A McCoy (and Mini Jem) in France

I was surprised to learn of a McCoy in The Netherlands last month (click here), but it's not the only example of the species outside of the UK. Raynald Claudine has one in Brittany, France and recently took part in the car in the Florio Cup in it; a local hill climb in Saint-Brieuc. The newspaper Ouest-France wrote the following: "For almost forty years, Raynald Claudine has been passionate about the original Austin Mini, even to the point of setting up a veritable museum to its glory. During the Coupe Florio, which will be held from September 9 to 11, 2022 in Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d'Armor), it will be possible to admire his latest acquisition: a car produced in only 83 copies and unique in France."

The McCoy wasn't the only Mini variant entered in the Coupe Florio as there was a Mk3 Mini Jem on Luxembourg plates also. I don't know how the cars did in the hill climb, but I understand both of them finished.

 

Raynard Claudine in his Brittany workshop with his McCoy GT

Picture Ouest-France 

The Mini based McCoy was born out of the Imp based Clan Crusader

Picture Marie-Paul Claudine

Rubbing shoulders with another Mini variant in Saint-Brieuc: a Mini Jem

Picture Marie-Paul Claudine

This is a Mk3 car on Luxembourg plates

Picture Marie-Paul Claudine

Ogle SX1000 number 8 - where are you now?

There have been a few brochures for the Ogle SX1000 and one of them clearly shows the car registered '201 ANW', which was chassis number 8 or so I have been told. I don't know much about what happened to it after 1962, but do know that it was owned by Mark Butler in 2008, in who's workshop I saw it at the time. It needed a full restoration but just about all of the parts were there. Mark, however, concentrated on the Unipower GT projects he had at the time (two cars no less) and sold the car.

Then there's another gap of eight years before another sign of life of chassis number 8 came. Reader Bart Vanreusel spotted the Ogle at the InterClassics motor show in Brussels in November 2016. The restoration was nearly finished by that time and the car was offered for sale once again. Asking price was a rather staggering 120,000 euros. I have no idea if the restoration was ever fully finished or if the car was sold. Who can tell where it is now?

UPDATE 21 November 2022: A nice message from Bertrand Smets, who has been - and still is - restoring this SX1000 in Luxembourg. He wrote: "Dear Jeroen, first of all I would like to thank you for the quality of your Maximum Mini blog. Here is some news about the Ogle SX1000 number 8: The restoration of the car is not finished! The car is part of my collection and will not change owner for a long time. I will send you some pictures of the car when it is finished. Sincerely yours" Thank you Bertrand!

Ogle SX1000 '201 ANW' was a brochure car back in 1962

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

It wore chassis number 8 and was supposedly gold in colour

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

This picture must be from the same shoot as the ones used for the brochure 

Picture Ogle Noor

Fast forward to 2008. Repainted red at some stage and needing full restoration

Picture Mark Butler

Strip down had begun but work stopped. The car was complete though

Picture Mark Butler

Note that hinges have been cut out from the body. Not a simple job to repair

Picture Mark Butler

Austin engine was there and seemed to be original, too. This was in the Midlands

Picture Mark Butler

And there it is again! Almost fully restored and on display at InterClassics Brussels

Picture Bart Vanreusel

Body repaired and fully repainted, the golden colour perhaps a bit light?

Picture Bart Vanreusel

Big carb, but engine bay looked good again. The asking price? 120,000 Euros...

Picture Bart Vanreusel

The many wanderings of an Ogle SX1000

Australian Ogle SX1000 owner Neil Griffin (more here) dropped me another enthusiastic line. He wrote: "Hi Jeroen, one of the outstanding articles on Ogles that I have been trying to track down is a July 1997 Mini Magazine. I have a lot of Mini World magazines from this period and a quite few Mini Magazines, but not that one and for some reason this issue rarely came up on eBay or GumTree, but finally I have managed to secure a copy. Anyway, in reading the Ogle article contained within, it mentioned that owners took the Ogle to Mini 25 which I was co-incidentally attended as part of a 'Grand European (Motorsport) Tour' in 1984 and I thought, I wonder... Would you believe it!"

"I'm not normally that organized, but I recently fetched my old Mini photo albums out for another pic from that period. Little did I know I'd be restoring one of these 34 years later! I wouldn't have had any clue at the time what the hell this unusual car was back then. Of course you know this car in its later blue paint colour as the one you compared to the Marcos in the 2015 Mini Magazine article... 'Elites of the Illegitimates'."

