The Queen's Mini derivative

Queen Elizabeth has died and the nation is in grief. You shall be missed by many Majesty.

Not quite the kind of posting for Maximum Mini you'd think, but amazingly the late-Queen did have a link to a Mini variant. She appeared in a number of paparazzi pictures taken 60 years ago at Windsor in the summer of 1962 with... a Mini Beach Car. 

From a newspaper clipping: "The Queen stands beside the most unusual of her stable of royal cars - a tiny beach Mini-car with cut-away sides and basket seats. Ideal for a sunny day in Windsor Great Park. The copper-coloured Mini is one of only three experimental cars built by the British Motor Corporation and has been lent to the Royal Family. The Queen, a knowledgable motorist, doubtless enjoys travelling in this unconventional little vehicle as much as she does in her Rolls."

The Beach Car was used on a few royal occasions, among them a state visit to Amsterdam in May 1965, when the car was shipped over to The Netherlands and driven by Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon in Amsterdam. It was never owned by the Royal family though, as they had it on loan from BMC. In 1968 the car was sold and it remains in the hands of the man who then became its lucky owner.

Windsor Castle, Summer 1962. The Queen and Prince Philip with the Mini Beach Car

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

"The Queen doubtless enjoys travelling in this unconventional little vehicle"

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The very same Mini Beach Car, photographed in 2012 in front of the main gate of the old BMC factory in Longbridge where it was built. The factory is now gone as is the Queen, but the car remains

Picture Jeroen Booij

Whatever happened to Lady Di's Mini?

The late Diana, Princess of Wales, is very much in vogue once again, or so my wife and daughters tell me. It made me wonder whatever happened to the convertible Mini she was supposedly given by Prince Charles for her 21st birthday in 1982? You'll be able to find anything on her old Austin Metro, which is on museum display now, but the Mini is completely shrouded in mystery.

The convertible actually was a Daly Runabout built by Daly Cars of Edgware, greater London. Press releases were sent out in force in May 1982 to get the reports printed in time (the birthday took place on July 1). With these releases two black & white pictures were sent along, one of them showing the car with 'Broadfields' plate (the dealer?), while the other one showed only just the actual registration number, which may well have been 'TRF 34X'. That's at least what Daly Car's demonstrator and brochure car also wore. That car, however, was white and wore Weller wheels, while the Princess' car came with Mambas and may well have been a slightly darker hue? Silver grey perhaps? 

Remarkably, no other image of Diana and the car are known and I wonder if she actually got it? One white Daly Runabout, which seemed exactly like the one seen in the brochure, was sold in 2016 and said to have been owned previously by cricketeer Duncan Fearnley. But while it also came on Mamba wheels, it wore registration 'MUY 68X'. DVLA doesn't recognize the number 'TRF 34X' anymore. Could it all have been one and the same car after all? Or were they two different cars in the end with the number plates swapped around..? But where is the car then, that was supposedly given to Lady Di..? 

UPDATE 1: One reader with better eyes than me pointed out the difference in side stripes and their width. Closer inspection reveals that the striping on the Lady Di car is equally wide but in other and more contrasting colours, difficult to see on the b&w pictures. On the white car it's light blue and darker blue, on the Diana car it seems almost white (top) and black (bottom). See added detail picture below.

UPDATE 2: More to indicate that TRF 34X is another car as Lady Diana's car very possibly wore another registration number after all. DVLA records show that the following numbers may well have been issued to sister cars, all registered as Austin Morrises and with 998 cc engines:

TRF 35X - Registered October 1981, black, on sorn since 2012

TRF 36X - Registered May 1982, green, untaxed since 1991

TRF 37X - Registered May 1982, white, untaxed since 1990

TRF 38X - Registered May 1982, beige, untaxed since 1988

TRF 39X - Registered March 1982, red, on sorn since 2013

TRF 40X - Registered October 1981, red, untaxed since 1991

One of the two pictures sent out globally with the press release almost showed the registration number

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

'Broadfields' plate at the front. Was that the dealer? And what colour is this car?

