Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #81

Time-warp Mk1 Mini Marcos racer now for sale

Owner decides to put it on the market after 48 years

Canada three-wheeler mystery now solved

But this Peel Viking Sport GT is another mystery

Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #71

 

Back to back: Midas or Marcos?

Mini Marcoses at Techno Classica Essen 2025

Aussie Nunan Special, back end finally revealed 

Hooper Mini Moke comes out for the season

Meredith Mini Special goes Dutch

It's good to know that the Meredith Mini Special survives. I did receive a few pictures of it recently, showing the car on its Dutch registration '03-YD-10', which it received after it was sold from the UK 10 years ago and imported to The Netherlands next. Yes, it's a bit of a Triumph-Ford-Mini-hybrid, which was made by Douglas Meredith of Welshpool (click here). 

Anybody who knows where in this country the car is now? It doesn't seem to come out very o=ften, but I'd love to see it in person one day.

The 'Mini by Meredith' mixes body elements of Ford, Triumph and Mini

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Blurred plate seems to be the British one (KEJ 411P) here, taken prior to re-registration?

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

It is on Dutch plate '03-YD-10' since 2014 and does come out rarely, or so it seems

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Outside seems most unusual, but there's no doubt this is a Mini engine, an 1100

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Seats and more bits of the interior came from a Mini 1100 Special also. Where is the car?

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Graham's mad Minis, Marcos and Ogles

About seven years ago I wrote about the mad Mini engines built by Graham Cooper (click here). In an old baptist chapel in Sedgley, West Midlands, Cooper (no relation) built some truly overbore engines with 1400; 1450; 1465; 1500; 1520 and even a 1556cc version, based on a 970 'S' block, using 170 thou thin-ring sand cast pistons and a unique Laystall Engineering crank. According to Car & Car Conversions magazine it was even reliable! There was also a much-modified Mini with a chopped, deseamed, lowered and much-raked body and I thought I'd never find out more about that.

Wrong. I was lucky to finally get in touch recently with Graham, now in his mid-80s. Although he owned dozens of Minis, he does remember that particular car: "I was building the engine for myself, just to see what could be done. A chap named William Cole came in and just said: how much is that gonna be? I want it and I'm gonna pay for it. He did the body that you have seen on that picture. The engine was dead reliable, we only kept on changing the head gaskets because they blew out at 8,000rpm. When Car & Car Conversions wrote about me, that was good, but we couldn't cope with the work. I was a one-man band, you see, with just my wife doing the accounts."

I also found that Graham had raced both an early Mini Marcos as well as an Ogle himself at Mallory Park in 1966! Unfortunately he doesn't remember much about the Ogle. Or actually: the Ogles, as he owned two of them: "I was buying and selling the odd car at the time and had two Ogles. They just went to people who wanted something else. But I don't even remember what colours they had." And the Marcos? "Well, that got out of control and ended upside down. There was no roll cage and it had pushed a round hole just above my head."

Thank you never the less Graham!

These are not Graham's cars, but the man did race both a Mk1 Mini Marcos as well as an Ogle in the UK

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The mad Mini GT 1500, with 1556cc engine by Graham Cooper and body by Bill Cole

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Spring 1966: Cooper at Mallory Park in the Mini Marcos, which ended upside down

Picture Andrew Griffiths

The many faces of a wild custom Mini of the 1970s

After two recent articles, here on Maximum Mini, reader David Kiss decided to drop me a line. The reason was that two of the cars described brought back some sweet memories. David wrote: 

"Dear Jeroen, Not sure if you would be interested but I have been inspired to write following two of your recent blogs about custom Minis. In brief, I was given a 1961 Mini on my 17th birthday (1971), I kept this car for 12 years over which time it morphed from a humble 850cc into a 1750cc (Maxi/Allegro) powered custom, similar custom De Ville type build to the recent pics of '50 MAR'. (click here for the recent article about that)"

"I sold the car in 1983 as it was unsuitable for my new married life....(it may still be out there?) Re DART: my (late) dad was also in the RAF and Dizzy Addicott was a pal of his, I remember my (late) mum saying "He was a real speed freak". I'm sure I met him many years ago as a young boy but have no real recollection of him (recent article here). If my 1750cc Mini is of interest I do have quite a few pictures of it during my ownership. Keep up your great blog. Regards, David Kiss" 

Well, I did like that, and asked David for the pictures he mentioned. The next day I received a whole lot of them, with clear descriptions, too. David added: "I'll attach a set of pictures of the car over my ownership showing the various stages of its 'development'. I'm not sure how much detail you wanted me to go into but I'll waffle away and you can pick and choose as you like should you wish..... As I mentioned, I was given the car for my 17th birthday (1971), a 1961 bog standard cherry red 850cc Morris Mini Minor in pretty sound condition. My Dad and his brother-in-law ran a local Morris garage and the car was a 'trade-in'. With my Dad running a garage I had been interested and driving (in a field) cars since I was 11 years old. I used the car daily, generally flat out like all seventeen year olds... The poor old thing soon expired and with the desire to go faster I replaced the engine with one from a BMC 1100..."

