Customised Minis etc...

[P5BNij]

colin_p said:

P5BNij said:

colin_p said:

Some lovely stuff there.

What kind of witchery is going on with the one with the Webbers (or Dellortoes or whatever) at the front of the head?

I assume it was / is as simple as reversing the flow and using a re-profiled cam?

Thanks Colin - it never occurred to me to ask about those carbs on the front, I've seen that car a few times and never thought about it! I do know it started out as a 1970 Mk3 850 though.

This morning I picked up another Mini which I'm planning to customise once I've given it a thorough going over, it's a cherry red Mini 30 which has already had a replacement engine and 'box and a complete new front end etc. I drove it home in the wet and I'd forgotten how twitchy they can be on 12'' tyres, I'll be changing the set up to 10'' wheels asap for starters.

I don't think 10's will clear the late(r) front brakes?

I'll be changing those too

[P5BNij]

Let's see if thumbsnap is still working….

[P5BNij]

[P5BNij]

[P5BNij]

[P5BNij]

Nice pair there Michael!

Just found out that Somerford Minis are now selling brand new 6''x10'' JA Pierce mag alloys, pricey but very, very tempting....

http://www.somerfordmini.co.uk/eshop/index.php?mai...

[P5BNij]

Edited by P5BNij on Monday 31st August 20:47

[P5BNij]

[P5BNij]

£500 would get you a dodgy logbook and a blurred photo of a bare shell on ebay these days

[P5BNij]

colin_p said:

P5BNij said:

£500 would get you a dodgy logbook and a blurred photo of a bare shell on ebay these days

Hmmmm....

I've still got the log book and vin plate from my dear departed and long since scrapped 1974 MK3.

How much is a shell these days

Brand new about £8k I think! Dare say your Mk3 is no longer on the system though.... I've still got the old green log book from my 1970 reg'd Mk2 1000, plus the badges and few other small bits. I remember phoning Mini Machine in 1992 to ask how much it would cost to restore, they gave me an estimate of £3,500 which was a lot of money at the time, looking back I wish I'd borrowed the money and had it done. It was maroon with tan trim and I had plans to fit a Webasto sunroof, Miniltes, period dash etc but it was so rotten I ended up scrapping it the following year, pity really as Mk2 850s and 1000s are rarer than Coopers now. Early Mk3s are quite rare now too, some that come up for sale have often been reshelled.

Early South African built 1970 Mk3 here with a larger engine than the 1000 it was born with....

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Classic-Mini-Rust-free-...

The wheels on it are rare Cromodoras, more often found on Innocentis.

Edited by P5BNij on Thursday 10th September 12:57

[P5BNij]

Another W&P Mk3 S....

[P5BNij]

A (very) brief glimpse of Ringo's Hooper hatchback Cooper S here, filmed in July '67....

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+the+b...

[P5BNij]

colin_p said:

P5BNij...

I've recently had a clear out prior to moving house and found my porn stash of old Mini World magazines. They date from and include the first issue in 1991 up to about 1993'ish.

They are yours if you want them.

Thanks for the kind offer Colin but I already have a complete set of Miniworlds

[P5BNij]

A 1965 Radford Cooper S used in an episode of 'The Persuaders!' called 'Take Seven', filmed in the Autumn of 1970 and first shown on 1st October 1971....

Edited by P5BNij on Monday 30th August 11:28

[P5BNij]

Pat H said:

I owned this modified Innocenti Cooper 1300 back in the early 1990s.

It went really well, but was completely rotten.

Once the rust became too much, it sat in a corner of the garage for a couple of years until, in an act of unforgivable vandalism I cut it into pieces with an angle grinder, ferried it to the council tip in the back of my brother's Fiesta and sent the V5 back to Swansea.

The only evidence of its existence are these crummy photos and the steering wheel, which is hanging up in the garage....

What a shame - the doors alone with their quarterlights would be worth hundreds of pounds each now! My very first Mini (also my first car) was a 1977 Belgian built 1000 which by the time it came to the UK in '83 had been fitted with some Innocenti parts. Sadly I scrapped it and should have stripped the the Inno bits out of it.

[P5BNij]

Xj220 said:

Dear OP,

Never seen so many photos of so many different mini's together.
Thanks for that.

And I thought i was crazy for these tiny things but you are on another level as the 15 minis owned by you are proof.

I wanted to ask regarding the engine coz I have seen these fitted with superbike engines and sometimes toyota engines i think. Isn't that better so parts are easy to find?

And all these mint concors condition kinda defeats the purpose of the easy nature of these things dont you think?

Keep up the good work,
Regards.

Thanks - it's a bit of a disease really, Mini ownership. Parts supply for Minis has been excellent for years, you can buy virtually everything brand new so I don't see any advantage in fitting non Mini engines aside from the extra power available, but each to their own.

Concours or not, I don't really mind, it takes all sorts. My Mk2 S was restored seven years ago and isn't concours but I'd like it to be better, with this in mind I'm still going to get the engine bay refurbished properly at some point.

[P5BNij]

Bertie2000 said:

A really great collection of iconic photographs!
A couple of stand out cars, both W&P are 5 OMAR having first seen it in a mini book years ago, it is interesting seeing a picture of it being built here.
Also YYU 292H is shown several times showing it different colours, it was recently sold on an auction site, does any one now who is now the very fortunate owner?

As far as I know YYU 292H is still in the UK, but I don’t know who the new owner is. It has a fascinating history behind it, it was ordered new in 1969 by the Duke Of Bedford, it left Longbridge in El Paso Beige with a Snowberry White roof and went straight to W&P’s workshop in Park Royal for its ‘Margrave’ makeover into dark blue, by 1973 it had been bought by Paul McCartney’s tour manager / guitar tech John Hammel. He kept it for a few years ferrying various rock stars about in it and in 1977 / 78 sold it Denny Laine, Macca’s guitarist in Wings. He only kept it for eight months before selling it back to John. I think it was around this time that John had it resprayed in lurid lime green, he changed his mind about the colour again and had it resprayed burgundy. Fast forward a few more years and John sold it to a guy called Andy, this was in the mid to late ‘90s and It was featured in Minimagazine in 1998. I saw and photographed it at Stoneleigh in 1999 while it was still burgundy. A few years later Andy sold it back to John, meaning John owned it for three separate periods, it was during his third ownership that he decided to have it restored back to the dark blue that W&P had applied back in 1969. It appeared on the cover of Miniworld mag in December 2009 with a very good article on the car within. Since then John sold the car one more time and it has passed through two more owners, possibly three until it was sold at auction fairly recently

[P5BNij]

Just found this Evening Standard shot of Britt Ekland with her W&P Mk2 S, taken in London on 19th March 1974...

[P5BNij]

Bobupndown said:

Some very tasteful and some very tasteless modified minis on this thread. Personally prefer standard ones these days. I have a mk1 850 of 1963 vintage in almost exactly factory spec, have done the modified versions when I was much younger.

Well it takes all sorts, ideas and 'fashions' come and go. With nearly 5.5m built, it would be boring if they all stayed the same. I spotted an unrestored 997 Cooper for sale this week and quite fancy it, but I just know that if I bought it I'd still want to modify / customise it a bit.

[P5BNij]

Nice video of a 1970 Mk3 Cooper S...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejBe0VBb2ho