Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2024 i MiniWorld

Variety is what keeps the Mini scene vibrant. It may seem odd to outsiders, the fact that this little car which first broke cover sixty-five years ago can still continue to surprise and inspire, but when you’re deep inside the scene it really isn’t that strange at all. There’s surely no other car community that enjoys quite this level of passion, creativity, engineering prowess and imagination. This month we’re celebrating the diversity and vitality of the Mini spectrum with a colourful cavalcade of feature cars. Our cover star is a truly inspired creation, taking the humble Rio edition and updating it as a forthright pocket rocket with a clever twin-cam remix. New from Crafted Classics Tuning is their box-fresh Mk1 restomod, showcasing a clear vision of what’s possible when it…

MINI SPORT SECURITY SWIVEL LOCK COVER Maximise the security of your classic Mini with this swivel lock cover, designed exclusively for use with Mini Sport’s quick-release steering wheel boss. This no-nonsense security solution ensures that your Mini remains completely protected, safeguarding your car and deterring potential thieves with ease. £180 www.minisport.com TEX AUTOMOTIVE GASKET KITS Owners of classic Minis can now purchase complete sets of bottom-end gaskets from Tex Automotive. These high-quality kits contain all the gaskets you need to service or rebuild your engine’s bottom end. (Please note that these sets contain gaskets only, so oil seals are not included.) All these gaskets are manufactured in England and are ‘fit and forget’ items – ideal for peace of mind. Sets are available for the Mini 848cc, 997cc, 998cc, 1098cc…

It’s more than likely that the universe has a grand plan for us all. Life is so full of pleasing coincidences and unlikely quirks of fate that sometimes the peculiarity of it all can be almost overwhelming. Take Gary Davies and the Austin Seven that he’s owned since 1994: “I’d have almost certainly walked past this car as a five-year-old going to school, as it was registered in the same street as my school at that time in the early ’80s,” he tells us, and that’s a very pleasing example of the cosmos taking things full circle. Having once owned a 1975 Mini 850 that had been dragged out of someone’s garden, Gary found himself well versed in the quirks of day-to-day Mini life and the potential crumbliness thereof, and…

There’s a clear and inescapable truth behind why so many of us choose to putter around in classic cars. On paper, it makes no sense – they’re generally slower and less well-equipped than modern cars, less refined, more likely to break down or present us with huge bills at MOT time, less economical, less comfortable… why do we do this to ourselves? Well, for many, it’s because of what our parents drove. It doesn’t take a psychologist to figure out that if your folks had a Mini when you were growing up, and you find yourself buying such a thing in later life, you’re forging a clear bond between your grown-up reality and the misty-eyed halcyon days of youth. You were cheery and carefree, bundled up in the back of…

Mini Cooper Register’s France region, in conjunction with Club Mini Cooper Barcelona and the Association of Antique Vehicles of Andorra, have completed their inaugural drive through the Pyrenees. It all started with five Minis from the UK meeting up at Le Mans; the drivers took in a visit to the 24 Hours Museum, with its collection of cars dating from the beginning of the famous event in 1923, before leaving the city by the course on which the Rally had been held just a week before. A five-hour drive took the cars to the Creuse region and then on to Port Lauragais and the Canal du Midi to meet up with another UK Mini and two French Minis. After the drivers enjoyed a typical local cassoulet while making final adjustments…

The first festival in Mini history dedicated solely to the Mini Pickup variant took place at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon on July 27th, and the event was an absolute success with thirty Pickups in attendance. “I always dreamed of a festival dedicated to the Pickup,” says Dee Fragos of the Mini Pickup International Club (www.minipickup.club). “After our successful 60th anniversary at Gaydon a couple of years ago, it sparked my idea to bring PUPFest into fruition. Thanks to everybody who supported us, and we’ll see you at the next one.”…

