Another unique BMC Special

Look at this! It is a one-off special, said to be based on an Austin or Morris 1100 (don't say I didn't warn you) but fitted with a 1275 engine. It is registered in 1969 as 'BMC Special' and last driven officially on the road in 1997. Now it is offered for sale for the enthusiast looking for something else. Don't say it's ugly as I absolutely love it! It's for sale at 400 pounds only. That's cheap! Thanks Richard Hawcroft for the tip.

UPDATE 10 July 2011: It's got a name: the Chambers Special, after its builder. And a one-off it is.

Now that is one way to customise your 1100! Nose looks much like that of New Era Mini

A baby Volvo P544? Relatively tall and round 4-seat body should be much spacier then its base

Speaking about period style, have a look at this dashboard with cool centre console 

'Frenched' Cortina rear lights suit the rear well. Could that be a modified MGB boot lid?

1275 engine may be from a Mini but scuttle is clearly 1100. It's a non runner now

Alto Duo is indeed a Guinness record car!

Remember this article? Well, Karl Bowers from the UK does, and he wrote to me recently about it with a (for me, at least) fantastic novelty. Bowers, in actual fact, was the man who drove the (only) electric Alto Duo to its Guinness Book of Records record on the M25 exactly 24 years ago today! He built one such car and both the body that I found in the UK as the chassis that is now part of the car that is in France belonged to that specific record car. Karl, who was surprised to find out they were split, writes: "When I showed my son the photos, he thought I should try and buy them back!"

So what exactly happened? Karl: "From about 1980 to 1990, I converted many cars to battery power and especially the Mini's. During that time I looked for a kit car supplier who provide a specialised very modern looking car that would capture the imagination (not like the Sinclair C5 at the time, which destroyed the potential of the electric car). And so, the ultimate aim for me, was to take on a challenge never achieved by an electric car. So, I modified the Alto Duo to handle the motor and battery pack system to achieve a 40mph cruising speed and a range of over 100 mile range and furthermore, to complete driving 'non-stop' around the M25 would be the ultimate challenge or dream, in my case."

So did he ever market it or intend to build more? Bowers: "During 1989 to 1990 there was a lot of interest in the car. The car appeared at two international motor shows and on national television and stirred up a lot of interest but, as you may know from experience, people and businesses get very excited about new things and then suddenly frightened off especially when it comes to buying or investing. In the attached photocopies are an entry in the Guinness Book of Records, and some newspaper coverage. I may have some more articles around hidden in my attic!"

Bowers' Alto Duo, originally a Mini derivative, has to be the only

 one that made it to the Guinness Book of Records...

Unique DART pictures found

Thanks to Stef Wray, who rebuilt the one-off Mini based DART (for Dizzy Addicott Racing Team), some unique pictures that show the DART being built, have been unearthed from the collection of Desmond 'Dizzy' Addicott's family. Fighter pilot Addicott built the car in 1963 as a prototype to market fibreglass monocoque shells that could turn an old Mini into something far more sporty. Jem Marsh was contracted to do the shells, but when Addicott had a disagreement with Marsh over the quality of the first few fibreglass bodies he got so fed up with it that he sold the project to Jeremy Delmar-Morgan who turned it into the MiniJem in 1966. By that time Jem Marsh had allready launched his own take on the DART: the Mini Marcos. That means the DART is the spiritual father of both the Mini Jem as the Mini Marcos, as well as the Kingfisher Sprint that evolved from the Jem later.
Stef has been researching the DART ever since he bought the remains in 2008 but never knew pictures of the actual building existed. "I love them!" he writes. So do I.

UPDATE 25 August 2023. Original premises of Dizzy Addicott's workshop found! Click here.

The famous DART under construction in Addicott's workshop in 1963

Picture courtesy Jane Addicott-Jones

 Addicott preferred aluminium but the Morris Mini van based body is all steel

Picture courtesy Jane Addicott-Jones

DART was turned into Mini Jem when Addicott got fed up with the project...

Picture courtesy Jane Addicott-Jones

...while mould maker Jem Marsh developed the Mini Marcos from this base

Picture courtesy Jane Addicott-Jones

MiniSprint avant la lettre: the finished DART body next to an Austin Seven

Picture courtesy Jane Addicott-Jones

Camber/Maya files: KOO589

So far, I have described five Camber GTs in our little Camber/Maya GT files series (click here for a list of the cars). Of the six Cambers that are presumably built I do not know the sixth and last car, so that makes it time to change to the Maya GT: the successor of the Camber that was born out of legislation due to the low headlights. 'KOO589' was built in 1967 and registered as a Maya GT, although it came with a Camber GT nose. The first owner was given a Maya nose with it to put on the vehicle and both nose sections remained with the car. In a typical 1970s metal flake blue colour it was abandoned in a field in 1980 where it spent several years without drivetrain.

