Japan Mini Day 2017

Japan Mini Day is always good for some Mini derivatives. And with the show in its 25th year it was bound to become a good one this year, at the shores of Lake Hamanako in the Shizuoka prefecture. The majority of the pictures below come from the Young Mini Club of Hong Kong. Thank you so much for uploading them!

Is this four-door car a Mini Mengers creation? I don't think so, but you may know?

Picture Piyo Yee / Young Mini Club

And how about this cool Mini coupe? A Buckle Monaco? An ABS Coupe? I'd love to know

UPDATE 23 november: it's a brand new Mini derivative! All here

Picture Piyo Yee / Young Mini Club

Heerey GTM 1-3 has to be a rare sight in Japan. This is a 1970 car

Picture Piyo Yee / Young Mini Club

And is that an Ibis or an RD Wasp? I think the latter. Here is an Ibis that made its way to Japan

Picture Piyo Yee / Young Mini Club

There were several Mokes with hardtops. I think this one is by Fibreglass Canopy Sales of Wahroonga, Australia

Picture Piyo Yee / Young Mini Club

And another one. This one looks to be a Duncan Hamilton variant of the late 1980s?

Picture Piyo Yee / Young Mini Club

These ladies sell ice cream from a very fitting Whitby Morrison Mini ice cream van

Picture Nobuhiro Okitsu

Mister Maruyama's well-know Mini Marcos may be Ford powered, it's a lovely thing!

Picture Piyo Yee / Young Mini Club

This car is another regular at Japan's Mini meets. The (Mk4) body is said to be fully carbon fibre

Picture Piyo Yee / Young Mini Club

Japan Mini Day would not be Japan Mini Day without at least some MiniSprints!

Picture Piyo Yee / Young Mini Club

The number of MiniSprints in Japan is remarkably high. Who built all these cars?

Picture JMSA

And another, now clearly based on a younger shell. Note that all wear wide arches

Picture Piyo Yee / Young Mini Club

Bonus photograph: this Unipower GT was also seen at another meeting in Japan last weekend

Picture Yoshi Tsuji

An Ibis in Japan

You and I know that quite a few Mini based sports cars made it to Japan, but I was surprised to learn an Ibis is cruising the country - despite the fact that it comes from New Zealand, which isn't too far away. We had some nice film footage here of the Ibis not too long ago, remember?

Now, Eiji Watanabe got in touch to tell me about the Ibis he used to own. He wrote: "Hello mister Booij. I always see your blog happily. There is an Ibis, which you wrote about the other day, in Japan. It is registered as 'Austin Elf' and the first Japanese owner obtained it in 2006 when it was red. I got on a little, and bought it next. I completely restored in about 2010 and painted it beige-grey and gave it Abarth-like modifications. I handed it over to the next owner in 2012. I do not know who owns it now but I'll see if I can find some more information." Thank you very much indeed!

The Ibis came in red when it first came to Japan in 2006

Picture courtesy Eiji Watanabe

Mini engine is clearly visible here. Note long bonnet

Picture courtesy Eiji Watanabe

The car uses a full fibreglass monocoque with moulded-in seats

Picture courtesy Eiji Watanabe

After the restoration it was painted in a shade of grey/beige. Where is it now?

Picture courtesy Eiji Watanabe

A plane, a bird? No it's a Mini based sports car

The Ibis is a bird, right? Not necessarily. There have been planes, bikes and hotels named Ibis. Plus a Mini based car hailing from New Zealand. It was initiated by Wallace McNair who restored classic cars in Auckland when the good old Berkeley T60 all of a sudden sparked his idea for a Mini based sports car. But it was Ian Byrd (what's in a name) who actually turned it into a prototype. When that was destroyed when it fell from a truck Byrd nearly gave up, but fortunately Tim Monk-Masen came around to give him a hand. Under Replicar Developments (NZ) Ltd they actually build it. I will write the Ibis' full and enjoyable story for Maximum Mini 3.

But meanwhile Ben Taylor surprised me with some unseen film footage of the late 1980s. Ben says his father owned no less than three Ibises and his current car (the red one below) is supposedly one of just three on the road today. The marketing video can be found below, enjoy it and thank you Ben!

Great marketing video to promote the 1987 Ibis by Replicar Developments
Video courtesy Ben Taylor


The first Ibis sports cars can also be seen at speed in the film footage
Picture courtesy Paul Wilkinson

 The same car made it to the stand of the Sports Car Club of NZ in 1992
Picture courtesy Paul Wilkinson

Ben's father's 1275 powered car is believed to be 1 of 3 Ibises on the road today
Picture courtesy Craig Watson