2024 SEPTEMBER 14 Coffee Run Bicester Heritage https://collectingcars.com/events/coffee-run-bicester-heritage 14 Kop Hillclimb Princes Risborough https://kophillclimb.org.uk/ 14-15 Petrolheadonism Live Knebworth House https://petrolheadonism.live/ 15 Mini Fest Stanford Hall, Leicestershire www.britishminiclub.co.uk 15 Southport Classic & Speed Victoria Park, Southport www.southportclassicandspeed.com 21-22 Sywell Classic: Pistons & Props Sywell Aerodrome www.sywellclassic.co.uk 27 Great British Car Meet Ambergate, Belper https://greatbritishcarjourney.com/ 28 Rustival 2 British Motor Museum www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/whats-on/rustival-2 29 Oh So Retro The Rec, Margate www.ohsoretro.co.uk OCTOBER 1-10 The Italian Job Rome-Turin www.italianjob.com/the-italian-job 3 Mod ’n’ Mini Night Ace Café, London https://london.acecafe.com 5 Classic Drive & Ride Lakeland Motor Museum www.facebook.com/LakelandMotorMuseum 5 Equipe Classic Racing Super Sprint Silverstone www.silverstone.co.uk/events 5 Hill Climb Season Finale Prescott Hill Climb www.prescotthillclimb.co.uk/event-details/hill-climb-season-finale 6 All Mini Breakfast Meet Royal Ordnance Depot, Northants NN7 4PS www.classiclineinsurance.co.uk/new-all-mini-breakfast-meet-announced-for-2024/ 6 October Scramble Bicester Heritage https://bicesterheritage.co.uk/events/october-scramble-2024 13 Old-School…

The mighty British Motor Corporation never made a coupé version of the Mini of its own, but you can wonder if that was another chance missed. When the Mini came out in August 1959 the market for sporty specials based on mostly pre-war Ford, Austin and Morris chassis had just reached a peak. But the launch of the Mini turned much of that upside-down. The Mini was clever and cheap while it outperformed many contemporary bigger cars, let alone those technically outdated specials. And so it didn’t take the enthusiasts long to find out that the Mini proved to be the best possible new base for their beloved specials. But before sleek and mostly fibreglass-bodied variants were unveiled, there was the New ERA Mini Coupé, dreamt up by a…

Anyone with even a passing interest in the classic car scene will have spotted that high-end restomodding is big business these days. We see it in all corners of the automotive world – Eagle will sell you a Jaguar E-Type, if your pockets are sufficiently deep, with better-than-new bodywork, classic looks, and thoroughly modern power, suspension and brakes. Singer will do the same for a Porsche 911, Icon offer a new-old Ford Bronco, it’s everywhere. Jensen Interceptors, Peugeot 205 GTIs, Lancia Delta Integrales, you name it. The Mk1 Mini we see here, however, is a slightly different interpretation of the popular restomod ethos. It hasn’t been stripped to its base elements in a hermetically sealed lab, then rebuilt as a sort of retro-modern pastiche of its former self. No, its…

You can call the limited-edition Mini Rio many things, but ‘geographically accurate’ isn’t one of them. Celebrating the verve and vigour of Brazil’s second most populous city, buyers could choose to spec it in this vivid shade of Polynesian Turquoise; Polynesia, of course, covers a spread of a thousand or so islands in the Pacific, around 7,500 miles away from Rio de Janeiro. Still, let’s not split hairs – to the production line workers bolting together Minis in 1993, perhaps it all fitted into a generic ideal of ‘somewhere exotic’ and the specifics were largely immaterial. What was a Rio? Well, this was a special edition of just 750 examples based on the 1275cc Mini Sprite. Priced at £5495, it came with a choice of colours that would otherwise be…

Exaggeration, despite what your teachers at school told you, is nothing to be ashamed of. Indeed, it can be very helpful in getting ahead in life to artfully embellish and subtly talk up the finer points of your character and achievements, to massage the salient facts into something a little more peacocking and colourful. Doesn’t hurt anybody, does it? Damo Carter is a man who appreciates the nuances of this sort of behaviour. We’re not saying he’s a show-off, of course – not by any means. But he’s reached the stage in his life when he’s seen a few automotive scenes come and go, ebb and flow, and he’s been taking notes all the way through. And here, with this eye-catching Mini, we find his meisterwerk; the physical manifestation of…