Making the Mini Shark (2)

Yesterday you could see pictures showing the building process of the one-off Mini Shark, designed and built by Terry Lee between 1969 and 1974 (here), today some more information on that car.

Lee made the body design in carton board but chose fibreglass to make the real thing. That was something he regretted afterwards, or so he told me: "It was an awful lot of work and the insurance didn’t like it”. It's also the reason why the later Mini Beavers that he built came with steel bodies. 

But with its yellow paint, square headlights and a sharply chopped-off tail with Mk1 Escort lights and painted in contrasting satin black the finished Mini Shark did look rather nice.

Once Lee had it on the road the Mini Shark was tested and received a brand new registration in 1974: 'OWT 694M'. Lee used it for several years before he sold it and he told me he believed the car no longer exists when I visited him in Leeds some 10 years ago. However, a picture of it did appear in the 1990s, when the car was supposedly found in Glasgow, Scotland, in a stripped state. Could it still survive? Who knows more about it? 

Once finished Mrs. Lee naturally had to pose with the car her husband designed and built

Picture Terry Lee / Jeroen Booij archive

The Mini Shark's body was made of fibreglass - something mister Lee regretted afterwards

Picture Terry Lee / Jeroen Booij archive

OWT 694M - the only Mini Shark - is seen here together with a Mini Beaver, also built by Lee

Picture Terry Lee / Jeroen Booij archive

The car's Mini engine was a 1000 sourced from a Mini Van and placed at the rear

Picture Terry Lee / Jeroen Booij archive

Flip back and flip front. Behind the latter the petrol tank and battery hid

Picture Terry Lee / Jeroen Booij archive

Interior with lots and lots of switches, gauges and lights. Note Shark logo on wheel, too

Picture Terry Lee / Jeroen Booij archive

Terry Lee 10 years ago in August 2011, when I interviewed him about the Mini Shark and Mini Beaver

Picture Jeroen Booij

This picture shows the car survived in Glasgow as late as in the 1990s. Where is it now?

Picture Autopuzzles.com

Making the Mini Shark in 1969 (1)

Back from holidays and ready to treat you to more exploits, new and old, from the land of Mini based (sports) cars. How about the one-off Mini Shark? It was built between 1969 and 1974 by Terry Lee of Leeds, who was later also responsible for the Mini Beaver in a quantity of seven. 

Work on the Shark started with the acquisition of a much-corroded Mini Van in '69. Lee took the mechanicals out and placed the front subframe with its 1000 engine now placed into the back of a chassis frame he’d welded from square tubing. Next, he started making a body from carton board, at first in the shape of a coupe with gullwing doors. Construction these to work properly proved to be a bit too difficult and Lee decided to turn it into a roadster with tiny little doors and a soft top instead. The eventual body was made in fibreglass and did materialize, too. More on the finished Mini Shark later this week.

The base for so many Mini based cars: a tired Mini Van bought for scrap money

Picture Terry Lee / Jeroen Booij archive

Get rid of that rusty body and re-use all the bits that are still okay. It's easy! Well, to some

Picture Terry Lee / Jeroen Booij archive

Lee made a chassis from steel square tubing and started work on a body in carton board

Picture Terry Lee / Jeroen Booij archive

Gullwing doors were very much the fashion of the late 1960s, so that's what he needed, too!

Picture Terry Lee / Jeroen Booij archive

Mrs. Lee posing with the mock-up body in carton board, still with its gull wing doors...

Picture Terry Lee / Jeroen Booij archive

But these doors proved to be one little bridge too far for the young designer / builder...

Picture Terry Lee / Jeroen Booij archive

...And so the Mini Shark was to become a roadster with tiny doors and a hardtop instead

Picture Terry Lee / Jeroen Booij archive