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| Why Minis? |
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Originally, we had Minis because that's what our parents bought us for our first
car each. Well, of course, "The Italian Job" had something to do with it... We were instantly
hooked. Of course, the best thing for any boy racer is 'personalising' their
car, which we did with almost every one we owned.
Here's the pictures - most very poor quality having been scanned from quite old,
faded photos...
This first shot shows the last three we all owned at the same time. The black
one is mine, the blue one is my twin brother's (Dick) and the white one is my older brothers (Andrew).
Andrew's is a pre-reg 1960-something Mk. I - a very early model. When he
bought it, it was 30-something years old, yet only had a few thousand miles on
the clock. It's previous owner was a vicar's wife who used it to go shopping
once a week...
Note in the pictures above the many oil patches on my parents driveway.
| 1380 |
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This started life as a pretty tidy 1275, but I spun the big-end bearings so decided to
rebuild the engine. However, while 'shopping' at a nearby performance parts
shop - Avonbar  - I noticed they
had a second-hand 1380 lump for sale and a project was born... 
So, a few return trips to Avonbar later, I ended up with a 1380 with lightened and
balanced, well, just about everything. This was installed by me and my
Brother-in-law in my Granny's garage...
Notable on that car were
the shitty bucket seats I picked up for a fiver each - which I re-upholstered myself
using beer towels half-inched from various local pubs...
When I got my first 'proper' job, with a company car, I sold this to a
mate. He couldn't handle the maintenance (the twin 1½" SUs had to be
balanced almost weekly) and swapped it for a 2CV. I never
forgave him for that...
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| 1275 |
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This was my first car, but when I (erm, cough) took a year off from driving, I
sold it to Dick. He added the wheels & arches, Cooper grill and spots.
It started life as a bog-standard 998, but Dick picked up a 'Gold Seal' 1275 lump
from the local scrap yard and transplanted it.
The engine swap was memorable. When we arrived with a borrowed van to collect
the replacement engine, the guys at the scrap yard had simply cut the entire front of the
donor car with a welding torch. So, we stripped off the bodywork, leaving the
engine, wheels, suspension, etc. in place on the sub-frame. We then disconnected
everything from the current car, lifted the bodywork off it's subframe, wheeled it away
and simply wheeled the replacement subframe into position, dropped the bodywork down onto
it and bolted it all up again. Nice. As a side-note, this meant that
his car gained the 12" disk brakes from the 1275, which is why he had to buy
those new Revolutions; the 10" wheels won't fit over 12" brakes.
Other notable modifications to this car were the colour-coordinated bucket seats and the excellent
Innocenti-style dash he picked up on a 'shopping' trip.
The dash came as-is, with no wiring diagram or any documentation - he had to
work it all out for himself...
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