Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #67

Le Mans Mini Marcos pictures keep on being found

Beach Boys' Mini Surfer's new owner takes it to St. Moritz

One-off JC Hemington Special makes it to the market

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

Schwarzenbach's Super Mini survives

About three years ago I wondered if anyone knew more about a coachbuilt Mini shorty from Switzerland. Click here for all the pics. It took two months for an answer to come in the shape of little 1970s French book, which mentions the car as the 'Schwarzenbach Super Mini', made in 1971 in Thalwil, Switzerland. Possibly by a multi millionaire named Urs Ernst Schwarzenbach, I thought, who owned a palace in Morocco, the Grand Hotel in Zürich and had his own polo team with 600 horses while he married a former Miss Australia. (Click here).

That is still not confirmed. But what about the car itself? I know by now that it's a survivor, as Alexis Ducrot contacted me about it a while ago. He wrote: "Hi Jeroen, I hope you are well! Your article reminded me of something that I wanted to share with you. Please see attached a picture of the same car, back in 2010, for sale at Classica Motors of Geneva, maybe it changed of owner since 2010 but maybe they can give details and info on such a rare car! Best Alexis Ducrot." Well, well, that was good! The interior looks fantastic, but what a pity the car was repainted at one stage in a much more ordinary metallic green with standard 1990s 12" alloy wheels and plastic arches! I haven't found out much more since, but who knows...

Schwarzenbach Super Mini of 1971 looks every bit the coachbuilt Mini inside

Picture Classica Motors Geneva, via Alexis Ducrot

The exterior, however, was given a revamp which didn't do it much good if you ask me

Picture Classica Motors Geneva, via Alexis Ducrot

Stimson Safari Six, as seen on Swiss tv

Seen in a 1985 magazine: a tiny picture of a Stimson Safari Six. I don't think it's one I have seen before, looking to be registered 'GDW 531E'. Interestingly the snippet about the National Mini Day in June that year mentions the following: "Some of the more interesting vehicles at the really included the Mini Mk1 which starred in the BBC television series 'One by One' and a rare six-wheeled Stimson Safari Six, one of only 12 built. This bizarre machine has glassfibre bodywork on a space frame chassis and travelled to the rally straight from Zurich where it has received substantial television coverage."

Who knows more..?

UPDATE 18:00: Mystery solved! It's a young Colin Baines leaning against the car, which was his at the time (he's owned more than one!). Colin: "Ha! Yes this was me age 25 at the Mini Cooper Club meeting at Beaulieu, I'd just driven over from the International Mini meeting in Switzerland where it won 'Der Ungewöhnlichste Mini' trophy - (The Most Unusual Mini) on TV." Footage from it can be seen here. Thanks Paul and Colin!

Stimson Safari Six, which supposedly appeared on Swiss television

Picture Jeroen Booij archive / Classic Cars magazine

Swiss Super-Mini built by Swiss super-millionaire?

Some time ago I asked for more information about a shortened and coachbuilt Mini, probably from Switzerland and probably of 1971 vintage (click here). I received a reply from reader Jotage who wrote: "I think that it's the Mini modified by Schwarzenbach, that appeared in the book 'Les Véhicules Hors Série' by Jacques Borgé and Nicolas Viasnoff."

And so when I found a copy of said book on Ebay in France, I ordered it. There it was. And Jotage was right, too. Although the information on the Mini is somewhat limited, the book is a fascinating read. The caption (in French) translates: 'The Swiss coachbuilder Ernst Schwarzenbach of Thalwil created the Supermini. The car was shortened from 3.05 to 2.43 metres. As a revenge the price has doubled.'

When I dropped the name of Ernst Schwarzenbach in Google search I only found information about a Swiss multi millionaire named Urs Ernst Schwarzenbach who is said to own over £300m of property in the UK and Australia, a palace in Morocco, the Grand Hotel in Zürich and his own polo team with 600 horses while he married a former Miss Australia. It seems he may well fit the bill! Nothing about a coachbuilding company, although being born in 1948 in Thalwil it could be him, really. Who knows?

UPDATE 9 January 2023: The car survives. Click here.