Len Bossard rescued it from there in 1992 and undertook a big restoration on the car. According to him the longest job of the whole rebuild was to chip the badly crazed blue silver flake finish off the fibreglass body. Bossard fitted a replacement front subframe complete with brakes and kept the rear one. Also the windscreen was cracked an needed replacing and it took a while to find a company that could reproduce one. In the Summer of 1994 the Maya (with its Camber nose section) was on its wheels again in a new bright red paint.

Not much later, the restored Maya GT attracted the interest of well known Japanese Mini collector Kazuo Maruyama and the car found a new home in Tokyo where Maruyama added it to his Mini derivatives shrine. The registration number was sold and Maruyama parked it outside one of his warehouses. It was there that I photographed it some years ago. Unfortunately, it has hardly seen any use since its arrival in Japan, and the restored car will in fact need another restoration to become roadworthy once again.

The Maya GT under restoration in Len Bossard's workshop in 1992

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Just finished in a bright new coat of red paint. The restoration took over two years

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

And the Maya GT as it is now in Tokyo. The car has not been used since and is unregistered

Picture Jeroen Booij

Interior is pretty much neglected. Despite hot weather it does rain in Japan, too

Picture Jeroen Booij

There is a mysterious (chassis?) plate under the engine bay (top left) which says 'M/M 19746'

Picture Jeroen Booij

UPDATE 26 april 2012: the original owner has got in contact with me and sent over some pictures of when it was in his ownership. He also made the chassis plate. Click here for the story

Wanted: Alternative Cars no.1

Before I go to the binder's I need to complete my collection of Alternative Cars magazines. I am only looking for the first issue, dated Spring 1979, and would love to buy it from you or swap it for any other magazine that I have or even a signed copy of my book. Drop me a line at jeroen@jeroenbooij.com if you can help.

UPDATE 20 September 2011: I have not one, but two copies now! Who'd like to buy a spare one?

Prisoner Moke survives

It's been a while since I saw the television series of The Prisoner but Patrick McGoohan, as Number 6, made a crushing impression in his dark blue jacket with white edging driving a Lotus Seven. And then there was the groovy title song, the setting of the village (Portmeirion, Wales) and the funky Mini Mokes being used as taxis that seemed to go nowhere except for the village square. You may not qualify them as Mini derivatives, but in fact they are said to have been modified by Bill Wood and Les Pickett of Wood & Pickett fame. Yup, they were the guys who coachbuilt Minis with Mercedes Pullman headlights, onboard telephones and burr walnut headlinings.

Four Prisoner Mokes are said to have been built and only one of them (registration CFC 916C) appeared to have survived in the hands of a Prisoner fan. So what a surprise to learn that another Prisoner Moke just came to the light in The Netherlands!

The car, registration HLT 709C - the number can be seen briefly in one ofthe episodes - has not been used for decades and comes with many of the original items such as the Surrey top, rear spats and even the penny farthing decal on its bonnet. Despite perhaps not being a proper Mini derivative I'd say (after last year's miracle) this is definitely a contender for best find of this year.

Update 27 June: Just went to have a look at the car and it certainly looks as if it is the real thing. More to follow.

'CFC 916C', here in Portmeirion in 1993, seemed to be the only Prisoner Moke surviving...

...until this one came to the light in The Netherlands. Surrey top seems original

Interior trim misses but rear mud flaps are a clear hint to car's originality. As is number

Mystery Mini derivative (12)

Yes, it's another Mystery Mini derivative, and, yes, it's another Mini Moke lookalike. But what is this one called? It comes with no clues at all. At first sight I believed it to be a modified ASD Hobo but I am not so sure about that anymore. The picture was sent to me by Roald Rakers, who has no idea either. Drop me a line if you do recognize it. Oh, and do have a look at the other Mystery Mini derivatives by clicking at the 'Mini Mystery derivative' label below (or here) if you like as there remain several nuts that need cracking.

Blunt styling and invisible number plate make this Moke pretender even more mysterious

Hat tip to Roald Rakers once again

Minis at Le Mans: 1966

The Mini Marcos' finest hour? That has to be the 1966 Le Mans race that started on June, 19 that year on the hallowed circuit de la Sarthe with an unlikely French equipe.
It was former professional deep sea diver Jean-Claude Hrubon who had a garage in Levallois, a Paris suburb, where he focussed on Minis. When Hrubon paid a visit to the Racing Car Show in London in January 1966 he was struck by the Mini Marcos and decided to buy a very early shell with the idea to build it up as an endurance race car. Together with mechanic Claude Plisson he did just so and the car was shaken down at Montlhery on 2 April, where the engine blew. A new engine was hastily installed and the little racer made it to the Le Mans test day on 4 April where the engine blew once again due to overheating, but where it never the less was fast enough to qualify for the race in June, too. In between it did another race at Monza on the 23rd of May, too!

