SHADO Jeep found in a scrap yard

Well, well… We have a good contender for Find of the Year 2014! Thanks to several readers who made me aware of some pictures that appeared yesterday. These pictures were taken on a scrap yard on the Canary Islands where, in between abandoned old boats and cars, one remarkable vehicle surfaced. Photographer ElStellino wrote: "What the … was this? An amphibious 6-wheeler?"

It isn't. But it's something strange indeed: it's a 'SHADO Jeep' used for the British 1970s television series U.F.O. As a matter of fact it was originally built by Space Models of Feltham for the 1969 Sci-Fi flick 'Doppelgänger' (more information here) but became more famous through its later tv appearances. These cars were based on Mini Mokes with an extra rear subframe and although it's unknown to me how many of them were built, there must have been at least two. One survives in Italy with a U.F.O. fan, while another was used as an advertisement sign for a garage in the UK for many years. Or could that be one and the same car? (more info here). Fact is that this is another. How it ever reached the Canaries is unknown, as it remains a mystery who owns the yard and its content. I am sure however, it won't be long before somebody will find out!

A holy grail for cult Science Fiction fans? A SHADO Jeep in a Canary scrap yard

Picture courtesy ElStellino

Apart from wheels, the SHADO Jeep looks to be complete, even the side panels are there

Picture courtesy ElStellino

The original design sketch by Derek Meddings, who was responsible for 'FAB1', too

Picture courtesy Derek Meddings

And a photograph taken on the set while filming an on-board scene in one of the cars

Jeroen Booij archive

Rediscovered Wildgoose is for sale

Making plans for the Summer holiday yet? How about this project? A nice little Wildgoose Popular, supposed to be the 11th known survivor, which has just been rediscovered in a North Yorkshire barn. (click here to see most of the other survivors) It's up for auction with no reserve on April, 12 with Silverstone Auctions at their NEC auction. The last Popular seen for sale (click here) had a whopping asking price of 25,000 Euros a year and a half ago, but I doubt if that found a new owner for that money. It'll be interesting to see what this one fetches, though.

This particular Popular, Willow Green / Snowberry white in colour, was built on 5 December 1967 and delivered to Stringer Motors in Brighton, which registered it on 15 May 1968. According to the auctioneers it has never seen a welding torch and retains all of its original features (including table, cooker and kitchen sink) and is complete with its original engine and 'magic wand' gearbox. It has covered 69,398 miles and last passed an M.O.T in 1990. Click here for the full auction description.

A Wildgoose is quite rare and this one looks to be a nice restoration project

Picture courtesy Silverstone auctions 

Supposedly complete and dry stored for the last 16 years. When will we see it again?

Picture courtesy Silverstone auctions

A designer's view at BMC's Mini coupe

As a reader of this blog you will be aware that there have been umpteen efforts to turn the good old Mini into a nice little coupe. You may also be aware that BMC, at one stage, planned to come up with a version of their own, too. It led to a prototype dubbed ADO 35, which came about in a collaboration with Pininfarina. I tracked down the remaining car and wrote about it earlier, here.
Anyway: One person with a more than average interest into this car is designer David Beasley. He wrote: "Hi Jeroen. Firstly, I'm a huge fan of your work and your Mini site. I regularly check to see new stories and to feed my cravings! Second of all, I'm a car designer, working for Nissan in the UK, but I've previously worked for MINI (BMW in Munich) and Pininfarina in Turin, where my daily drive was a Japanese spec 1.3 Spi in Almond Green... just the thing to dash around Turin in!"

"I saw recently your article about the ADO 35 coupe from Pinin and how you tracked the owner down. Since he's not letting any photos out, I thought I'd create some artwork to fill in the gap, so please enjoy the attached image."
"BMC and Pininfarina have had a long history together, having first explored themes in the very early 50's. Stylists at Pinin would have been working with other brands and so you can see a Pinin style in most cars and proposals all the way through. In this case, the design was probable executed by the same individuals resposible for the 404 / 504 Peugeots (and this being Italy and a consultancy...), some Alfa's, Lancia's, Corvairs and even Agnelli's 410 special. Little elements of the designs are give aways (such as the way each individual has a preference for particular design detailing like vents, wheel arch lips, etc) and so general themes were reused time and time again."

"I imagine in this case a body style was scaled to fit. It is quite normal that a major company would want to cross their t's and dot their i's, so BMC would have put out to tender a design like this to compete with their own stylists. It might have been that in this case it confirmed an internal theme being developed for the Midget and upcoming MGB and therefore would not have been continued. The Austin 1100 was a Pininfarina design and those who know will recognise that the MGB GT was thus completeing the circle."
"Kindest regards and feel free to post this little image on your site to share with the community!"