Super-Mini was supposedly built by Ernst Schwarzenbach of Thalwil, Switzerland

Picture from 'Les Véhicules Hors Série'

Who knows more about 'coachbuilt' Shorty?

I have come across pictures of this golden shortened Mini several times now and remember having read somewhere it was a professionally coachbuilt car. However, I cannot find back anything on it now. It does seem to have been marketed well in its day, though, with a number of staged publicity photographs available, made in 1971 or 1972 or so my limited information tells me. A clue to its origins may be the Swiss made 10" Edgar Schwyn wheels? 

The only unstaged picture that I have of it seems to be of a slightly later date, now with Cosmic wheels, added bull bars and a number plate that does indeed seem to be from Switzerland. 

I'm sure somebody here will be able to tell me more. 

UPDATE 22 April 2020: More info about a possible multi-millionaire first owner - click here.

UPDATE 9 January 2023: The car survives. Click here.

Shortened Mini seems to have been built professionally but information is hard to find

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Was it ever marketed as a coachbuilt Mini? Wheels, too, point towards Switzerland?

Picture Shutterstock

I think the number plate reads 'Super Mini '71' here. Who was behind this conversion?

Picture Shutterstock

From the files - squeezed in a tiny spot and with added bumpers and different wheels. Swiss plate.

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The many wanderings of an Ogle SX1000

Australian Ogle SX1000 owner Neil Griffin (more here) dropped me another enthusiastic line. He wrote: "Hi Jeroen, one of the outstanding articles on Ogles that I have been trying to track down is a July 1997 Mini Magazine. I have a lot of Mini World magazines from this period and a quite few Mini Magazines, but not that one and for some reason this issue rarely came up on eBay or GumTree, but finally I have managed to secure a copy. Anyway, in reading the Ogle article contained within, it mentioned that owners took the Ogle to Mini 25 which I was co-incidentally attended as part of a 'Grand European (Motorsport) Tour' in 1984 and I thought, I wonder... Would you believe it!"

"I'm not normally that organized, but I recently fetched my old Mini photo albums out for another pic from that period. Little did I know I'd be restoring one of these 34 years later! I wouldn't have had any clue at the time what the hell this unusual car was back then. Of course you know this car in its later blue paint colour as the one you compared to the Marcos in the 2015 Mini Magazine article... 'Elites of the Illegitimates'."

"It was subsequently refurbished in Switzerland with what appears to be a tan leather interior and sold again to a new owner in Luxembourg and was in show at the recent InterClassics Brussels. Cheers, Neil Griffin"
Thanks for that Neil! I wonder if any more readers have pictures of the car at Mini 25, or before that. I understand it was registered 'AEG 409A' earlier, but frustratingly couldn't find any photographic proof of that in the files. Who knows..?

Spotted by reader on Donington during 'Mini 25' in 1984. Can you read the registration?

It is believed to have been 'AEG 409C', but that's not the one here?

UPDATE: It was 'RJL 58' - a private plate that it wore only shortly.

Picture courtesy Neil Griffin

1997: the car is now registered '755 XPG' and could still be seen on the roads in the UK

Picture Jeroen Booij archive / Mini Magazine

2010: spotted on a rainy day in the UK with a new owner. Repainted in blue but still wearing the same plate 755 XPG

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

2014: Now on Belgian trade plates and for sale at the time. My offer was kindly refused...

Picture Jeroen Booij

By then the interior was still black, its original colour or so it seemed to me

Picture Jeroen Booij

2018: In Switzerland and for sale again. Asking price 39,900 Swiss francs, sold to Luxembourg

Picture Lutziger Classics

By now the car's interior is fully retrimmed in tan leather. Lovely, but would you do it?

Picture Lutziger Classics

November 2018: on Luxembourg plates and once again for sale. Asking price? 50,000 Euros

Picture courtesy Bart Vanreusel

Another Mini Bug turns up in Switzerland

Abnother Swiss Stimson turned up last week in Switzerland, after it was seen for sale there by Michael Kaufmann. He wrote: "I found this car in Switzerland for sale. It's a Stimson Mini from 1974." Initially I thought it was the same car as this one, but having had a better look at Michael's photos, I think it's another car after all. Apart from the different number plate (from Luzern rather then Thurgau), it also misses that ghastly front spoiler of the car seen here before. The wheels are different, too, just like the rear spats, the dashboard layout, the number plate light and the front indicators. Although it bears a close resemblance, this has to be a different car.

