Endless summer of 2022

August 2022 appears to have seen more classic car shows and meetings than the two years preceding it. A collection of sunny pictures made it to here a couple of weeks ago (click) - here are yet more of them that I came across or that were sent over in the last month or so. Keep them coming.

Matt Butler's son took his Siva Buggy for a trip. Matt: "Dad, can I borrow the Bug to go camping with a friend? Hmmm. OK - but be careful and don't go too far. One week later they're at the seaside!"

Picture via Matt Butler

Matt again: "England, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, France. Now at Calais, the adventure is nearly over. Don't doubt the next generation!" Well said and well done boys!

Picture via Matt Butler

A very nice Mk1 Scamp seen on Malta. I believe it is for sale, too

Picture via Andy Turner

Many more Scamps made it to a meeting in Stourport last weekend. 

This Mk2 was pushed to the limits during the event 

Picture Becca Sydney

The number of cars attending the Scamp meet was impressive. Here a nice Scamp six-wheeler

Picture Roman Byk

Speaking of which... This Andersen Cub six-wheeler on Spanish plates was spotted last week in France

Picture via Thomas Laurent

And yet another Anderson Cub six! This time on Portugese plates and spotted at the 

All British Field Meet in Ontario, Canada

Picture Burton Reif

Last weekend in The Netherlands - the Euregio Meeting saw Mini Marcoses, Midases and Pimlicos.

Unfortunately I couldn't make it to the event. One Midas owner drove all the way from Tallinn, Estonia!

Picture Rolf Roozeboom

The Causeway Coast Mini Show in Northern Ireland saw a variety of Mini derivatives. This is an Indespension Jiffy that was turned into a camper van. Nice!

Picture Neil Kilbane

These cars are facing the Atlantic Ocean. Here a Midas Gold convertible disguising as a Ferrari

Picture Neil Kilbane

A rarity on its own, this particularly good looking Onyx Tomcat also at the Causeway Mini Meet

Picture Neil Kilbane

The Whitby Morrison 'Batman Special' ice cream van of Andy McPhail at the 

Dorset Steam Fair last weekend. Look at that shadow!

Picture Andy McPhail

If there's one person who continues to surprise me with his finds in South-Africa it's Leon Daniels. 

This is his latest discovery: an Elswick Envoy in highly original condition

Picture Stuart Neil Greig

How about this for a parting shot? An RTV at the Scamp meeting in Stourport on a beautiful night

Picture Tyler Hughes

Mini Marcos racer no longer a mystery

When Karsten Stelk sent me an old image of a Mini Marcos being raced he added 'Hope a new one for you...". Well, it was as I'd never seen this picture before and didn't know anything else about it. Thank you very much Karsten, but was there any more information available? All that he knew was that it was an original picture (no reproduction) which he'd bought together with three other 1967 Le Mans photographs.

The hunt for more information was on, and I received help from several others. First question: was this even Le Mans? Despite the Dunlop bridge I wasn't very sure about that. And I wasn't on my own. After scoring out all the possibilities (there has been a great of number of Dunlop bridges in use on racing tracks) we concluded that this had to be Montlhéry. And Gérard Boulin was the one to confirm that, coming up with a very similar picture of another race, taken at the very same spot at Montlhéry.

After that it was a matter of searching at races held there at around 1967 - aided also by the Ferrari 250 Le Mans of Scuderia Filipinetti. Eventually I found that this picture was taken during the Grand Prix de Paris of 12 May 1968 at Montlhéry. Peter Raphael drove the Mini Marcos there and I'd love to find out a bit more about this. All I could find is a hazy picture of the car in Portugal with a lorry of 'Gontune Racing'. Who's next?

UPDATE 24 January 2020: More detail pictures of Raphael's racer unearthed. Click here.

Grand Prix de Paris, May 1968 - Peter Raphael on Mini Marcos. He came home 12th overall

Picture courtesy Karsten Stelk

Englishman Peter Raphael raced his Mini Marcos in the 1967 season throughout Europe, here in Portugal. Who knows more about the man and the car? Was Gontune Racing Raphael's business?

