Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #123

Stimson's stories: the crashed Mini Bug just before the crash in Monaco

Stimson Mini Bug all sorts - cars for sale and sold

And... a Stimson Mini Bug in Thailand!

Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #76

 

2025 Season has kicked off - this is what happened in May

Unique one-off Mini based single seater for sale

Fisher Spyder looses all oil at Doune hillclimb

 

Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #75

What happened to Alec Poole's Unipower GT 'RBL 25F'?

Is that really the Luna Bug prototype turning up..?

Harold Dermott - where are you?

Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #61

Barry's Big Sale - all these cars are now for sale

New picture emerges - but where is this Mk2 Biota now?

The Aga Khan's Wood & Pickett Mini Margrave

Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #59

1971 London Racing car Show Special

With... the Mini Jem Mk2

The Stimson Mini Bug Mk2

...And the car that sent Jem Cars to the wall...

Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #54

Maximum Mini Find of the Year - the voting is open

Picture Frank Markowitz

So many Mini Jems for sale! 

Picture collage Jeroen Booij

Original owner buys back his Mk1 Stimson Mini Bug

Picture Mark Glover

Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #47

Found film footage identifies that Peel Viking

New pictures of Scottish Stimson Mini Bug racer

Unmolested Mk1 Mini Scamp for sale

Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #43

The Mini based electric cars of Crompton-Leyland

Fabulous Cox GTM from Japan

How the Houghton-Coldwell Mod really ended up

Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #18

Lost AF Grand Prix four-wheeler found

Swiss Stimson importer finally tracked down

And yet another Ogle SX1000 turns up in... New York

Barclay Mini Bug shows its number

To continue the Stimson theme, some further info about a Barclay Mini Bug has found its way to here. This was the Dutch version of the Stimson Mini Bug made in Helmond, The Netherlands, by a company named Barclay Europe in the early 1970s. Just five or six kits are believed to have been built and sold. Not all of these have been accounted for. 

I recently came across the picture below, which shows the Barclay demonstrator. This car was also used in advertisements where it was shown wearing number plates with 'BARCLAY' at the front and 'MINI BUG' at the rear. However, this new picture shows it had a more conventional plate behind that. The number '05-03-GU' is well visible, which is a Dutch plate issued in 1968. The transport authority does not recognize the number anymore, but I do wonder what happend to the car..? Anyone..?

The Barclay Mini Bug shows it's plate here: 05-03-GU, which is a 1968 number

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

'We present you Barry Stimson's Barclay 'Mini Bug' as the sole license holders for Europe'

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

'Reuse your old, rusted or damaged Mini to build this terrifically hip Mini Bug'

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Stimson cars tribute at Restoration Show

Have there ever been five different Stimson designs together on one display? I don't think so. Paul Wylde and his team of Minikits enthusiasts have been working for ages to get just that together and they've finally succeeded, too. This weekend you can see a most colourful display of Stimson vehicles brought together at the Classic Car & Restoration Show in the NEC in Birmingham. The Stimson Mini Bug is there in two variants, joined by a Stimson Scorcher, Stimson Trek and Stimson Safari Six as a grand tribute to their creator who passed away on the last day of 2022.

Paul added: "I will send you some with Roger Fauchon's family (Roger was the man who built many of the bodies for Stimson) who will be here tomorrow and with the Stimson family on Saturday." Well done guys!

UPDATE 27 March 2023: pictures of Fouchon and Stimson families and more added, see below.

A colourful display of Stimson vehicles can be seen in Birmingham now

Picture Paul Wylde

This as a tribute to Barry Stimson, who died on December 31st last year

Picture Paul Wylde

Paul's Mk2 Stimson Mini Bug

Picture Paul Wylde

Barry Tibury's Mini Bug, as used in 'The Freewheelers'

Picture Paul Wylde

Colin Baines' Stimson Safari Six

Picture Paul Wylde

Philip Lyons' Stimson Scorcher

Picture Paul Wylde

Barry Tibury's Stimson Trek

Picture Paul Wylde

Bonus - 1960 Mini with ultra rare LMB boot. One owner from 1960 to 2020!

Picture Paul Wylde

Paul Wylde (center) with Roger Fouchon's daughters and grand daughter

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde

Caroline Stimson and sons try out the Stimson Scorcher!