I have asked Michael to make some better pictures, which he hopes to do, and I wouldn't be surprised if this car also wears a plate with 'Hesteller (builder): Lehner + Kocher' under its bonnet. I have still no idea who they were, so information is welcome. Barry Stimson couldn't remember either when I asked him last time. His comment back then: "I had only one agent in Switzerland but I also remember there was a coffee bar, in Zurich I think, called The MINI BUG. The table napkins had graphics depicting a Mini Bug....and a real Mini Bug, minus engine, set on a plinth or pole in the centre of the shop. I don't have any pix anymore…"

Information on the coffee bar is still much welcome, too!

Stimson Mini Bug was seen for sale in Switzerland. I bet it's another one from the Swiss agent

Picture Michael Kaufmann

Low quality pictures don't do justice, but it has to be a sister car to that other Swiss Stimson

Picture Michael Kaufmann

Rear wheel spats are white rather than black, and there more small differences

Picture Michael Kaufmann

This car (left) misses the front spoiler of the other (right). It also wears other wheels, spats, number plate light and front indicators and another dashboard layout. This has to be a different car

Picture Michael Kaufmann / Jeroen Booij archive

Swiss 'Beach Car' is - erm - different

Christian Chapalain of Switzerland contacted me about a car that he saw for sale in his home country. He wrote: "Hi Jeroen, I came across an unusual Mini Variant. It seems like a Beach Car with chopped off roof. The front part also has been changed… Please find some pics attached. Would you have any more infos on this one? It's currently for sale in Switzerland" (ad here).

Well-well, that looks like a Riviera Buggy on steroids. And it's not just the front that's different. How about the rear fins? The dash? The interior? The grab handles? The wheel arches? I'm pretty much convinced it's not a real Beach Car, but a private effort in building something… different! The ad states that the car is located close to Geneva, is an Austin and dates back to 1968, which also rules out a Longbridge original, but then you never know… So: who can tell us more?

Strange snout has been elongated while headlights remained at their original place

Picture courtesy ricardo.ch

From this view its more clear how much the front was altered. Side indicator shows Inno base?

Picture courtesy ricardo.ch

Pity we can't see the rear as that certainly appears to be unusually modified, too…

Picture courtesy ricardo.ch

…Like the interior. Does it have digital gauges? Unfortunately the ad is rather poor in information

Picture courtesy ricardo.ch

Badging the Ogles

When I visited Markus Tanner about a year ago in Switzerland he showed me an unusual Ogle badge that he'd found while on the hunt for SX1000 parts (he restored this car beautifully). It certainly was similar to the ones used on both of the SX1000's c-pillars, but this one simply came on a heavy black base. Like Markus, I had no idea what it was meant for. David Ogle's paperweight perhaps? While searching a picture last week I came across the thing again and compared it to some other photographs I'd taken of Ogle badges. It appeared to me there were some differences in between them. Here's what I found:

Golden Ogle badge on a heavy base, as seen in Switzerland. What was it meant for?

Picture Jeroen Booij

This is a similar badge as seen on one of the cars. But detail and horns are clearly different 

Picture Jeroen Booij

This one is again different or are those horns simply bent?

Picture Jeroen Booij

This one is outright flat and it doesn't seem to be chrome plated

Picture Jeroen Booij

While this one is plated but again, the detail is not very fine

Picture Jeroen Booij

However, this one does look very similar to the golden badge

Picture Jeroen Booij

As does this one. But how many variants were there?

Picture Jeroen Booij

This is another variant, this time seen on the front grille of an SX1000

Picture Jeroen Booij

Some of them also have this badge on their front grille. I think they are early cars

Picture Jeroen Booij

Same logo, different car, different colour. And I've seen it in both red/black, too

Picture courtesy Guy Loveridge

One car I saw had just the Ogle name on its grille. A cut out from the above?

Picture Jeroen Booij

Some of the earliest of the SX1000s used the badge of their donor car. Like Tom Karen's personal Ogle, based on a 997 Austin Cooper

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Swiss Stimson found - but who knows more about Swiss Mini Bug coffee bar?

