Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #4:

New series starts: 'Minis at the 'Ring'

Part 1: the Deep Sanderson 301 Prototype

New Ogle badges now available 

Mystery MiniSprints in Japan

Happy Christmas 2023

The year is almost over with the last days of 2023 being spent in festivities by many. It's been a good year for Maximum Mini. The Le Mans Mini Marcos project is finally seeing progress after a long standstill, while the Ogle SX1000 gave me lots of joy during the season. 

Apart from that Maximum Mini itself has seen a drastic change, too: it is now a paid newsletter for subscribers who pay 5 Euros per month or 60 Euros a year to receive all the words and pictures that were previously free to anyone. Do join if you want to know all about Mini derivatives lost and found as I will continue my work as always.

Thank you for your support and please do bring out your vote for the 'Best Find of 2023' here. Happy Christmas!

A Broadspeed GTS in winter wonderland

Original photograph Paul Stephens, picture editing Jeroen Booij

Find of the Year 2023: the candidates

Ho-ho-ho, it's that time of year again! The time to traditionally decide which has been the best find of a Mini based car in the past 12 months. We've been doing it for the last 13 years, but this is the first time the poll is sent to the Maximum Mini Newsletter subscribers first. But... the more the merrier, and the better for the poll's results, so let me know what you think, too. 

You will know the drill by this time: the car with the most votes simply wins the 'Maximum Mini Find of the Year 2023' title. Over to the five selected candidates: Just drop me a line below, on Facebook or through my e-mail to tell me which of these is your favourite.

A Siva Buggy that has been hiding in a barn since 1982. Full story here

A Mk1 Biota put away in storage by its first owner in 1974! Full story here 

The first of the Bulanti Minis resurfaced in Australia in February. Full story here

 Not exactly a barn find, but thorough research revealed this Mini Marcos to be the 

actual 1967 Targa Florio car. Full story here

Original USA sold Ogle SX1000 has been languishing in Pennsylvania. Full story here

Brand new Ogle badges now available

After I found an unused original Ogle antelope badge earlier this year, there was finally a template to have quality badges remade. And here they are. They are the exact same size as the originals and come in chrome, just like the Ogle SX1000 has them fitted to both c-pillars, and in the golden colour of the (optional) one that was fitted to the centre console of several cars. There are no pins at the back, so mounting them is easy with kit or double-sided tape. 

They are 25 euros for the chrome one and 35 euros for the gold one plus p&p. Drop me a line if you are interested. I will start sending them out next week - perhaps just in time for Christmas..?

New Ogle SX1000 'Antelope' badges

Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #2:

Celebrity owned Mini Jems

Is this the sole surviving Status RR Mini front end?

...And that's a period picture of it...

Famous Foley Broadspeed GT restored Down Under

An announcement from MAXIMUM MINI

MAXIMUM MINI is going to change.

The Maximum Mini blog was started in 2010. Some 1,600 articles have been published since. It has always been free to read to anyone, and all the stories of the past 13+ years will remain online to enjoy.

However, new articles won’t be free anymore. From now on Maximum Mini will continue in the shape of a paid newsletter. There are some very exiting stories on their way right now in the first issue: an update on the Le Mans Mini Marcos project, newly discovered photographs of a mystery Mini derivative and yet another re-discovered Ogle. Two new series about 1960s racers are in the making also. 

You can subscribe and will then receive the newsletter approximately 50 times a year. 

The price will be 5 euros per month, or 60 Euros per year. 

Just reply to me if you want to be part of it and I will send a payment request and put you on the list. 

I hope to be in touch soon, 

Jeroen Booij

Meeting up with Julien Vernaeve

I just drove 500 kilometres to pick up one single photograph. Have I gone mad? Probably! But then it wasn't just anybody who handed the picture over. I got it from Julien Vernaeve, the 1960s BMC works rally and racing legend plus BMC and Jaguar dealer and... Belgian concessionaire for the Ogle SX1000 in 1962. Vernaeve was the man to import my car to Belgium - still the only SX1000 sold new to the European mainland as far as I know. So, yes, I was very eager to speak to him. When he told me on the telephone he'd also found an old picture of the car with himself and his personal registration on it, nothing could stop me.

