French museum closes - Hustler 6 seeks new home

Méan Sonora-owner Louis Lempereur told me about the upcoming closure of the Musée Automobile de Provence in southern France. The museum will be closed and the premises destroyed to build houses. Many of the cars on display are said to come up for sale, with some real gems in between them. There are several pre-war Bugattis in the collection as well as a Cooper T61 and quite a number number of interesting French Specials and low-volume cars. A Hustler Huntsman 6 is perhaps not quite what you'd expect here, but it's there and it's looking good in bright orange. 

I contacted the museum's curator Pierre Delliere, who confirmed the car's for sale status: "Dear Sir, Indeed I made the decision to separate myself from the Hustler. It is a 1985 car and it was completely dismantled and rebuilt in two years time. There is a newly built engine, new seats, belts, hoses, exhaust, carpets, tyres, brakes, clutch, 6 hydrolastic hoses (600 €), radiator, tank, etc, etc... We also changed the headlights and rear lights and reviewed the entire wiring loom. There is still some work to fully finish it. It comes with English papers (V5), but I do have the French tax paper also as it was imported before Brexit. Greetings, Pierre Delliere."

If anyone here is interested, just drop me a line and I'd be happy to get you in touch with monsieur Delliere.

Hustler Huntsman 6 in the Musée Automobile de Provence in Orgon, southern France

Picture courtesy Louis Lempereur

The car was fully restored in the last two years and will now be sold as the museum closes

Picture Jordi Vilaro picture / All Andora

Still on British plates (wrong way 'round...) but it came to France pre-Brexit

Picture Jordi Vilaro picture / All Andora

Interior looks particularly good on this car with beautiful carpeting and trimmings

Picture Jordi Vilaro picture / All Andora

The Musée Automobile de Provence in Orgon will disappear to make place for houses

Picture courtesy Louis Lempereur

Peel Viking moulds return to Isle of Man

Reader Richard Hawcroft came across an interesting picture on a forum recently. He wrote: "Look at this photo of the Isle of Man motor museum. It looks like the original moulds for the Peel Viking! Never seen them before! It was on Pistonheads, but they where more interested in the rusty E-type in the front. My eagle eyes spotted the Peel in the background..."

He certainly seemed to be right there, and so I decided to contact the museum. I got in touch with the director Darren Cunningham, who let me know: "Hi Jeroen, yes that is correct, the moulds have recently been loaned to the Museum. I'll be honest, I do not know the story behind them yet. I will ask the owners though."

Meanwhile, I did a little search and found that they were owned by Exo Sports Cars at least until recently, who offered them for sale a few months ago, together with a body made from those moulds plus most of the donor Mini parts to finish. Asking price was £5995.00 at the time. They wrote: "In 2015 Exo Sports Cars Ltd. secured the original Peel factory moulds for the Peel Viking and produced a bodyshell and dash from this mould. Considering the mould is over 50 years old, it is in remarkable condition and will produce a quality shell ready for painting and building into a turn key car. It was always our full intention to put the Peel Viking back into low volume production, but our other core products, have proven to be so successful, there simply hasn't been time to further develop te Peel."

Remarkably, somebody else told me he had the original Peel Viking moulds from the island back in 2011 (click here). These were offered for sale at the time, but I don't think they were the original set after all. I now believe these were made later to build a few Vikings at the time, one of them that can still be seen on the island in the hands of its enthusiastic owner and the other one in a US museum.

UPDATE 14 September 2018: These moulds are not what they claim to be, see here.

Forget the Jag. This is the picture that eagle-eyed Richy Hawcroft saw when he spotted the Peels

Picture Pistonheads

And there they are: the original Peel Viking moulds plus a shell are now back on the Isle of Man

Picture courtesy Isle of Man Motor Museum

And here are the same moulds when offered for sale by Exo Sports Cars just months ago

Picture Exo Sports Cars

Exo made one body shell from them with the idea to relaunch the Peel Viking. This never happened though and the empty shell is now on loan to the Isle of Man motor museum also

Picture Exo Sports Cars

The original set of moulds is not on its own anymore, though. This later set is still about, too

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

When a Midas Gold becomes a Baumann Coupe

Remarkably, the car seen here - on display at the Reims Champagne Motor Museum in France - is not a Midas Gold. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Baumann Coupe. Well, that's what the badge on its nose says. It is in fact a rebadged Midas that was meant to become a French version with left hand drive. Somehow it never succeeded and this is believed to be the sole car made. Was there a problem with homologation? I understand it is equipped with a 71hp strong MG Metro sourced 1300 engine and is privately owned but lended to the museum. The '44' number plate suggests it was issued in the Loire-Atlantique in the west of France. I would love to to find out a little more, though, and with several Midas experts on board here I trust some of you will be able to do so!