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Demonstrator and brochure car 'TRF 34X' looks alike. But is it the same?

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Seen here again - certainly not with Lady Di behind the wheel. Note Weller wheels 

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

This car was sold in 2016 by Brightwells. Apart from the wheels and the registration number, 

it seems totally similar to 'TRF 34X'

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

A detail of the side stripe on Princess Diana's car with some added contrast

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

A look at Taka-Hira Minis

Another Taka Hira Mini countryman turned up recently in France, which made me take a dive in the archives to see what else was there. Have a look at some of the Minis that were converted by the Frenchman, known for his wicker work.

This gorgeous Countryman is still in France, but I hadn't seen it before. Note relocated filler opening. UPDATE: Stuart Watson adds: "I think it is an earlty internal tank model. It has a smooth roof and it looks like you can see the top of the tank cover near the left side rear window." Right he is.

Picture courtesy Row Row Bau

This similar Almond green Countryman also has its doors covered in wicker

Picture courtesy taka-hira.fr

This Mk2 Countryman in lovely Fawn was seen for sale a couple of years ago

Picture courtesy Artcurial

While this Mk1 saloon was found in Spain two years ago. Full story here

Picture courtesy Francesco Carrión Cardenas

This Mk1 saloon looks very similar to the car above. It was owned by Russian prince Jaan Trubetskoy and his wife princess Leili Rikk-Trubetskoy, who kept it in the south of France. Where is it now?

Picture Slim Aarons / Getty

Jean-Claude Hrubon's Innocenti Mini Cooper was also converted by Taka-Hira

Picture Jeroen Booij

This car was a much more recent conversion. It's an MPi Mini of the late 1990s

Picture courtesy taka-hira.fr

UPDATE 24 January 2017: More of them here

Juan Carlos resigns, makes time to drive his Scamp

Spain is in shock now that King Juan Carlos abdicates after reigning the country for 40 years. There have been ups and downs while on the throne (here), but I reckon the former King was a bit of a motoring man, too. In 1970 the Spanish King had a lovely dark blue Maserati Quattroporte for official purposes but privately drove a Spanish built Authi Mini, equipped with 1275cc engine and several special features (click here). 

And when he and his wife Princess Sofia came to London in the early 1970s they wanted to visit the Earl's Court Motor show. This terrific shot shows both of them looking at the Scamp Mk1. While the Princess is chatting to the man with sunglasses, the King looks to the splendid simpleness of the Scamp. According to Scamp fan Chris Westgate the King actually ordered 6 Scamps. And so he may now finally have found the time to drive them. Drop me a line if you like, Sir!

Mini fan and former King Juan Carlos craving for a Scamp at the London Motor Show

Picture courtesy Chris Westgate

Lord Snowdon's coachbuilt Mini

You may have seen enough of the royal affairs recently, but it made me remember there was a member of the British royalty with a Mini one day. I even thought it was a coachbuilt car. And, yes, it appears to be so as Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret used to drive a modified Austin Mini Cooper 'S' in the swinging sixties. The car was said to be coachbuilt although you cannot see too much of that on the pictures that I found. I also have no idea who carried out the conversion. Could it be Harold Radford? I noticed that on one picture it came with added foglights in the grille plus 'Austin Cooper' boot script on the bonnet. The car is still registered but appears to have been sorn in 1977. Could it still be in royal hands?

UPDATE 6 November 2013: Conversion was carried out by Hooper of London.

Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret with their Mini. I reckon they could have taken that Rolls-Royce too

June 1965: Princess Margaret takes 3-year old Lord Linley home after an ear operation.

Note added foglights in the grille and different badging on the bonnet...

...a footman opens the door, but the 3-year old Lord prefers to go elsewhere...

...but off they go in the supposedly much modified coachbuilt Mini, chauffeur driven too...

...who needs a child's seat anyway? It's all smiles buzzing around in a Mini!

But where is the car now? And who carried out the conversion?