Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2019 i Mini Magazine

The Mini scene is rich in great stories, and we've done our best to collect some cracking ones for you this month. It was an enormous pleasure to go and meet Ray and Spencer Cheevers this month, and get the chance to take a closer look at the incredible customised Mini Super they've just finished restoring. You can read the full story on page 42, but I think it's brilliant that a car like this has not only survived, but it's done it with most of the unique touches that its builder worked into the car back in 1969 still intact. Add into the mix that the builder was in fact Ray, and you'll understand why this story is so unique. Still on a customised theme, we're glad to see…

• Hagerty Insurance and Stowe School have worked together to produce a special film celebrating two anniversaries – 60 years of the Mini and 50 years since the classic film, The Italian Job. Produced largely in secret, it was revealed for the first time to surprised parents and other guests at the school’s annual Speech Day on May 25. The film itself opens to a scene of doors being blown off, and school exam papers being hurriedly thrown into the back of one of three, red, white, and blue Minis. They zip off but are soon followed by the expected authorities… cue a dramatic chase involving handbrake turns, feature cars and charming evasions, not to mention some fantastic panning shots of the three cars driving around various bits of the…

• Tanya Field is working hard alongside BBC Radio Oxford on a 60 Mini/MINI cavalcade from the Oxford Mini Plant to a local car show. It’s taking place on bank holiday Monday 26th August, exactly 60 years since launch! The cavalcade will follow a 6 mile route, the first half of which will follow the route which according to Peter Tothill was the first road trip ever made by a Mini. For this part, Oxfordshire County Council are managing the traffic so the Minis can be kept together. BBC Radio Oxford have organised a drone to capture the event. Tanya is looking to find people with interesting Mini stories or interesting Minis to feature on BBC Radio Oxford. If you would like to be involved and have a great story…

With tickets sold out in a little over nine hours, the annual London to Brighton Mini Run continues to be a must-attend event for Mini fans from all over Europe. An impressive 2150 official entrants and many unofficial ones headed to the South Coast for the culmination of London and Surrey MOC’s annual flagship event on May 19. Minis were lined up along the entire length of Madiera Drive, accompanied by an abundance of trade stands and various club stands. They were joined by an impressive number of Show and Shine entrants. The various categories were as keenly contested as ever, with Paul Young’s Pick-up awarded the car of the show award. There were some notable celebrity appearances too. Edd China, fresh from his appearance at Beaulieu Autojumble the previous…

BEAN MOBILE Name: James Martin Car: 1992, Mini Mayfair Location: Alton, Hampshire • When James Martin’s older brother, Shane, asked him what car he’d like to drive when he is old enough, James expressed an interest in the classic Mini (taking some inspiration from Mr Bean!). Shane is a classic car enthusiast, so took it upon himself to find him a Mini shell that he could restore with James. The Mini has been restored front to back and was purchased to help James integrate outside and with people (Something he struggles with due to his autism). He has made all of the decisions regarding the look and colour of the car and the Mayfair will be James’ road car when he passes his test. Shane, cousin Sean, dad nick, mum…

Whatever you might be thinking the inspiration for this Mini was, we’re going to bet you’re off by a mile. You’re thinking the builder was looking to make a statement in line with the trends of the era that spawned it, where wide and glittery was great, but wider and blinding was even better. Or that a lower frontal profile, a hot Cooper engine under the bonnet and banded steels could make it the fastest car in in the Carlos Fandango Grand Prix. Right? No, so so wrong... “I bought it as a car to do up and use. In those days we weren’t too flush for money, so if you could buy a car cheaper that needed work and you could do it up yourself, you just did it,”…

As a package, the Mini was a clever car, no doubt about that. But could it be improved upon? Well, there have literally been hundreds of budding car designers who thought they could do just that and started enhancing Issigonis’ baby from the early 1960s on. But the fact is that very few succeeded. Many of the Mini derivatives they came up with may have looked smart on paper but they were doomed to fade into obscurity, leaving behind a trial of confiscations, near bankruptcies and all kinds of other trouble. Their instigators had to return to their mundane daytime jobs as butchers, bakers or bank clerks. There is, of course, an exception to this rule. It is the unlikely Mini based car you see here. The man behind it…

COOKING Q I recently undertook my first long motorway journey in my X-reg Rover Cooper Classic. After driving for two hours the water temperature started to creep up above normal, sometimes almost hitting the red. I found that this could be remedied by dropping down below 4000 revs, however this left me cruising rather slowly in the inside lane. I stopped shortly afterwards and checked the oil and water, both of which were fine. The coolant is nice and clear, and none has been used since I bought the car in March. The car is unmodified and has very few miles on the clock. It was a hot day in the high 70s. Is the late Cooper’s tiny alloy radiator really up to the job? It looks more like an…