A very nice Stimson Mini Bug has come up for sale in Switzerland, which makes me wonder again about the Swiss-built Stimsons, imported as kits by Carrosserie Brühwiler in Luzern. See here for some more information. Was this car one of the official ones? It may well be. The car appears to have the same kind of spats around the rear wheels as the one on the official picture. Oh - and this one in Switzerland seems to have them, too. But then there's this little plate under the bonnet saying 'Hesteller (builder): Lehner + Kocher'. Who were they? Another plate, on the car's body, says 'Another moulding by Fauchon Plastics Ltd'.

I asked Barry Stimson for a little clearing up and he said: "The Swiss bug looks nice...but sounds a lot of money (they ask 12,500 Euros-JB). Fauchon Plastics is the company I got to mould most of the production cars from plugs and moulds of mine. They moulded Mini Bugs simply for us. They did not have any rights to sell mouldings direct. I may have agreed that they could badge to say 'Another moulding by Fauchon Plastics' - I don't remember… it was all a bit laid back at that time. If it helped them I probably said okay. Or… I suppose they could have sold mouldings without my knowledge, but I don't think so."

But Barry wouldn't by Barry if he didn't come up with a nice little fun fact: "I had only one agent in Switzerland but I also remember there was a coffee bar, in Zurich I think,  called The MINI BUG. The table napkins had graphics depicting a Mini Bug....and a real Mini Bug, minus engine, set on a plinth or pole in the centre of the shop. I don't have any pix anymore…"

Now wouldn't it be nice to learn a bit more about that..? Who can help us with pictures or more information?

Swiss Stimson Mini Bug looks very nice. Note rear wheel spats and front spoiler

Picture courtesy mobile.de

Asking price of 12,500 Euros seems somewhat on the steep side though

Picture courtesy mobile.de

Was it a 'Carrosserie Brühwiler' car? It is said to have a 1976 registration...

Picture courtesy mobile.de

…and a 998 engine. Unlike Mini Bug in Swiss coffee bar, which came without

Picture courtesy mobile.de

Fauchon Plastics did most of the mouldings for Stimson's cars, but didn't sell bodies. Probably

Picture courtesy mobile.de

But who were Lehner and Kocher? Privateers building a Mini Bug for themselves..?

Picture courtesy mobile.de

Swiss Radford hatchback is still out there

Interesting pictures of a stunning Radford Mini de Ville with hatchback have been sent over to me from Switzerland by avid reader Christian Amhof. And it's the same car reader Graeme Farr spotted back in 1987 outside Wood & Pickett's London workshops when it was revamped there. Graeme send over the photographs he took back at the time a year ago and wrote: "Attached some photos I took at W&P in 1987. I didn't get any photos of the McCartney Mini as it left the day before I was there. Just saw this Radford getting a WP makeover – the Radford dash was complete and in the skip – and Eddie (Collins-JB) said I could grab it if I wanted. But I had caught the train there so it was a bit bulky to take back to London." Now that's a pity, putting things mildly!

Radford or Wood & Pickett? Well, a bit of both really! Seen here at W&P in 1987

Picture courtesy Graeme Farr

Brand new dashboard had just been fitted, the old Radford one ended in at the skip... 

Picture courtesy Graeme Farr

Base vehicle is a Mk2 Morris Cooper (S?). If you look closely you can see Geneva plate

Picture courtesy Graeme Farr

Meanwhile, Christian has seen it several times in his native Switzerland, and it appears to have changed next to nothing since its 1987 overhaul, still wearing the same colour and trim. Christian wrote: "I have seen it several times at the British Car Meeting in Morges, but the car never wears a number plate nor can you see the owner… I heard of another W&P car in Switzerland which once belonged to the Shah of Persia."

Interestingly, the supposed Shah's car was in at W&P's workshop at the same time back in 1987 when Graeme was there - more on that later. For now: who knows more about this intriguing pair of coachbuilt Minis?

The same car last year. Only the reversing light seems to have been changed...

Picture courtesy Christian Amhof

Interior, too, is still all the same, spotted here at the British Car Meet in Morges

Picture courtesy Christian Amhof