Vernaeve is 92 years old these days and does remember the Ogle well. He did recall it was the same bronze colour as it is today, and I learned about some more details and how he got to import it. A book about his racing career was written a couple of years ago and he gave me a copy of that. In it many pictures of racing cars, Mini Coopers and Cooper 'S's with his private plate '3995.N' and with co-drivers such as Rauno Aaltonen, Andrew Hedges, Paddy Hopkirk, Tony Fall, John Fitzpatrick, John Handley, Geoff Mabbs, Henry Liddon, Tony Pond...  His daughter Eveline had arranged the meeting at the family Jaguar dealership which is run by herself and her brother Luc today. When we were finished Julien and his dog jumped into his Jaguar F-Pace and were off. What a man! 

Julien Vernaeve, 92, at the family Jaguar dealership with the Ogle SX1000 picture

Picture Jeroen Booij

Me and Julien in the showroom. Vernaeve drove with all the big names in the 1960s

Picture Eveline Vernaeve 

A signature in the book about him that I was handed over. Thank you very much Sir

Picture Jeroen Booij 

And off in his Jaguar F-Pace again. Vernaeve Jaguar of Ghent has been a dealer for decades

Picture Jeroen Booij

Ranger - the haunted Pick-Up

Still a great little hummer - the Ranger Pick Up. The way to 'transform your old, rusty 1100/1300 into an exciting all purpose road car' in the early- to mid-1970s. Initially the car was made at an old used car lot in Romford, but when the Pick-up turned out to be profitable, Ranger Automotive Ltd. was set up and the whole project was moved to more suitable premises in 1972: a disused 1920s cinema in Leigh-on-Sea, formerly with 1,200 seats and its own orchestra. What's more: the old theatre was supposedly haunted! A few six-wheelers were made as well as one twin-engined variant by former Broadspeed engineer John J. Thomas.

Ranger Pick-Up - made in an abandoned and haunted cinema in the 1970s

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Some 300 were made between 1971 and 1976, making it a success

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Most Pick-Ups use the 1100's rear lights turned sideways - this one doesn't

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Another Ogle SX1000 find in the USA

Another Ogle SX1000 turns up in the USA, where it has been left deteriorating for many years now. 

I'd heard about an Ogle in Pennsylvania and had even seen some pictures of it in various states taken throughout the years. But it is only now confirmed to be the same and wearing chassis number 23 by the car's owner and the man who has it in storage for him. I got in touch with the latter and he wrote:

"Hello Jeroen, Thank you for your note. I do not own an Ogle, but one of my friends does. I do have it stored for him at my farm. The car did not have a drivetrain and is in pretty rough condition at this point. The seats were never with the car, but much of the other interior items including the dash have been stored out of the weather. The missing main parts of fiberglass are still stored with the spare parts." 

He was kind enough to make some pictures and send them over. He also gave a telephone number of the owner to get in touch directly, which I have tried straight away but so far to no avail. I'll keep trying. The car does look pretty sorry for itself, especially compared to earlier pictures when it wasn't exactly a concours car either but when at least the body seemed okay without the major cracks front and back it has now. Let's hope somebody, one day, will take the effort to restore it.

Ogle SX1000 in Pennsylvania is now confirmed to be chassis number 23

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

The car has been here for a long time and has deteriorated badly over the years

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Believed to have been red originally but not much of the paint is left now

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Classic Motor Show 2023 - the Mini derivatives

Go to the NEC this weekend for the Classic Motor Show and you are likely to bump into the Minikits Club there. They have another great display of Mini based cars with a Siva Buggy, Jimini 2, Stimson Safari Six, wild Scamp Mk3 and rare Turner Ranger. Great stuff! Last year they even won a Classic and Sports Car Club Award for their effort. 

Another club attending is Midas Owners Club with a lovely Mk3 Mini Marcos jammed in between two Midases and somebody spotted a coachbuilt Mini, too, believed to have been built by former Wood & Pickett employees. Have a good weekend.

A Mk3 Mini Marcos sandwiches by two Midases!

Picture Midas Cars

And five more Mini based cars on the Minikits stand

Picture Paul Wylde

Restored Stimson Safari Six is among them

Picture Paul Wylde

And how about this? A lovely and road registered Turner Ranger

Picture Paul Wylde

This coachbuilt Mini is said to be built by ex-W&P employees

Picture Marc Eden