When I went to pick the Elf up, previous owner Alex and I had attempted to re-pressurise the Hydrolastic suspension, purely for the sake of making loading onto the trailer a whole lot easier. With flat suspension, the Elf has zero ground clearance, and the rear wheels foul the arches. With a hydro pump, we managed to raise the car on the nearside, and as we worked on the other, the first side cried enough, split a pipe and dumped its fluid all over the floor. Then very shortly after, the offside joined the party and burst. We made up some makeshift bumpstops out of workshop towels, loaded the car and decided to think about it later. As a parting shot, Alex pointed out that on one of his other…

The 997 Cooper MkI is considered by many as the Holy Grail of the Mini movement. John Lee was lucky enough to get hold of a 1962 Austin Cooper 997 in 1981 but it took him 25 years before he had the time to devote to the restoration. John is firmly of the belief that a car this rare should be restored as closely to original spec as possible and would rather put the time into getting the original parts working again than opt for modern replacements or quick fixes. The Austin Mini Cooper came into production in September 1961 (along with the Morris Mini Cooper). It took a little experimentation and some stringent testing but Cooper and Issigonis eventually came up with a car that was nimble, as well…

• With a sales rate of 75 per cent and a total spend of £4.59 million, Historics’ latest sale on May 18 proved to be a success - an impressive 172 cars and bikes went under the hammer. Attracting plenty of interest was this 2667-mile 1979 Mini 1000 Automatic in Leyland White. A real survivor, it still had the quality control stickers on the brake backplates and an unmarked interior. At a sale price of £14,716, it was close to the upper end of its £11,000-£15,000 estimate.…

• ‘60 Years of a British Icon’ is the latest addition to the Scrapbook series from Porter Press, the story of this unique little car is broken up into accessible nuggets and supported by an extensive array of archive and contemporary photographs, to illustrate just what makes the Mini so special, so loved and such fun! Author Martin Port has worked in automotive publishing for 18 years and has owned a variety of classics, from a Mini Metro to a Morris Minor, and, of course, the legendary Mini. The ‘Self Preservation Society : 50 Years of The Italian Job’ by Matthew Field is based on more than 50 in-depth interviews with the cast and crew, and beautifully illustrated with hundreds of never-before-seen photographs and production documents from the filmmakers’ private…

The Minis were the star performers at Thruxton over the 18-19 May weekend, in support of the hugely popular televised BTCC headline act, and earning praise all round after a quartet of hugely entertaining races The Se7ens and S-Class went first on Saturday afternoon, in a typical Thruxton slipstreamer, it came down to a last-lap swarm into the chicane, Darren Thomas coming out the other side with a small advantage, with Joe Thompson and Dom Burger touching wheelarches side-by-side through the Club chicane to take the remaining podium places. In S-Class, Scott Kendall led from the class pole, with teammate Connor O’Brien getting the better of newcomer Damien Harrington. Amazingly, the Miglia/Libre encounter was even better, and after countless changes of lead, it was Chris Morgan who executed the perfect…

The Mini Cooper Register’s National Day at Beaulieu is always guaranteed to attract a great selection of Minis, and without a doubt, it always plays host to the greatest gathering of Mini exotica. This was not lost on the 3000 visitors who decided to make the annual pilgrimage to the grounds of the National Motor Museum, and it proved to be an event fit to celebrate 60 years of the Mini. The ex-Works display is always second to none, and this year, there were a couple of notable debuts. The World Cup Rally Car OBL 46F has recently been restored by Paul Stanworth to its final competitive incarnation. Sitting amongst its more familiar white over red Abingdon prepared brethren, it drew a steady crowd all day. The event was compered…

Will Harris has come a long way since his dad bought him his first Mini when he was 18. He didn’t know how to replace a wheel back then and spent an early run trying to get the car into fifth and wondering why the gears kept grinding! Fast forward a decade and Will has fabricated his own custom subframe and designed and fitted a 1.8 K-Series to his Clubman project. He certainly knows one end of a spanner from the other… even if these spanners do have a habit of flying out of his grasp at the most inopportune moments (a fact, clearly illustrated by the assorted chips in his Mini’s paintwork). Will takes the misfortune in good humour, and laughs as he tells us how he once managed…

Andy Saunders grew up in Bournemouth fascinated by the custom cars of the 1970s. By the time he was 16 he was customising his first car and only three years later he had finished his fourth. He now had the experience and the imagination to create something really radical; he was going to shorten a Mini. “Everybody said it couldn’t be done,” Andy remembers, “but that just spurred me on to prove them wrong.” For £60 he bought a MkI, 1964 non-runner which had been painted with a brush. “I started to cut it up thinking that I had little to lose if it all went wrong. I cut the floor at the heel board and again along the rear of the cross member and based the whole build on…

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll be familiar with our 1969 Riley Elf. We’ve been working through to get the car back on the road after a long lay up, and have been paying close attention to all safety related systems. Last month we rebuilt the back brakes, this month we give the front end the same treatment. Front drums are not quite so common as they once were. All post ‘84 Minis were fitted with the 8.4 inch disc set up - earlier than this, only the performance models enjoyed the improved braking performance of discs. Many specialists can now offer a complete kit to upgrade your car to discs for very reasonable prices, so a lot of owners have taken the chance to ditch the drums. It’s true…

