Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2025 i MiniWorld

It’s always been my aim to celebrate diversity within the pages of MiniWorld, and I think the broad spread of weird and wonderful things we're featuring this month demonstrates that very neatly. After all, it takes a kaleidoscope of enthusiasts to make a scene. Some of you will be fastidious and painstaking concours purists, others will be off-the-wall modders committed to pioneering uniqueness, and there’s a cornucopia of proclivities in-between. That’s what keeps the Mini family so vibrant and welcoming: we may be approaching this from different angles, but we're all in it for the same reasons – passion, nostalgia, celebrating old memories while making new ones. The pair of vans we have this month sum it all up. The grey Mini Van on p.52 has been tastefully restored to…

You could say that Ian Viles has his father to thank for his obsession with Minis, which all began back in 1979. “I really wanted a motorbike, but my dad didn’t approve and told me to get a car instead,” he smiles. “I ended up with an MOT-failure 1969 Mk2 Mini which arrived on a trailer with the sills hanging off.” Predictably, upon witnessing his son’s new purchase, Ian’s dad swiftly protested “that’s not what I meant!” but the planned project would begin regardless. “With a lot of help from my old friend, Roger ‘Sid’ Sydenham, we carried out all the repairs and he went on to teach me how to drive in it too,” Ian recalls. “A few years later, I decided to restore the car again and with…

Negative camber I have recently modified the suspension of my 1983 Mini. I have fitted a set of Hi-Los and set them as low as possible without the tyres rubbing. I have also converted to 7.5" Cooper S discs and some 10" Minilite wheels. I am now toying with taking things a bit further and would like to know if fitting negative camber bottom arms to the front will further enhance the handling. If so, should I go for 1.5 degrees, 2.0 degrees or adjustable arms? The Mini is only used for classic runs and some fast road work. This really depends upon what you want from your Mini. You can certainly fit 1.5 degree negative bottom arms. If you are running the front suspension so that the top arms are…

While 25-year-old Harry Elshaw is without doubt a huge fan of the classic Mini today, he’s the first to admit that his admiration for these cars rubbed off from his father, Simon, who certainly pointed him in the right direction. “My dad worked in a garage when he was younger,” Harry tells us, "he’s always been really good at maintaining and fixing cars.” Like most kids whose dads are usually to be found tinkering with something in the garage, Harry would often help out, passing the spanners and observing. Then, one day, Simon announced he’d bought a project Mini which he planned to restore ready for when Harry hopefully passed his driving test some years later. “Just as he promised, he managed to complete the 1982 Mini City E in…

Genuine survivors don’t come along too often. As the years creak by and metal shows increasing keenness to slowly return to the elements from whence it came, original examples of solid and unrestored Minis become increasingly few and far between. Which makes Tom Ashby’s late-nineties Sportspack-equipped Cooper particularly special. “I am the car’s second owner, and have owned it for over sixteen years now,” he explains. “I got it for my 18th birthday, and back then it had just 26,000 miles on the clock.” Peeping at the dash today, we see that those little numbers have only spooled around to a mere 34,000. That works out to an average of around 500-ish miles a year throughout his ownership, which goes some way to explain its extraordinary tidiness and solidity. It…

It’s fair to say that Richard Farrell has been a fan of the classic Mini for as long as he can remember, and we’re pleased to report his passion for these iconic cars remains just as strong as ever. Even stepping back to his earliest memories, it seems a Mini wasn’t far away: “My dad, Jon Byne, had a Mk1 Mini at the time I was born,” says Richard. “He drove around in it for many years, and that car played a significant part of my 1960s childhood.” The former police Morris 850 saloon which went on to be used and abused like any other typical Mk1 ended up staying in the Farrell family long-term, eventually passing on to Richard in 1975 – and it’s now clocked up 170k miles!…

2025 JANUARY 18 Weekends in the Yard - Caffeine & Machine The Hut, Petersfield caffeineandmachine.com/whatson 26 Mini Fair Bingley Hall britishminiclub.co.uk/events/mini-fair 26 Classic Cars at the Carpenters The Carpenters Arms, Ilkeston www.carpentersarmsdaleabbey.co.uk/events FEBRUARY 6 Mod ‘n’ Mini Night Ace Café, London london.acecafe.com/monthly-meets 9 Coffees and Cars Great British Car Journey, Belper www.takona.co.uk/pages/coffees-and-cars MARCH 9 Old School Re:Fuel Five Bridges, Cullompton www.takona.co.uk/pages/coffees-and-cars 18 Modified Car Meet Squires Café, Leeds www.squires-cafe.co.uk/whats-on APRIL 6 Cars & Coffee on the Prom Rhos-on-Sea, Colwyn Bay www.carevents.com/uk/events/cars-and-coffee-on-the-prom-north-wales-12/ 12-13 Goodwood Members’ Meeting Goodwood Motor Circuit www.goodwood.com/motorsport/members-meeting MAY 3-4 Speed into Spring Shelsley Walsh www.shelsleywalsh.com/events-1/speed-into-spring-2025 3-5 CMC Riviera Run Pentewan Sands cmcrivierarun.co.uk 10-11 Retro Rides Weekender Goodwood Motor Circuit retroridesevents.com/weekender 11 British Mini Day Himley Hall britishminiclub.co.uk/events/himley-hall 18 Chiltern Hills Rally & Car Show Weedon, Aylesbury chilternhillsrally.org.uk JUNE…