Picture courtesy Team Mini Blogspot

Le Mans Mini Marcos: Progress, finally!

Yes, this is the update on the Le Mans Mini Marcos project that I promised last week. There is news, and it's good news, too. Some of it focusing on the car's past, as I am continuing to research its history and keep on finding snippets of information. But there's news from the present day, too, as work on the body is now finally under way, and looking very promising thanks to a superb craftsman! In three points:

1. 

I have recently found some beautiful Kodachrome slides showing the car at Le Mans, which are a great attribution to the ever-growing file and will be very useful for the book that I have in mind. Thanks everyone for thinking of me, not in the last place Christophe Pund, Karsten Stelk and Gérard Boulin.

2. 

I also received the message that I'd been hoping for for such a long time, unveiling more about the mysterious past of the car. I was told the car probably went to Africa, only to come to Portugal in the early 2000s. What happened between 1975 (when it was stolen in Paris) and 2016 (when I bought it) was totally shrouded in mystery. So was there an Africa connection? I asked around everywhere and published a six-page article about the car in Classic Car Africa magazine, asking for more information. It all lead to nothing. But then a Portugese model maker phoned me up one evening about two weeks ago, clearing things up. He saw the car in 1993 in Coimbra, recognized it as the Le Mans car and tried to buy it, but didn't succeed. He then found it with a new owner and tried to buy it again, which again didn't work out well. But he gave me a name and I made further investigations. The picture below turned up eventually, shot in 1993 or 1994 with the car on its back (ouch!) in a Portugese workshop. It was in an almost similar condition then as it was when I bought it. I'm still investigating but know a lot more now (for the book!) and can now say that there was never a thing such as an Africa connection. Thank you very much Carlos and José.

3.

Last but certainly not least, repair work on the car's body has now finally started and it is looking very good. The much-butchered battery box is now almost re-made and it turned out to be a bit of a puzzle. Off all the bits cut out, there was just one piece of fibreglass left, with some holes in it. But it formed the answer to how the battery was placed into the car. Initially we thought it was east-west, but it turned out to be longitudinal in the end as it would have conflicted with the rear subframe. The holes fit in with straps to secure the battery. The front is also under heavy repair now, with two more separated bits being re-used and fitting in perfectly. The six holes to attach the front radiator (click here for more) are all visible once again! Many more smaller cracks and holes that shouldn't be there have been closed beautifully by now with more to follow. I went over to have a look and deliver the petrol tank and front screen in order to make the body ready for these. I'll let you know what's next.

I keep on finding old photos of the car and recently managed to get hold of some great slides

Picture Jeroen Booij

This picture was taken in Portugal in 1993 or 1994. History-wise it's very valuable to me!

Picture Jeroen Booij archive 

Front side is now being repaired back to like it was. Bottom pieces have been puzzled back in

Picture Jeroen Booij

This is the front from the inside. Note the original three holes on each side to attach the front radiator

Picture Jeroen Booij

Battery box being refabricated. You can spot the old bit that was cut out and is now laminated back in

Picture Jeroen Booij

Found: the Le Mans Mini Marcos!

We got 'm!

It has taken me at least a year of my life and quite a lot more of my bank account. But after three nerve wrecking months and a mad 5,000 kilometer journey through Europe, I can now confirm that the most legendary of all Mini derivatives is still alive. In fact I bought it: the Mini Marcos that came 15th overall at the 24-hours race of Le Mans in 1966. Also known as Le Mans' most heroic entry.
It's not more than a bare shell with doors and modified bonnet in their original blue and yellow hidden behind many more layers of paint; a massive petrol tank and an adjustable pedal box. But what a find...

When I photographed it today I stumbled upon details I hadn't even noticed before. This car is full of history marks and I'll share some of the details in the coming days here. I'm a happy man. Stay tuned.

Portugese Marcos with a difference

Reader Alex Coreira sent in some Mini Marcos shots from his native Portugal and supposedly taken at Vila Real in the 1980s where it was raced by a Antonio Batista. Like the famous TransXL Mini Marcos as well as Pete Crudgington's Granny Smith Racing Marcos, this one also has a much altered and streamlined body but still it's a racing car unlike any others. Who knows more about it?