A designer's look at how the Pininfarina/BMC ADO 35 Mini coupe should look like

Rendering courtesy David Beasley

A rare but well-known picture of the real thing before it was fully restored

Picture source unknown

BMC's Mini coupe wore a MG grille, but could have become an Austin or Morris, too

Picture source unknown

'The Banana Split' in period - and colour

Josh Willis, who repatriated the Maya GT from a Sussex field last year (click here), hasn't started restoration on the car, but never the less intends to trailer it over to Blyton Park on May 4. A great chance to see one of those rare cars in the flesh. I've also asked another Camber GT owner but since he hasn't come back to me I'm unsure whether he will make it. Le me know if you do Bryan!

Meanwhile, I received a nice message about another surviving car, at one time known as 'The Banana Split' thanks to its colour scheme. It was described here earlier (click here) and a message from the original owner Derek followed soon (here). Now, a chap named Jim dropped me a line, writing: "Looking at this Blog about Mini derivatives (I'm interested in anything Mini, I have a 1960 Morris myself), reminded me about Derek's Camber. I used to work with him way back and remember this car and even found this picture of it." Thanks for sharing that Jim!

UPDATE August 2022: Pictures emerge from 'NPM 14F' in its long-term hiding place. Click here

Derek's car was known as the 'Banana Split'. It is still with us, although buried deep in a garage

Picture courtesy Jim

Maximum Mini 2 is on its way!

Well, well. It's been very quiet here. For two weeks I didn't post a single piece and hardly answered any messages. Shame on me, yes. But hang on, there was a good reason for that and I'm sure you'll understand. As a matter of fact I have been working frantically to get Maximum Mini 2 ready to go to the printer - today! And things look swell.

Below you will find a sneak preview of what the cover is going to look like. The new book will cover another 60 Mini derivatives in full detail, and I can assure you I have recovered some new gems you won't have heard of before. Like the original, this book will contain once more over 500 photographs that have never previously been seen in print. It will be available from June this year, but I hope to have a few advance copies at hand during the show at Blyton Park on Sunday they 4th of May.

If you want I can put your name on a pre-order list. Just let me know through jeroen@jeroenbooij.com

Another 5 years of sleuthing! Maximum Mini 2 will be available from June 2014

Picture copyright Jeroen Booij

Another Biota delivery

The Biota car company and many of its belongings remain unsold (advertisement here), but don't worry: the seller is not in a rush. Meanwhile, a picture from Biota's days passed came by, thanks to Peter Niessen. Peter is a Dutch Biota enthusiast and owner, who runs his own Biota website (click). He got the photograph through the son of the Dutch Biota concessionaire. This company, named Prescott Hill, also took care of TVR in the Low Countries from their humble premises. Peter adds: "The cars were delivered to them by John Houghton himself. I think my car is one of the two." Thanks Peter!

Another Biota delivery to the Dutch concessionaire, delivered by the boss himself

Picture courtesy Rene Sontrop

Siva Buggies to unite… on the beach

One of the advantages of the world wide web is that it makes it a lot easier to track down owners and their cars. Damien Lescroart came up with the idea to form a register for the Siva Buggy, also known as Siva Moonbug and/or Skyspeed Buggy. He created a group on Facebook and within weeks found owners throughout Europe. And you guessed it: the next plan is to meet up. Where? Well, the buggy boys do not yet know, but there has to be a beach for sure!

Mike Raw's Siva in Scarborough, North Yorks. It's Cooper 'S' powered

Picture courtesy Mike Raw

The Siva Register's first member was Matt Butler. That's his car on a sunny day

Picture courtesy Matt Butler

Scottish member Norrie Wilson pictured his' with the Isle of Skye in the background

Picture courtesy Norrie Wilson

Enzo's Cooper 'S' - the plot thickens

It did take a while before the promised pictures of the presumed Mini owned by Enzo Ferrari came in, but they have arrived after all. And I can tell you they appear to be in the favour of the car's history.

From what I understand from the paperwork, the car, an Austin Cooper 'S' with chassis number 552189, was imported to Italy on 12 December 1964. It was issued on a Modena number plate '116703-MO' on 29 January 1965. The price for which it was sold was 1.825.000 Italian Liras and the owner is clearly described as 'Ing. Ferrari comm. Enzo' at an address in Modena. The car kept the Modena number until 14 March 1970 when it was handed over to the next owner who paid 500.000 Liras for it. As far as I can see there is no mention of a paint colour.