It’s not every day that you come across a 1967 Morris woody wagon with a sprinkle of steampunk styling that has 468bhp, is it? For me this is definitely a first, and when we saw this insane track weapon at the Los Angeles Auto Show, we knew that the guys behind the build have to be slightly insane (in a good way, of course) to even consider building something this unhinged. And guess what they named this build? Mini Mayhem – which is a very accurate name for such a mind-blowing project. The guys responsible for getting the global Mini community taking notice are MADNESS Autoworks based in Austin, Texas. They are a one-stop-shop that will take your car from mild to wild, should you want to go to the…

Sustainable fuels at the Members' Meeting Goodwood has announced that the race schedule for the 82nd Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport will run entirely on sustainable fuels. Last year, the Goodwood Revival became the world’s first historic motorsport event to run all of its races solely on sustainable fuel, and in 2025 the Members’ Meeting will follow suit, requiring all competitors to use a fuel with a minimum of 70% advanced sustainable components. There’s a wide variety of races on the schedule to thrill spectators, with the most relevant to our interests being the Whitmore Cup. Making a much-anticipated return for 2025, this race features pre-'66 sub-2.0-litre Touring Cars including the likes of the Lotus Cortina, Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA and, of course, the Mini Cooper S –…

MOKE International and its Electric MOKE have set a new automotive industry benchmark, becoming the world’s first EV by a low-volume vehicle manufacturer to receive California Air Resources Board (CARB) approval; marking an unprecedented achievement for this vehicle type. This significant endorsement not only validates the Electric MOKE’s environmental credentials, but also opens doors for nationwide availability in the US. Built in the UK using a majority of British and European parts, the Electric MOKE is an example of forward-thinking British engineering and premium craftsmanship. Customers based in the US who are eager to reserve their Electric MOKE can secure their place on the waiting list with a reservation fee of $990. MOKE International is already making deliveries in Florida through MOKE Fort Lauderdale; deliveries to customers in California and…

Although it might seem strange to consider buying a British-made icon that’s spent the bulk of its life on the other side of the world rather than in leafy UK suburbia, there’s a good reason why so many Minis have made their way back west from Japan. Without the Japanese market, the Mini would have almost certainly had a shorter life. And now, the same market is doing a turn as a source of good Minis to boost the UK scene. Minis were sold as early as 1964 in Japan via two official dealers, Nichiei Jidosha for Morris, and Capital Enterprise for Austin. Stricter emission regulations would slow the business down, but the likes of Mini Maruyama in Tokyo – established in 1973 – helped fill the void by privately…

HEATER HOSES If you are carrying out a full or running resto on a Mini a lot of time will be taken up refurbishing items such as the heater. These things need to be factored in early in the restoration process as it is all too easy to put such items to one side thinking they will need minimal work. In practice these things take up a lot of time and if not done early can bring on surprisingly lengthy delays to completing the car. And in some cases, parts will end up being refitted without being restored, and quite apart from any visual detraction this usually leads to problems later on. So, when planning major work, factor the smaller components in throughout the process and also remember that in…

Looking back to the 1960s and '70s, enthusiastic Mini owners hankered after more power – either in the form of a Stage 2 tuning kit or similar, or a Cooper and better still Cooper S engine. 1275cc was the ultimate. Now, 1275S engines only cropped up fairly occasionally, especially in the early days and so the 1098 engine from the ADO16 1100 – which gave a decent power increase over the 850 – and, moving into the '70s, the 1275 non S engine from the Austin/Morris 1300 became quite popular upgrades. With a 1275 engine, add a decent head, a pair of 1¼" SUs and Cooper S power was achieved for a fraction of the price of a used S. A lot of those engines would have been bought used…

Just four years after the Competitions Department was opened at MG’s Headquarters in Abingdon, BMC launched the Mini in 1959, an example of which came first in the October Mini Miglia Rally driven by Pat Moss with future Competitions Manager Stuart Turner as navigator. Within five years Paddy Hopkirk had won the Monte Carlo Rally outright driving a Mini Cooper S, a jaw-dropping achievement. But how did it all begin? In the early 1920s, MG’s Oxford-based business known locally as ‘GEES’ grew exponentially as demand for their exciting sporting-type cars increased, and in 1929 the MG Car Company was established within the Nuffield Group. However, space was at a premium so MG company owner Cecil Kimber took out a lease on the accommodation belonging to the Abingdon-based leather company Pavlova’s…