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde 

The Minikits team together with the Stimsons on Saturday

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde

Lovely painting of Barry Stimson presented to Caroline

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde 

Stimson's stories (6)

Following Barry Stimson's death on the last day of 2022 (click) this is another part in a series of interviews with the designer. This time about marketing the Stimson Mini Bug in print, on the motorshow and on television. "It was exactly like you’d do a documentary about the swinging sixties" Over to the late Barry:

"We went to France to get the pictures for the Mini Bug brochure. It was unbelievably fun to drive the vehicle there. You know it was in 1970 and not all the bloody tourists were there yet. The girl I took with me was Patsy and she can be seen in the brochure. She was known as one-eyed Patsy since she had just one eye, which you can't see because she's wearing sun glasses on the pictures. But she was a lovely soul. And a tough cook, too."

"The car on the Racing car Show stand still was the same car, I think. So much was happening at the time. Jem cars came to me because they’d seen the Mini Bug on television. Can we be agents for the Mini Bug, they asked. They seemed really nice people. The Mini Bug was also used on the Cliff Richard Show and Olivia Newton John was filmed in it driving it and then in studio shots with a wind machine whilst singing. It was also in a television series The Freewheelers (footage here). They asked me to talk about design on radio and tv – it was usually William Towns or me who was asked. The trouble is that in those days everything was shot on 16mm film. And although the BBC transferred a lot of the stuff; they scrapped a lot of it, too. There was also footage shot on the beach of Littlehampton for a motoring programme named Wheelspin. They just hired a helicopter and went filming for a complete day." (footage does survive though - see here).

"They were supposed to be difficult times but it didn’t affect me in the slightest. It was pure fun. A mate was stage manager of the musical Hair and another friend was Julia Goodman who was an actress. It was all fun, exactly like you’d do a documentary about the swinging sixties. It was all promo girls and Champagne celebrations. Meanwhile, I’d got involved with Ian Smith, who wrote The Lotus Story. He knew all sorts of people who said to me he wanted to get in business; we can sell lots of these - that sort of thing. That’s how Barrian Cars was formed, after my and Ian’s names. He was friends with people like Graham and Betty Hill and Colin Chapman. Rosalyn, Ian’s wife and I flew to Monaco for a promotional thing. Ian drove the bloody Bug to the south of France. Over there I was introduced to all the people and we had diner and all the rest. Ian clearly wanted to introduce the car to other people there and it was intended to drive the race circuit at Monaco with Jacky Stewart behind the wheel. But David Benson, a Daily Express journalist, took it on the course first and stuffed it into a wall. The wall fell onto a person working on the other side of it and there was a lot of commotion. They wrote it off and it had to be shipped back. I had to spend another two days with one of the girls, which wasn't too bad."

"Ian Smith also was a member of the Dog House club in Mayfair and I went there too, to meet up with some of these people. I wasn’t all too impressed, but it was agreed that Barrian Cars would give a Mk2 Mini Bug to the club for charity and they were raffling it off. The car got built but I wasn’t in a position to donate a kit to a bloody charity, I didn’t have any money, so eventually Lord Stokes of BMC supplied us with a brand new engine and sent it off. But when it came here there was no distributor cap and there other bits missing and so I phoned them up. A couple of days later, I had by now completely forgotten about it, a box was sent over which contained 20 distributor caps, 100 spark leads, five carburettors and all other sorts of parts. I rang them to tell them there were way too many parts and they told me these parts came in boxes of twenty or ten or whatever and there was no union job to take things oút of boxes. This is how British Leyland went under, maybe..?"

Making pictures for the brochure with One-eyed Patsy - "A lovely soul and a tough cook"

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

A great opportunity to drive the Mini Bug demonstrator over to the south of France

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The things you come across abroad... Barry jumped out, Patsy still in the car here

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The Mini Bug was to return to southern France soon with Ian Smith at the wheel

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Barry in his element on a cross-country road somewhere near the Mediterranean

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Racing Car Show time, more dolly birds needed at Jem Cars' display. The year? 1971

Picture Jeroen Booij archive 

Rare colour picture of the show. Mini Bug, Mini Jem and Jem Futura on the left

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The Morning Telegraph article by Ian Smith, who drove the Mini Bug all the way to Monaco, 

only to see it being written off into a wall by journalist David Benson there!

Picture Jeroen Booij archive