Ultra low nose and ultra fat and integrated wheel arches. It's a Marcos unlike any other

Picture via Alex Coreira

Same car, different colour scheme. Supposedly raced by Antonio Batista at Vila Real

Picture via Alex Coreira

And in anger, too, or so it seems, giving the racing Minis a hard time

Picture via Alex Coreira

Update 13 July: Francisco Costa is very quick with a reaction, including the photograph below. He writes: "I have some more pictures, but I don't know much more about the car. I do know some old folk in Vila Real that may know, but only when I get back there can I ask (I used to study there and fell in love with the circuit and all it's story. This picture is Vila Real, early seventies I think. In your second picture I can't recognize as Vila Real, looks more like Vila do Conde (another portuguese circuit raced at the time). The third also looks more like Vila do Conde, but I may be wrong."

Picture courtesy Francisco Costa

Unipower register updates (2)

Time for another update on the list of Unipower GTs (click here).

First, a message came in from Carlos Maciel in Portugal. He wrote: "Being a Mini nut (1 Mini Marcos, 1 Van, 2 Minis) I follow your blog with some interest. This brings me to the matter of Unipower updates. Portugal is home of one of the special lightweight versions: RR-28-52. But there is another one, I think its is a normal road version with a Cooper engine and registered RR-28-37. Please find attached two pictures to upadate the 'register'. Unfortunately I do not know the car's chassis number but it came to Portugal at the same time as RR-28-52: around 1968. Thanks for all the information you have been giving us. Regards, Carlos." And thank you, too, Carlos!

Another fantastic chunk of information comes from the United States. I now understand there were 13 GTs imported to the US by an official concessionaire in Rockville, Maryland. That's interesting. Question is how many of these cars remain as several are said to have been exported. Certain is that two cars from Colorado went back to the UK a few years back (now 'NOP 413F' and 'ROR 99G'). Two are said to remain in Rochester, one in New York, one in Minnesota, one in Arizona and one in Virginia. Information is very scarce, but there have to be people here knowing more.

Next, over to Japan, where a treasure trove is about to be opened - hopefully. The location of the orange colored mystery car is finally unearthed, and what a location it is. The car is stored in a two-story warehouse in Gifu that appears to be chuck full with British and Italian exotics. I understand the company housed here used to be Japan's Lotus concessionaire, but ceased trading many years ago. What happened to it afterwards is shrouded in mystery but fact is that the premises are hiding lots and lots of rare cars, including Lotuses, Maseratis, Abarths, Ferraris, many Minis and our mystery Unipower. To be continued. Meanwhile the orange/yellow lhd car in Japan is spotted for sale once more...

Another Portugese Unipower GT that has been in that country since 1968

Picture courtesy Carlos Maciel

This one is said to be Cooper based, and the other Portugese car being a lightweight

Picture courtesy Carlos Maciel

Japanese mystery Unipower rubs shoulders with Jeffrey J4 and Mini Marcos

Picture courtesy google street view

'Proauto' in Gifu looks to be a two-story treasure trove full of rare (Mini) stuff

Picture courtesy google streetview

Gorgeous left hand drive Unipower has been seen for sale several times now

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

One of 13 Unipower GTs that are said to have been officially imported into the US

Picture courtesy Flickr.com

More Mini Marcoses for sale

Fancy a Mini Marcos? Several have turned up for sale in the last weeks or so, and in all different parts of Europe, too. None of them is a Mk1 or Mk2 - the one I'd prefer - but still you might find something of interest. Prices vary wildly, too.

There's a quite nice Mk3 to be found in The Netherlands (see ad here)

Picture courtesy marktplaats.nl

An Appendix K racer with Swiftune prepared engine is for sale in Portugal

Picture courtesy racecarsdirect.com

A Mk4 in the UK with much modified body work (not my taste but who am I?)

Picture courtesy ebay.co.uk

And a shabby Mk3 in Belgium, unsold at auction but it may still be snapped up

Picture courtesy Francois Tasiaux

All parts are there, but layers of dust suggest neglect of some years at least

Picture courtesy Francois Tasiaux