"On recently checking the 240TPG on the DVLA system I see that the last change of owner was in 2007 so one never knows if it's still out there... as many others I would quite like to see if it's still about, perhaps even owning it again... curiously I now own another 1961 Cherry Red Mini, however, very standard, very original! Well I hope I've not rattled on to much, Best regards, David."

It's just lovely David. Thank you very much!

"This picture shows the car with the 1100 engine fitted. Note the 12" wheels as per BMC 1100 and also other go-faster mods!"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"A bit later and now repainted (very dark brown) plus flame motif. Paint work was courtesy of the firm I worked for at the time, we repaired all the new Toyotas that were damaged in transit, they were all imported back then, 1973-ish"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"The company had a low-bake oven system and the flames were designed and painted by one of the very talented staff. The car had also acquired a BMC 1300 by then and was relatively now quite a fast machine. The 1300 worked well for some time but I eventually wore it out so what next..."

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"This picture shows a Maxi 1500 engine basically installed. I had to cut and extend the front of the subframe to fit the larger engine and subsequently modify the front of the car. Many other items had to be fabricated, driveshafts, engine mounts etc. It was quite an awkward job but I was able to use the facility of dad's garage (and his help), which got the project completed. Note the DAF's: the garage had lost it's BMC dealership and was now a DAF agent!"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

The 1500cc car with David as its builder and proud owner in the mid-1970s. Note Jaguar leaper

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"The grille is from a Vauxhall VX4/90. The bonnet was held in place with four large dome-headed bolts and had to be removed completely for access to the engine"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

Much-modified and fast, but not enough for David at the time. There was more to follow! 

Picture courtesy David Kiss

 "Here the car is seen with another modified Mini that I came across (1975). I can't recall what mods it had. Shortly after this picture was taken my modified front subframe failed, so back to the drawing board. I then decided that more radical changes should be carried out..."

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"Bodywork mods, shortened rear side windows, de-seamed, small rear window etc etc... I had some wheel discs made as there was very little choice of alloys wheels that suited, but I didn't proceed with these. Note the hardboard template on the bonnet, this was used to make up a veneered dash, (Mk2 Jag) instruments were fitted behind smoked glass panels, illuminated when the ignition was switched on. An old friend was an excellent woodworker and made me up the dash to an exceptionally high standard (as good as a Rolls), sadly I never took any pictures of this. I had considered Merc headlamps but again this did not materialize"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"Now painted and complete with two tone vinyl roof... all the rage at the time. The engine, waiting to be fitted is a tuned 1750cc Allegro SS, note that the subframe is standard so as not to suffer the same issue when fitted with the 1500cc engine. It was the oil filter that was problem but this latest incarnation has a remote system as can be seen. The car still has an extended nose to house the radiator etc... I had also modified the bonnet and it now hinged forwards"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

This shows the modified bodywork in its full glory

Picture courtesy David Kiss

"This is when I put it up for sale due to getting married and not being a suitable family car. With the 1750 cc engine it was quite a thing to drive, it had lost the nimbleness of the original Mini but was mighty fast, with its 5-speed gearbox it would cruise at 90mph and was capable of 120mph+ Of course today there are many easier engine conversions with the abundance of front wheel drive cars but back then this was limited more or less to BMC/BL cars... the only other engine that may have been a candidate back then was the V6 Ferrari Dino engine..! out of my price league though"

Picture courtesy David Kiss

MG Mini Sedanca on a road trip

Whilst the one-off MG Mini Sedanca came back from Denver, Colorado to Bristol in the UK in 2019 (click here), it is now touring the country or so it seems. The car was seen recently at the Lakeland Motor Museum in Cumbria, which jumped to the opportunity to shoot the pictures added below. The museum added: "This is a unique type of Mini called a 'Sedanca'. Only one was made, and the info sheet points to it being built in 1973. It is still on the road, and the owner popped into the museum on a current road trip! gullwing doors were initially planned for this model, but a side screen door was eventually used."

Thank you Lizzi for for letting me know!