At the Le Mans 24 hours race the car (start number 50, as on test day) was driven by French rally driver and racer Claude Ballot-Lena and Accesory shop owner and Mini racer Jean-Louis Marnat, who both set constant lap times in the dry. Jem Marsh, who was at the race too, said to Motor Sport magazine later: "I had nothing to do with the preparation of the car and was horrified when I saw it. I didn't think it would last a lap. I went back to the Motor hospitality unit convinced that it wouldn't finish, and did my best to distance myself from it." (...) "I don't know if this is true, but I heard that Alec Issigonis was appalled at this funny little egg-shaped Mini and went home. Anyway, at 3am the car was still going and by this time I'd had a bit to drink so I changed my tune completely, saying how great the Mini Marcos was. In the early morning it started raining heavily and one of the drivers was really erratic: his lap times were all over the place. Off I went to the pits to beg him to slow him down in order to ensure that he ran the distance..."

Fortunately the French drivers did that and finished just in time to become 15th overall, and only British car (of only three) to finish. According to Marsh they should have won the Motor Trophy for that, "But we had French drivers, so weren't eligible, apparantly." It is said that the French team had nearly failed to qualify as every entry had to do a certain percentage of the winning's car distance (this system disqualified Chris Lawrence's Deep Sanderson three years earlier - click here for the complete story) and the Mini Marcos had only just managed to do so when it slowed down. It made an average of 89.7mph (143.5 km/h) and did 258 laps in 24 hours. Enough to become perhaps world's most legendary Mini derivative, but perhaps its mysterious disappearance (see here) helped a bit to achieve that status, too.

UPDATE 9 December 2016: The car has been found! Click here
Regular updates on the restoration of the 1966 Le Mans Mini Marcos here

The Mini Marcos Le Mans car is built up here in Hrubon's workshop in Levallois 

On their way to shake down in April 1966. Note small wheel arches and Hrubon works van

Fill 'er up s'il vous plait! Famous Mini Marcos racer in the Le Mans paddock

Opposition was overwhelming with no less than 15 Fords and 14 Ferraris

Picture: l'Automobile

Mini Marcos did well between much bigger machines. It qualified 55th to finish 15th

The most famous of all Mini derivatives in the most famous of all bends?

Bitten by the Bison (4)

Don't think our handy man 'Buffalo Bill' has been drooling around lately. In fact, he has finally found a rare set of rear tyres for the Mini Lamborghini: the CJC Bison. He writes: "The back wheels and tyres look great, I just need to save up for some front tyres now. Note the polished edge on the rims, it took ages but makes the wheels look great! Also, bought a spray to try and touch in some of the worse areas - most I am going to leave - patina ain't it? I filled and painted the little bumper and it is a perfect colour match - Alfa Rosso red. I have also started trimming the dash, but rain stopped play."

Chunky tyres suit wide arches well. Note craftsmanship on polished edges!

The thread may look simple, but Avon rear tyres (245/50/13!) are not cheap 

Bulanti owner calls in

Wow! This is what I have set up this blog for. Kevin Boole, who sent me his lovely Bulanti story (see here) e-mailed me earlier today, writing: "It is amazing what the world wide web can do to aid research", only to receive another message from Australia two hours later that threw a new light on the case.

This time it came from Henry Draper. Henry wrote: "Hi Jeroen, I have just looked at your blog re Bulantis. I am the owner of two of them and also some body moulds. I have had the original alloy bodied one for a few years. It is the one shown in the youtube hillclimb shots (as here). I have never had that one running, it needs some work but is complete. The other I have only bought recently from Sydney. Unfortunately I got very little history with it as the owner was in a nursing home with Alzheimer and his wife and son could not tell me a lot. It did come with a spare Cooper S motor and a turbo set-up which perhaps indicates it is the car in your blog. It is painted purple now though! I did get this one running and have driven it a few hundred yards but no brakes and it had been unused for some time so it also needs some TLC."

"I don’t know when this will happen as there is quite a list of projects here. I have just bought a JCW Mini Challenge race car to play with (and a written off one for spares) and I also have 1964 Morris Cooper S historic racer, 1961 Morris Mini Minor tarmac rally car, Mini Marcos, Ex works (maybe) rally car and a brand new 1978 mini Pick-up shell - never used. When the weather is better down here and I have time I might be able to get the Bulantis out and take some pics for you if you are interested."

You bet I am! Thanks Henry, and Kevin once again!

One more historic picture of the Bulanti prototype. New pics are 

hopefully to follow from current owner Henry Draper