status chassis from the pictures, looking at the top arm and chassis. The chassis was ahead of its time back than, with the inboard suspension. But we can rule it out as an ESC." That makes two Status Minipower-related mysteries in New Zealand. Who knows more about them..?

'VCL 738K' was a Status Minipower demonstrator that was used for a number of publications

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Peter Filby famously drove it for several of his articles, but it was also seen in a brochure

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Here it is when it was owned by Edgar - just before the body was sent to the scrappers..!

Picture courtesy Edgar Salwegter

The chassis was re-used in the first ESC, now with an aluminium body

Picture courtesy Edgar Salwegter

The wherabouts of the car remain unknown today. Do you know where it is..?

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

ESC's Edgar Salwegter speaks (1)

If you have Maximum Mini 3 you may have read about a car named ESC. I have always been intrigued by it, not only because it was built by a fellow-Dutchman who'd moved to New Zealand back in the 1980s, but also because it was believed to be built on an existing Status Minipower. It wasn't until recently that I finally got in touch with Edgar, who is still involved with cars over in New Zealand. He wrote:

"Hi Jeroen, Yes I am that Edgar. I started at Donkervoort, than built the Lotus Seven in NZ - only 2 of them. Then built ESC Mk1 what was the Status I brought to NZ from The Netherlands. Mk2 was a Lotus Seven chassis with a Holden 6-cylinder, Mk3 was a small race car built from scratch with a Suzuki 1300 GT engine and had a lot of racing fun, Mk4 was the Ferrari 333 body with a front engine Honda S2000 with what I won the North Island endurace champion ship in 2005. I also built a few MB6 McLaren replicas. went to Aus 2006 for a few years back to NZ 2014, now selling performance parts at FPP Speedshop. Ik speak Nederlands fluent, just find it hard to write."

There's no doubt that the Mk1 ESC was the one I was eager to learn more about, and Edgar was kind enough to answer all my questions. He added: "I made a jig for the Status and made one chassis and sold that to Richard Gray. I have now heard the jigs were sold to Angus Fogg who has raced Minis all his life and is a famous racing driver in New Zealand. I do know him well and I gave him the original Status badge I had kept all those years. The Status I bought, was the one that had a photo in a kit car book from the UK, but I don't have that book any more. I will try and dig up some old pictures as I gave them all to Angus."

We did find out which Status car it was in the end, as I learned what exactly happened to it. There is more to follow soon.

THE New-Zealand-built ESC Mk1 used a Status Minipower as its base

Picture courtesy Edgar Salwegter 

Seen here from the back without the aluminium body but with the Mini engine in place

Picture courtesy Edgar Salwegter 

Plans to make more cars followed. Here's a brand new chassis for one

Picture courtesy Edgar Salwegter 

It still shares many similarities of that of the Status Minipower but remained a one-off

Picture courtesy Edgar Salwegter 

Edgar did manage to market his cars in NZ newspapers. 

"I build all my cars to the European standards I learned at Donkervoort"

Picture courtesy Edgar Salwegter 

Aluminium bodied Mk1 ESC - for Edgar Salwegter Cars - remained a one-off

Picture courtesy Edgar Salwegter