Built by former Stewart & Ardern employee Niall Gilmartin in 1973: the MG Mini Sedanca

Picture Lakeland Motor Museum

'870 CJW' comes with Triumph 2000 headlights and Austin 1100 indicators - amongst others

Picture Lakeland Motor Museum

Rear side windows turned upside down, fully closed boot lid, recessed tank cap

Picture Lakeland Motor Museum

Gilmartin planned to make gullwing doors, but that proved to be one step too far

Picture Lakeland Motor Museum

This is a well-traveled car if we have to believe the stickers and decals at the back

Picture Lakeland Motor Museum

Schwarzenbach's Super Mini survives

About three years ago I wondered if anyone knew more about a coachbuilt Mini shorty from Switzerland. Click here for all the pics. It took two months for an answer to come in the shape of little 1970s French book, which mentions the car as the 'Schwarzenbach Super Mini', made in 1971 in Thalwil, Switzerland. Possibly by a multi millionaire named Urs Ernst Schwarzenbach, I thought, who owned a palace in Morocco, the Grand Hotel in Zürich and had his own polo team with 600 horses while he married a former Miss Australia. (Click here).

That is still not confirmed. But what about the car itself? I know by now that it's a survivor, as Alexis Ducrot contacted me about it a while ago. He wrote: "Hi Jeroen, I hope you are well! Your article reminded me of something that I wanted to share with you. Please see attached a picture of the same car, back in 2010, for sale at Classica Motors of Geneva, maybe it changed of owner since 2010 but maybe they can give details and info on such a rare car! Best Alexis Ducrot." Well, well, that was good! The interior looks fantastic, but what a pity the car was repainted at one stage in a much more ordinary metallic green with standard 1990s 12" alloy wheels and plastic arches! I haven't found out much more since, but who knows...

Schwarzenbach Super Mini of 1971 looks every bit the coachbuilt Mini inside

Picture Classica Motors Geneva, via Alexis Ducrot

The exterior, however, was given a revamp which didn't do it much good if you ask me

Picture Classica Motors Geneva, via Alexis Ducrot

Mystery Mini Derivative (84): Kiwi Twini

Twinis (twin engined Minis for those of you who forgot) were made in a wide variety. John Cooper's version became famous after it almost killed the man himself, but there were many more. You may be surprised about the number of Twinis built on Mini based cars too, or ones that almost saw the light of day. From Deep Sanderson to Butterfield Musketeer and from Scamp to Ranger. Read more about some of them here.

Tim Neal tipped me off about a Twini that's offered for sale in New Zealand. According to the seller it was built in Dunedin by a man who made more Moke style cars, all road legal ones but just with the single engine. This one, however, was different and was never road registered. It is now offered for sale, still as a project and as a 1970 Mini.

Apart from the mechanicals not much of the Mini's base appears to have been used with home-made steel floors, or so it seems, and a body which looks to be made of aluminium. It comes with a 'condition unknown' 850cc engine at the rear and a 1000- or 1100cc that has to be mounted in the front subframe.  There are twin fuel tanks and 12" wheels. A rewarding project no doubt. See the ad here.

Mini based Jeep style car - but with a difference...

Picture Trademe.co.nz

...As the car's rear is another engine bay

Picture Trademe.co.nz

Front oozes Jeep but then this was going to be a 4x4 

Picture Trademe.co.nz

There's an 850 engine in the space frame at the back

Picture Trademe.co.nz

While this one (1000 or 1100) is meant to go in the front 

Picture Trademe.co.nz

Simple dash with twin instruments. Twin tanks mounted directly under seats

Picture Trademe.co.nz

Floors appear to have been made specifically for this car

Picture Trademe.co.nz

Stillborn Status Minnow: the 'Metrofied' Mini

When the square nosed Mini Clubman made it to the scene in the 1970s, several companies started offering fibreglass nose sections to update your classic 'round nose' Mini in Clubman style. The Status Mo. Co. of Brian Luff was just one of them. But when the Austin Metro arrived Luff had an even bolder idea. Why not make a kit to 'Metrofy' an old Mini? I found an undated sketch in the files with that idea from his hand. It was named the Status Minnow or Mk3 Mini Minus. 

Luff's handwriting on the piece of paper tells us: "Based on standard Mini with Metro style front, arches & rear, initially using Mini boot lid. Later, also with fully opening rear. Front screen styled to Metro shape with Roadrunner fudge panel. A Metrofied Mini to recycle & update old Minis."

Great idea. Pity it never happened. 

 

The Mini and the Metro. Was there ever a cross between the two?

Pictures Classic & Sports Car / BMW 

There you go: the Status 'Minnow' or Mk3 Mini Minus was to fill the gap

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Mystery Mini derivative (79)

Mike Brown alerted me about a picture he'd found on a Facebook page atypically named 'Sitting there Rotting on a Driveway'. And although the picture in question shows a vehicle that's not exactly on a driveway - it surely sits and rots! The chap who took the picture, Jamie Parnill, has no idea what it is but Mike added: "This looks like it might be Mini based". And I think he is right, too. 