No racing for me after Goodwood as I was out of money and the car is apart for a gearbox mend, so I've been trying to tidy up. By chance, one of the local enthusiasts who already has several 'low volume production cars' expressed an interest in my Marcos. So to give me space and to allow funds to flow, off it went. I have to express guilt at never re-commissioning it in 15 years; it had all its original bills from day one, spec as built bar power unit, lights and steering wheel. I have another plastic wonder to do though... However, as a day out, I went to the thoroughly refreshing Mk1 Performance Conversions track day at Blyton. I took my seven-port to give mate Steve something to…

• The British Motor Museum can reveal a number of exciting new developments regarding the National Metro & Mini Show which is being staged as part of its Mini 60th celebrations. Adding to the festival feel The Fab Beatles, will be performing a live tribute act throughout the day. Those camping on the Saturday night can also enjoy evening entertainment from The Barn-Ettes. Tom Caren, Shows Manager at the British Motor Museum said “Our exciting plans for this year’s National Metro & Mini show are really shaping up. We have some great entertainment laid on for our visitors as well as the chance to see hundreds of both iconic marques including ‘621 AOK’, the very first Mini produced, ‘X411 JOP’ the last ever Classic Mini to be produced, and the…

Excited is an understatement! It had been a long time since our last rally in November, and we were so excited. This was our first rally with our new main sponsor and support crew J and S Handling Ltd (Forklifts) and Elk Training Solutions owned by Antony Elkes. We also have the continued fantastic support of Mini Sport who have once again provided the team with an engine for this season. Another new sponsor is KDH insurance Brokers Ltd. We are a lucky team and could not do what we do with out the support of them all! We landed on the Isle of Man, and were allowed two days of reconnaissance, I had the first day Wednesday with Antony checking the notes with me, as my left hand woman…

4th-7th July Festival of Speed Held in the beautiful parkland surrounding Goodwood House, the Festival of Speed is a celebration of motorsport. Giving you the perfect opportunity to get up close to the cars and bikes as they blast up the Hillclimb track and enjoy unrestricted access to the incredible machines and the drivers who made them famous. www.goodwood.co.uk 14th July Mega Mini Meet 2019 Around 14 Mini clubs from all over the country will be descending on Lytham Hall for you to come and marvel at. There will be a mix of over 250 classic Minis and BMW MINIs on display. Admission: £5 adults. Contact Lytham Hall, Lytham St Annes, Lancs. FY8 4JX for more info: 01253 736652. 20-21st July Brands Hatch Mini Festival There will be plenty to…

This Clubman, and its owner, Andy Bellamy, first appeared in the April 2012 issue of Mini Magazine as an ‘On The Job’ feature. Well, a lot of tarmac has passed under various Mini and Metro tyres since then. However, the good news is that Andy has completed the project. The Clubman is on the road. In fact, it’s been on the road since 2015. The reason it’s taken Andy so long (it was purchased as a rolling shell in late 2009), can be explained by the usual family and work commitments, having to do a lot of the work in a shipping container (as his garage was occupied by other projects for quite some time) and, more significantly, the amount of rust that resided in, on, and around the shell.…

“If you’re well prepared, you should be able to fit a carpet set in less than a day” The carpets in your average Mini have a pretty hard time. It takes a fastidious approach to protect them from everything the environment throws at them and even if you can reduce the impact of dirty shoes with over mats and regular cleaning, UV radiation will do its best to fade them and break them down, and let’s not start on the Mini’s ability to take on water... If you’re well prepared and depending on the model - later cars with more complex seats will take a little more time to strip down - you should be able to fit a complete new carpet set in less than a day. And it…

It was yellow when it should have been red. But my Corgi Mini Monte Carlo winner had a roofrack with two spare wheels and headlights made out of diamonds. I knew it was the best rally car in the whole world, as the French had learned to their cost. And it was built just down the road from where I was growing up. So when I did grow up I was going to have one. I was loyal to that plan all through my teenage dreams, though when I saw a Broadspeed GT in a school library book, I knew that one day I would have one of those too. Meanwhile, I had the mod clothes and the mod haircut - and the mod Mini Cooper would come along soon…

As I am still waiting for the primer to dry out on my car, several people have asked me why this should take so long. So let me tell you about what I have learned as I didn’t know either. The Marcos uses a fibreglass shell, which has or at least had some advantages - it’s light, strong, cheap, it doesn’t rust and can be repaired easily as long as you know what you are doing. So far so good. But it does have its downsides. One of them is that glass reinforced plastic absorbs the thinners used in primer and paint. This means that if it hasn’t fully dried out, it will continue doing so once it is sealed in paint. You can guess the result - bubbles will…