Mystery Moke is 'Caribbean's coolest car'

A mystery was solved recently - and I think not on pupose. Sarah Greaves Gabbadon, also known as Jet Set Sarah visited the isle of Petit St Vincent for a story there, only to bump into the cool cars that zoom around the island to deliver keys, crab meals and cocktails to guests. I wrote about these earlier (see here), having no idea what they really were. Well, Sarah found out! 

She wrote: "Tooling around a resort in a golf cart is fun but hardly unusual; every other luxury hotel bigger than your back garden uses them to ferry guests around the property. But at Petit St. Vincent, a sophisticated but un-stuffy 115-acre private-island resort in the Grenadines, they go one better, transporting guests from the beach to their hillside cottages and back again in a fleet of spiffy Mini Mokes (...) General Manager Matthew Semark told me that they make the bodies from their own fiberglass mold and source the vintage 1,000cc and 1,300cc engines directly from the UK. It takes about six months for the resort’s workshop to produce one of the open-top four seaters, which have manual transmissions and five-gallon tanks, and are serviced by PSV’s two ace Moke mechanics, Robert and Julian. Apparently one guest was so besotted with the rugged off-roaders that she ordered one as a birthday present for her husband. Try as I might I couldn’t get Matthew to divulge the total cost for importing parts from England, manufacturing the car from scratch in a remote corner of the Caribbean, and then shipping it back to the UK. But suffice it to say that that was one generous wife – with one very happy husband" Thanks for that, Sarah!

'The Caribbean's coolest car' says Sarah. And who am I to doubt that?

Picture courtesy Sarah Greaves Gabbadon

The men who build these groovy cars appear to enjoy doing so

Picture courtesy Sarah Greaves Gabbadon

Robinson Crusoe's Mini derivatives

Looking for the perfect holiday accomodation? Look no further. The private island of Petit St. Vincent in the Caribbean can be rented from 300,000 dollars a week. Not cheap, but then this could easily be the best place in the world for relaxation, offering all the delightfull cliches of a true Robinson Crusoe island.

But that's no reason to write about it here, is it? Nope. Miguel Plano from Canada alerted me about Petit St. Vincent's means of transport. You guessed it: Mini derivatives. In fact the very few cars that made it to the island's shores are plain simple Mini based Moke style vehicles with fairground-like bodies, undoubtly made of fibreglass. I understand they are used by the resort's room service to zoom around bringing cocktails and lobsters to guest's cottages. I love it!
Reader Paul Wylde adds to it: A lot of kit cars went to St. Vincent and the Grenadines as steel cars out there only lasted 3 years. The islands are only miles wide and get salt spray from all directions. There should be a few Stimson Minibugs over there too." Is there a reader who's ever made it to this side of the world to confirm this?

Roomservice Petit St. Vincent style. Sump and suspension confirm Mini base

Picture courtesy www.petitstvincent.com

And there is a hardtop, too. For shadow rather then rain reasons I may assume

Picture courtesy www.petitstvincent.com

There are 22 cottages and villas on the island. I'd love to explore it with that car

Picture courtesy www.petitstvincent.com

Oops! Forgot the cocktails. Reader says more fibreglass Mini kits made it to Grenadines

Picture courtesy Conde Nast Traveler

Wind coming from all directions gives salt spray. It makes steel cars rust rapidly

Picture courtesy www.flickr.com

Who ever visited these islands and knows about more Stimsons or other Mini derivatives here?

Picture courtesy www.petitstvincent.com