UPDATE 17 July 2018: Well, well, well - it is not what it appears to be..! Full story here.

The sole 1985 Baumann Coupe can be seen in the Reims Champagne Motor Museum

Picture source Pinterest

It is said to be a French version of the Midas Gold that never succeeded. What went wrong?

Picture source Pinterest

BMW museum shows derivatives in 'The MINI Story'

You'll have to admit that BMW, as Mini's current custodian, is doing rather well in keeping the flame alive. As a matter of fact they open an exhibition tomorrow in Munich's BMW Museum called 'The MINI Story', emphasizing on 55 years of great little car design with 30 cars on display, and they were nice enough to send a press release with plenty of photographs over to here.

Yes, the emphasis lies on current models and prototypes for these, but interestingly for us lot there's a little more than the well-known classics they haul to every prestigious event. In fact they have made the effort to show some Mini derivatives! A tip of the iceberg, okay, but definitely worth a mention here never the less. There's an Outspan Orange Mini, a Wildgoose and Whitby Morrison Ice Cream Van, plus a rare four-door Mini built by our friends of Mini Mengers, who came up with the Mengers 3WP earlier this year. The expo will open tomorrow at 20:00, followed by a party into the early hours, and will last until 31 January 2016, so you've got over a year to pay the place a visit!

1969 Riley Elf and 1967 Morris Countryman, yes, but the Outspan Orange is the cool one here!

Picture courtesy BMW

 Pristine Wildgoose Super VEB and now-rare Whitby Morrison Mini Ice Cream Van

Picture courtesy BMW

This Rover Mini was converted by Mengers of Germany, who also build the 3WP

Picture courtesy BMW

Mini based ice racer to be resurrected

Motor sport has many variations but I must admit I wasn't too familiar with ice racing. I'm catching up now, though, and understand it's a sport that is particularly popular in Scandinavia, the northern states of the USA and Canada. And the car you see here was built for it and used extensively in the late 1960s and early 1970s. There's no doubt it's a Mini based creature and a ultra lightweight one too. 

I understand it was known as 'Orange Crush', built and raced on the frozen lakes in the Midwest by Hank Beachy. Unfortunately Beachy passed away some nine years ago, but his racer survives. Only recently it was freed from a barn to be taken over by the British Transportation Museum in Dayton, Ohio. Although the lines of the Mini are still recognisable it's clear that Beachy totally modified his tangerine racer. I think just about any possible body panel is chopped, it's fully deseamed and very much streamlined. Just look at the rake of the windscreen. It was discovered with its engine, but unfortunately that's not with it anymore now. And it looks like the chap who took it out wasn't particularly careful, too, judging by the way the nose is broken... Anyway: the good news is that the museum is planning to restore it and they have allready been donated a new engine by Mini enthusiast Larry Tomlin. Thanks Roald Rakers and Charlie Pollett for the tip.

Hank Beachy's Mini based ice racer will be on display in Dayton, Ohio soon

Picture courtesy British Transportation Museum 

Chopped, channeled, lightened and streamlined but still a Mini. Note exhaust pipe

Picture courtesy British Transportation Museum 

This is how the car was discovered recently. It hasn't seen the ice track for ages

Picture courtesy British Transportation Museum 

Unfortunately the original racing engine was taken out. Not without scratches.

Picture courtesy British Transportation Museum 

But a new unit has allready been donated to the museum by Larry Tomlin

Picture courtesy British Transportation Museum

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

The last days of Summer (and how to spend them)

Summer holidays are just about to end and the same goes for the Summer weather. Here at least. If it's raining it may be an idea to spend the last days of Summer in a museum. There are a few with Mini derivatives on display. I made a selection below, you just click on the museum's names to get to their websites. Let me know if you know of other cars in other museums or public collections.

Jeff Lane of the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee has a Peel Viking Minisport

Picture courtesy Lane Motor Museum

And you will also find a Midas Bronze in the same collection, focussing on small cars

Picture courtesy Lane Motor Museum

The British Motor Heritage Centre in Gaydon have had the 'Michelotti Mini' for ages

Picture Jeroen Booij

It's back to back to the 'Pininfarina Mini', also on permanent display in Gaydon

Picture Jeroen Booij

Australia cherishes the Nota Fang in the Science & Design Museum in Sydney

Picture courtesy powerhousemuseum.com

While the Southward Car Museum in Paraparaumu, New Zealand has an Elswick Envoy

Picture courtesy flickr.com 

This Ogle SX1000 can be found in the Bentley Motor & Wildfowl museum in Kent, UK

Picture Jeroen Booij

The car is on loan and is modified in a typical 1970s fashion

Picture Jeroen Booij