Thanks to Virginio Bolla we now have many more detail pictures of the outside and inside of the car, too. Apart from the bad spraying job, the modified (Carello) light units can be seen well, now, as the quarterlights. And what's more: the same goes for the interior. That, too, is clearly modified heavily. The doors benefit from wind-up windows (A Tilling conversion, or something made in Italy?); the door cards are different from anything I have seen before on a Mini. Carpets and seats (Microcells) are red and there's a wood rimmed steering wheel and dashboard (by Hooper) with extra gauges. Among them a lovely Italian rev counter with the redline set at 6,500 rpm. Under the dashboard a radio and speaker is mounted. The rear view mirror is replaced to the dash rail.

So there we go. Meanwhile, a recording from the late John Cooper has surfaced in which he mentions: "Enzo Ferrari owned three different Cooper S’s at different times, which he used to go up in the hills and tear around with when he got bored” Question is which one this could be? I look forward to hearing what you guys think.

There are differences from the car on the old pictures but there is a link to Enzo Ferrari

Picture courtesy Virginio Bolla

The interior is a coachbuilt job in red. Note the rev counter with 'giri' rather then 'revs'

Picture courtesy Virginio Bolla

Wind-up windows and quarterlights are another clue. Who carried out this job?

Picture courtesy Virginio Bolla 

Paint job is not the best. Could there be silver grey paint underneath the red?

Picture courtesy Virginio Bolla 

Austin Cooper 'S' power train is a correctly stated as a 1275 in the Italian documents

Picture courtesy Virginio Bolla 

Turin number plates came in 1970 when the car was sold to its second owner

Picture courtesy Virginio Bolla

Broadspeeds coming from everywhere

There's a lot of rumour about another revival of the Broadspeed GT and it's not just coming from the UK. In fact I believe more Broadspeeds than ever are being replicated at the moment. There is Nathan Wilson's car in Australia, hand built in steel from a standard Mini. Nathan has now made a fiberglass mould from the car and plans to make a body from it in carbon.
Over in Germany, a company named Broadspeedclassics says it can make replica roofs as well (click here). This while in Belgium a man with similar plans teamed up with well-known Sebring replica manufacturer Archer's Garage. There is, however, no news from them so far. This while another project in the UK accelerates rapidly. One original car is being restored to its former glory, while a mould was taken from it and used to replicate more roofs. I have seen some very promising pictures of these roofs and the moulding but unfortunately cannot publish these as yet.
Next, a Downton GT is being restored and appears to become baby blue rather then the two-tone silver and blue it was. The coming season may have a surprise or two for the fan of the GT.

For quite a few more Broadspeed replicas click here and here

That's one way to make a moulding! Nathan Wilson plans to build his car in carbon

Picture courtesy Nathan Wilson

Picture used on German website in fact originates from Australian based Downton GT

Picture courtesy broadspeedclassics.tripod.com

The Downton GT was built in the mid-1990s - this one is currently being restored

Pictyure courtesy dep-o.co.uk

Is this really Enzo Ferrari's Mini?

Hang on, what have we got here?
These pictures were posted via-via on a Facebook page recently.
Could it really be this car?
That would be awesome. I'm not convinced though. Perhaps it's just a bit too red and too shiny.
Who knows more?

UPDATE 21 February 2014: The photographer, Virginio Bolla, calls in: "Hi Jeroen. I have seen this Mini at Automotoretro in Torino and I spoke to the owner. He says that this Mini was a present of Enzo to his father. Originally from Issigoniss or Cooper, it came in red but Ferrari wanted to respray it in metallic silver because he supposedly said that the only red car in the world is a Ferrari. This new owner some year ago resprayed it in Tartan red but the paint job is poorly executed and there are too much bubbles. Some guys here in Italy say it is not the real Mini of Enzo because there are some details that don't coincide. Tomorrow I will send you some more photos. Ciao, Virginio."
These Italian guys may well be right. I've had several messages from people who spot differences. The cleverest of them looked really good at the front valance: "This Mini has the later type valance, where the real car in the famous picture of Alec and Enzo standing by the Mini, the front valance is of the pre-'64 type, smooth round, and no cut out ventilation for the brakes." Well spotted.

UPDATE 25 February 2014: Detail pictures from inside and outside are now published, as well as all the information from the paperwork displayed on the car. Click here

Coachbuilt / converted front looks similar to the Austin Cooper S which Enzo Ferrari drove

Picture courtesy Virginio Bolla 

Colour seems too obvious and wipers are directed wrong way. But where were these shots taken? 

Picture courtesy Virginio Bolla