Odnik sketch found

You guys know I am a sucker for new discoveries. And there are several cars which I'd love to find one day. One of them is 'Odnik': an Irish-built Mini based roadster, raced (and built I'd say) by Jack O'Donoghue in 1961. What's so special about it? Well, I really believe this car was based on a 1958 Mini prototype of which not a single copy is known to survive. You can read more about it here and here.

Now. So far, all traces to the car itself have led to dead ends. But at the end of the year I was contacted by Trevor Ripley, who'd just bought an old Austin Seven 850 dealer pack and found something interesting in it... Trevor wrote:

"Hi Jeroen. I bought an old Austin Seven 850 dealer pack off an ex Longbridge employee. Included with it were these original photos of what you call the DGS firecrest / Special (more about these later-JB). I have just been going through the dealer pack and discovered on a blank page a pencil sketch of a similar car. From my memory I have seen a picture of another soft top Mini derivative a while ago, also registered in Ireland. A similar car to the Donald Healey car (chassis 102). Could this car be connected with Doug Glover? The pencil drawing looks very similar with an ordinary Mini front and rear styling similar to 102. Best regards, Trevor."

Well, well, if that isn't Odnik! Note the cut doors, elongated bonnet, soft top and of course that much-modified rear end. Fact is now that it was not based on an early Van. All this got Trevor exited, and me too! Trevor came back on it: "It would not surprise me at all if Odnik was originally a prototype. BMC would certainly have initially sent a Mini to Lincoln & Nolan as a sample to set up the assembly line. One of the prototypes which were not longer required at Longbridge would make sense." Trevor also got back to the man he bought the dealer pack off: "I have just telephoned the guy I got it all from, Les Gammon, to check if there was anything else he could remember but he has already told me all he knows." So there we go. It only strengthens my thought about Odnik being a 1958 Mini. The question remains: could it survive..?

The Odnik sketch found in a an old dealer pack formerly owned by a Longbridge employee

Picture Maximum Mini archive via Trevor Ripley

The dealer pack in question, signed by... Jack O'Donoghue....

Picture Maximum Mini archive via Trevor Ripley

The only picture I can find of Jack O'Donoghue (center) is taken in September 1960

Who knows more about this man, who was PR Officer at Lincoln & Nolan in Dublin?

Picture Irish Photo Archive

Odnik: Indeed based on a 1958 prototype Mini?

Two more pictures of 'Odnik' - the Irish built Mini special that was raced by Jack O'Donoghue in 1961 (more about it here), have come to the light thanks to Irishman Aidan Mc Grath. And I believe we can now almost surely say the car was based on a 1958 Mini prototype. The stamped grille of the car is the first giveaway, as there were only two Mini variants that had this feature: the 1958 prototypes and the Mini Van (announced in June 1960). Odnik could well have been based on an early Van, but the registration points towards something else. 'CZA333' was a Dublin registration from November 1959. Apart from prototypes, there were no vans at this time yet. 

What's more, judging from the old photograph that I found and the new ones that Aidan came up with, I don't believe this car to use the longer wheelbase of the van. It looks like a saloon to me, and the same goes for the rounded rear, with the filler cap on the left. This looks like it was converted from a saloon rather than from a Van to me. Or is it? '59 Mini Register man Bill Bell said of the first photograph: "Looking at the wheel base it looks like its a modified Van. I doubt very much it's a 58 prototype. They were all in such poor state after they had finished testing and as far as we know all were scrapped." 

I'm not so sure. Jack O’Donoghue worked for the Austin importers/assemblers in Dublin and may have been able to get hold of a '58 prototype Mini. Minis were built under a license in Ireland from as early as 1959. Fact is that O'Donoghue got rid of the car’s roof, modified its rear end in steel, cut the doors, lowered the handles and fitted a Sprite windscreen. He won his class during a Hewison Trophy qualifying trial in December 1961. Could the car survive? And be found? That would surely be sensational...

UPDATE 13:00: An avid reader drops me a line: "I spoke to the last known owner of the car and he can't recall what he did with it, but thinks he scrapped it. I am due to meet a previous owner next week, who used the car in the UK in '65/'66 before bringing it back to Ireland and selling it. I will ask him for his thoughts on the history of the car, as he would have known Jack."

UPDATE 8 January 2019: A sketch of the car has resurfaced, making clear it was definitely not based on an early Van. Read and see it here.

Jack O'Donoghue in action in his Odnik in December 1961. This was the only known picture of it

Picture Jeroen Booij archive / Autosport magazine

But then Aidan Mc Grath came up with this. Stamped grille points towards 1958 Mini prototype, as does wheelbase? 'CZA 333' is a november 1959 registration

Picture via Aidan Mc Grath

Odnik's rear was modified quite heavily, too. Again, the round shape points towards a saloon to me, as does the filler cap that is positioned at the left hand side

Picture via Aidan Mc Grath

Mystery Mini derivative (30)

Another mysterious Mini based car came to the light while searching for something completely different, last weekend. And it's an intriguing one. Clearly based on an early Mini, perhaps even a 1958 prototype, or an early Van, it's quite heavily modified. The rear is much rounded off, the doors have been cut, the handles lowered, and with what seems to be a Sprite windscreen fitted on the front scuttle must have been altered, too. Interestingly, it was trialed as early as in 1961, by which time the earliest Mini derivative (Butterfield Musketeer - the Deep Sanderson 301 prototype was under construction) hadn't even been made public. 

There is some more information from the magazine (Autosport) in which I found the snippet. The car is called Odnik and was trialed by a man named Jack O'Donoghue who won his class during a Hewison Trophy qualifying trial on 16 December 1961 - supposedly the second trial O'Donoghue tackled with his Mini special. I believe the registration number 'CZA 333' to be Irish but am sure somebody over here will be able to confirm that.

UPDATE 21 September 2017: More pictures found. Here.

UPDATE 8 January 2019: Original sketch found. More here.

Very early Irish (?) Mini based roadster 'Odnik' was trialed by Jack O'Donoghue

Picture courtesy Autosport magazine