"It was subsequently refurbished in Switzerland with what appears to be a tan leather interior and sold again to a new owner in Luxembourg and was in show at the recent InterClassics Brussels. Cheers, Neil Griffin"
Thanks for that Neil! I wonder if any more readers have pictures of the car at Mini 25, or before that. I understand it was registered 'AEG 409A' earlier, but frustratingly couldn't find any photographic proof of that in the files. Who knows..?

Spotted by reader on Donington during 'Mini 25' in 1984. Can you read the registration?

It is believed to have been 'AEG 409C', but that's not the one here?

UPDATE: It was 'RJL 58' - a private plate that it wore only shortly.

Picture courtesy Neil Griffin

1997: the car is now registered '755 XPG' and could still be seen on the roads in the UK

Picture Jeroen Booij archive / Mini Magazine

2010: spotted on a rainy day in the UK with a new owner. Repainted in blue but still wearing the same plate 755 XPG

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

2014: Now on Belgian trade plates and for sale at the time. My offer was kindly refused...

Picture Jeroen Booij

By then the interior was still black, its original colour or so it seemed to me

Picture Jeroen Booij

2018: In Switzerland and for sale again. Asking price 39,900 Swiss francs, sold to Luxembourg

Picture Lutziger Classics

By now the car's interior is fully retrimmed in tan leather. Lovely, but would you do it?

Picture Lutziger Classics

November 2018: on Luxembourg plates and once again for sale. Asking price? 50,000 Euros

Picture courtesy Bart Vanreusel

More Unipower GT updates

Unipower news keeps on coming in here after last week's Japanese wide bodied GT. It supposedly is not an ex-works car but one that was modified by the Lenham Motor company in the late 1990s. What's more: it is currently for sale with a company named Scuderia Old Timer in Utsonomija, Japan, see the ad here. Thanks for all the hints and tips.

Meanwhile, regular Peter Camping managed to find a good picture of another Unipower GT in racing guise: the car driven by Tom Zettinger of Luxembourg. It, too, uses wide arches and a broad racing stripe: blue on white. From 1968 to 1970 Zettinger entered the car in a number of events: mostly local hill climbs, slaloms and sprints in Luxenbourg. So far, I'd only seen a sketchy photograph of it, taken by Paul Kooyman at the International AvD-Rundstreckenrennen at Zolder in october '69. The one that Peter found is a lot better and was taken at Lorentzweiler that same year. Naturally, I wonder what happened to the car.

This list of events in which Zettinger drove the Unipower comes from this website about motor sports in Luxembourg:

1968 Course de côte de Marche
1968 Course de côte Bourscheid
1968 Slalom de Belvaux
1969 Slalom 3 Frontieres Rodange
1969 Course de côte Kautenbach
1969 Course de côte Lorentzweiler
1969 Course de côte Holtz
1969 Slalom Thionville
1970 Course de Côte Kautenbach
1970 Slalom Rodange
1970 Course de côte Goesdorf

UPDATE 5 January 2016: The car was originally owned by a Count Volpi, and was restored in 1988 and offered for sale for 3,200 GBP. See here.

The only known picture (by me) of Zettinger's Unipower G, taken at Zolder in 1969

Picture courtesy Paul Kooyman

This one is new to me and it gives a better view of the car. There have to be more pictures?

Picture via Peter Camping

French Mini Jems

I don't know why, but Mini Jems - as well as Mini Marcoses - are proving to be very popular in France. According to Enguerrand Lecesne just one Mini Jem (a rare Mk1) was sold originally to a Frenchman and it is the car you see below. From 1970-on that green little thing was hill climbed and auto tested regularly in eastern France and Luxembourg by owner Pierre Tollini. I do not know what happened to it, but perhaps somebody else does.

It's most certainly not the Mk1 that was snapped up a while ago in France by Milco Colsen. Unfortunately this Mini Jem was at one stage equiped with a much later Mini Marcos rear door and a 'frenched' petrol tank funnel. Milco says he thought about changing this to the original closed rear again, but in the end didn't do it, and has now decided to sell the car as a project (ad here). Despite having no paperwork with it Milco and I found out that the car was originally British registered on 1 November 1968 and used to be red. Milco now hopes to get the original registration back on the car.

Pierre Tollini and his faithfull Mini Jem Mk1, which he raced in France in 1970

Picture through Enguerrand Lecesne