Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #94

The story of Malcom's Marcos

Mystery solved: meet the Needham GT39

A Mini Coupe in an Australian forecourt...

Ecurie de Dez demonstrator - maroon or green?

The lovely photograph below of Dez Higgins' Ecurie de Dez Mini 2+2 was shared recently by Malcolm Savage. He wrote: "This is an official publicity shot with a local South Australian tv personality. Funnily enough I saw one in a used car yard in Adelaide maybe fifteen years ago."

I wonder what the colour of that car was. Could it have been British Racing Green, as the one used by larger-than-life character Jack Kaines (full story here)? It's also probably the same car that was used for a test drive in Wheel-Spin magazine of October 1967, which even put it on its cover. It's purplish maroon there, but I'm not so sure if that was the car's real colour as it seems to have been inkted in. Who knows?

UPDATE 17:00: The lady is identified as tv personality Anne Wills, who wasn't afraid of some motor promotion (click).

Shiny as a mirror. South Australian tv personality (who?) sees herself in smooth boot lid

Picture via Malcolm Savage

Same car, same photoshoot, I think. But what was the car's paint colour?

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

 Maroon-ish colour here seems to have been applied in picture?

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Classic Mini Coupes

There have been several coupe variants on the classic Min saloon now. I thought it would be nice to see all of them together. So... left to right:

Top row: New ERA Mini Coupe, Buckle Monaco, Ecurie de Dez 2+2

Middle row: Automotive Refabrication Coupe, ABS Mini Coupe, homebuilt creation

Below: Mini Trafalgar Coupe 

Oh - there have been several more projects... Which one is your favourite?

The third Australian Mini Coupe

You may have heard of the Buckle Monaco - a fastback version of the good old Mini that was built in Brookvale, Australia between 1966 and 1967. And there was the Ecurie de Dez, too, a car of a similar coupe concept and also Australian, this time built in Salisbury South bewteen 1969 and 1970. Two cars alike. Would there be place for a third? It seems like someone at least thought so. I never found out more about the exploits of 'Automotive Refabrication Pty. Ltd.', other then the 1967 ad which you can see here. But I came across another picture of what I believe to be the same car more recently. The remarkable thing is that, like Buckle, this company was based in Brookvale, too. As a matter of fact it was just around the corner from Bill Buckle's workshop, or so Google Maps learned me. So was it a competitor who believed he could get a piece of the pie, too? Perhaps even an ex-Buckle employee who started on his own? Or was it somebody who decided to carry on with the project in 1967 after Buckle finished it..?

Not Buckle Monaco nor Ecurie de Dez. This is a third Australian Mini Coupe

Picture courtesy Australian Hot Rod magazine

Air vents in c-post and boot with no number plate recess distinguishes it easily from others

picture courtesy oldholden.com

Jack Kaines and the Ecurie de Dez

I love a good story. And if it has something Mini based sqeezed in, I'll love it even more. So when Geoff Cartridge emailed me some time ago he made my day. Geoff's story was not just about one very rare (of 5 made) Australian built Mini Coupes, known as Ecurie de Dez 2+2 (more here) - it also seemed to have all the ingredients for a witty Tom Sharpe novel. 

Here's what he wrote: "The late Jack Kaines who was co-founder of the Birdwood Mill Museum, now the National Motor Museum, had an Ecurie de Dez for maybe a year. It was of course British Racing Green, which went with Jack's pretensions to Being British. Jack's car had an insignia painted on both front doors, the crest of the Proctor family who he apparently was related to. Jack was, he claimed, a former Spitfire pilot for the RAF or RAAF. He was a very large man when he was in his late 60's and he probably weighed close to 18 stone (250lbs). He had a round florid face, glasses and an outrageous handlebar moustache. Whisky and blonde floozies seemed to be his companions when his 'grandmother' was not looking. He and his wife would drive from their home in Aldgate a place called "RottingDean" to Birdwood and when they stopped the car would rise markedly as he and his 'grandmother', as he used to call her, got out. I cannot be sure what happened finally to the car. It was a treasure from its magnesium alloy wheels to its lights and interior. One thing is for sure, Jack wrecked the underside of the car when he went too fast and drove into a creek bed."

Meanwhile, I have tried to get in touch again with Geoff, but unfortunately to no avail. I'll keep trying, but perhaps there's somebody else out here, reading this, and able to throw a light on mister Jack Kaines and his rare Ecurie de Dez 'Mini Coupe'? I'm surely not the only one liking a good story?

A place called RottingDean, an eccentric Anglophile Down Under and a lost Ecurie de Dez in BRG... all classic ingredients for a good read, if you ask me.

Illustration: Jeroen Booij

Mini Coupe: classic trick

Don't think the new Mini Coupe is an all-new concept. It was done before, only not by Longbridge. In the UK you could have your Mini converted in a sleek fastback coupe by a company named New Era (they built 3), but it were the Aussies who really knew their fastbacks. Bill Buckle of Brookvale, New South Wales converted your car into the Buckle Monaco which he did some 30 times; there was a coupe conversion from a company named 'Automotive Refabrication Pty. Ltd.', again in Brookvale (more information welcome - I have only one 1967 advertisement). And last but not least there was the Ecurie de Dez 2+2 from Des Higgins in Salisbury South. Higgins built only 5 such cars, but when you have to believe the contemporary reviews from Australian magazines "it has a quality to be seen to be believed. It looks anything but a home-grown special". In an advertisement that I have it is in fact named 'Mini Coupe', see below. Nothing new here.

Ecurie de Dez 2+2: a Mini Coupe avant la lettre

And a rare survivor. Raked wind screen and sloping fastback lines

Picture: Craig Watson

Modern Mini Coupe does same trick with raked screen and sloping roof