But what on earth is it? The windscreen looks flat but much of the rest of the glasshouse (Perspex?) is curved. Could it have been made for a movie..? In that case somebody will surely recognize it.

UPDATE 12 January 2022: Perhaps not Mini based after all? Nick Beaumont wrote: "Wheels look wrong for a Mini". Paul Wylde thinks it may well be Reliant Kitten based and he dropped me a picture of a Kitten chassis, which does look similar. He added: "I think they have relocated the fuel tank and dropped the chassis down a bit at the back to lower the rear door access". He's got a good point there. Opinions are divided as a Reliant restorer that I know isn't quite so sure though...

Mini based? Looks like it. But the whens, whos, wheres and especially the whys are unknown

Picture Jamie Parnill

Ted Laban Special auctioned after more than 50 years

Professional car designers coming up with Mini based vehicles? There are a few that I know of. Rolls-Royce and Bentley chief designer Graham Hull made this one in his spare time, Duesenberg, Ford, Tucker, Cord and Chrysler designer Alex Tremulis was heavily involved in this wacky creature, while this contraption was supposedly made by a Porsche designer. And another exciting Mini derivative can now be added to the list. 

Some three years ago I received a message from Penny Lockwood. Penny's father in law had just passed away and she was looking for a new home for his Elswick Envoy. It didn't take too long to find that, but in corresponding with Penny it soon turned out that her late father in law, Ted Laban, was a most interesting man. She wrote: He was a car designer, mainly chassis design and had a very interesting career. He was a Coventry man and worked for Jaguar and Reliant. He took early retirement when Jaguar was taken over by Ford but continued to work for a while on other projects. In retirement, he worked on the chassis designs for LTI (London Taxis International) including the wheelchair ramp. He also worked on designing a unique Bentley capable of 200mph for the Sultan of Brunei, of which only 6 were ever built. And for Gibbs he designed an amphibious car suspension that lifted the wheels in true James Bond fashion, enabling it to achieve waterborne speeds of 35kts. He also undertook work for FF Developments, a company started by Harry Ferguson of tractor fame and concentrating on four-wheel drive systems. So as you say an interesting man!"

The real surprise was another Mini based car he'd designed back in the 1960s. Penny wrote: "You might also be interested to know that my father in law had an old yellow Mini where he'd converted the back using fibreglass. The Mini was a 1962 Mini Van before my father in law converted it as part of his HND apprenticeship programme with Jaguar. His concept was to create a car which could be parked end-on into a regular street parking space. A Smartcar before its time! The conversion involved fibreglass, which at the time was apparently pioneering! I thought I'd just let you know that we are now selling his converted Mini at the Earlswood Classic Car auction on 11th June."

Previously registered '131 FOX', the Mini Van looks to be in a great condition and I hope it will go to a good new home. Thanks Penny for getting touch and all the best of luck with the sale!

Reliant, Jaguar and Ferguson designer Ted Laban made this Mini in his apprenticeship

Picture courtesy Penny Lockwood

The idea was that it could be parked end-on into a regular street parking space

Picture courtesy Penny Lockwood

Based on a 1962 Mini Van, the car has been in the Laban family for over 50 years

Picture courtesy Penny Lockwood

But... it is off to a new home soon as it will be auctioned in June

Picture courtesy Penny Lockwood

What exactly is this Mini based motor caravan?

Planning your summer holiday locally this year? Then this Austin Mini Clubman based campervan / motor caravan is perhaps just the ticket. 'You wont have seen it, unless you know us', writes the seller, Well, I've seen it, but I don't know you guys! In fact I'd been wondering what happened to it for years.

The car was advertised in the early 1990s, too. Back then the ad stated that it received a new body in 1984 and was then built as a camper. So I'm not too sure about it being 'Registered from new as AUSTIN MINI CLUBMAN MOTOR CARAVAN' either. And was it really built by a boat / small motorhome company on the Isle of Wight? I don't know, but did find two more pictures of 'TJU 219N' in the files, sent to me years ago by Ian Whitehead. It's still in white on these pics with 10" wheels.

It's a lovely little camper never the less of which I'd love to learn a little more and which no doubt will bring lots of fun to a new owner. See the ad here

Austin Mini Clubman campervan surely seems to be a one-off

Picture Ebay

Registered 'TJU 219N' I knew I'd seen it before

Picture Ebay

All you can wish for, including swiveling front seat, but still a classic Mini

Picture Ebay

This early 1990s ad states it was converted in 1984 with a new body shell

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

More old pictures of it were sent to me by Ian Whitehead years ago

Picture courtesy Ian Whitehead / Jeroen Booij archive

So... who built this cool motor caravan? A company on the Isle of Wight?

Picture courtesy Ian Whitehead / Jeroen Booij archive