Are BMW Minis the grey squirrel of Mini shows?

[Striped shirt]

Hello all.

Just got home from Brooklands Mini show.
As always, Brooklands Museum was great.

However.... Despite the weather, the turn out was quite good. But on a very rough count up, I think the BMW Mini was about 75% of the cars there.

So.... Here is my question to you all. Is the BMW Mini, that has been around over 20 years, pushing the Classic (yuck) Mini out of the show scene??

What little trade there was today, had no representation at all of BMW made parts. There were some good autojumble and a heavy smattering of toys and tools.

Chatting to one autojumbler, he says it's frustrating paying for a stall and knowing before the event that he has nothing for a high percentage of punters.

The BMW Mini scene does not appear to have a linked autojumble market.

Did anyone else attend? Does anyone else agreed? Does it matter.....

[swifty]

I would have thought that the weather was a turn off for owners of classic minis because a fair number of them won’t drive them in all weather conditions … Shirley

[mab01uk]

You have to also think of this also from the point of view of the organiser....if the 75% of BMW Minis were not at the show the gate money for Brooklands would be for only the 25% of classic Minis that bothered to turn out. Probably part explained by the cold wet weather when many classic owners either would not attend or attend in a different 'daily driver' car. I did not go as I don't find shows of great interest to me anymore especially if the weather is bad. If I had visited today, out of choice I would have taken my BMW Mini and left my classic Mini tucked up in the garage out of the rain....

You don't really need much in the way of autojumble stands for a BMW Mini as they don't need spare parts quite so often and tend not to go very rusty! Also they tend to be owned by younger 'modern car' owners (now that the early R50/53 BMW Mini is the cheapest entry level way into Mini ownership) who are perhaps less mechanically hands on and not out to buy those 'rare' bargain rusty secondhand spare parts....
The newer BMW Minis at shows are often owned by some of us who have a classic Mini but in our senior years can no longer subject ourselves or our other half/wife/partner to a longish journey in a classic Mini or easily bend down to get in and out of it!

The Mini Cooper Register would be the first to admit that without the BMW Mini attendance and tickets sold on the gate the Beaulieu Mini Show on its present scale would no longer be economically viable, so in many ways as classic Mini enthusiasts we are lucky that the shows are supported by modern Mini owners, as sadly the public and visitor car parks are no longer filled with rusty daily driver entry level Minis like they once were. I can remember for many years in the 1990's the Beaulieu show was supported in a similar way by all the new or nearly new Rover Mini Coopers attending, much to the dismay of some 'old school' Mk1/2/3 Cooper MCR members who called the Rovers 'plastic' Minis just out the showroom.....in fact it got so heated in the end the MCR had to have a membership vote on whether to allow Rover Mini Cooper owners to join the club! (The Rover Minis eventually won the vote).

There is always the Blyton Action Day (and a few other smaller events) where, as on the Isle of Wight, red squirrels are the dominant species and any visiting grey squirrels are restricted to the public car park.

[Pete]

There is always the Blyton Action Day (and a few other smaller events) where, as on the Isle of Wight, red squirrels are the dominant species and any visiting grey squirrels are restricted to the public car park.

To be fair we haven’t resorted to shooting them… well not yet!! We used to get a few MINI owners moaning about Blyton (local MCR chapter specifically) because we dont park them up in the paddock with the Classic stuff or encourage them on track but I think everybody understands now that the flavour of our event is Classic Mini, and it’s something that sets us apart and we’re determined to maintain. Plus because we’re not a business like the British Mini Club, or a car club like the MCR we don’t have to!

Having said that we’re not sad enough to be still barking on about how sh*t they are (because they’re clearly not!!), we’re always happy to see them at Blyton (in the car park) and clearly MINI owners are pretty much propping up the entire Mini show scene nowadays for the exact reasons already mentioned, that most classic Mini owners rarely drive their cars anymore!

[Joel Welsh 4769VU]

There is an annual car show here in michigan- the adjoining state to mine in the US, and only about 50-60 miles from me.

It's put on by the mad dogs and englishmen car club. They own, restore, and show older british motor cars of all makes, here in the US.

https://maddogsandenglishmen.org/mde/index.cfm

From the couple members that i met, they say that they haven't seen a proper austin or morris mini cooper in their show in a few years now. All bmw's.

[WesleyB]

Yes, that was a BMW show at Brooklands.
I come always from Belgium many years to visit this show. But next year I don't think to come.
I love the classic Minis not the BMW.
Lucky here 'on the other side', in France and Germany, Belgium there are shows only for classic. Ok, then you don't have 600 Mini's, but maybe 60.

But everybody is can make his own choice of course. I understand the organisation's also.

[Dan Tweed grey]

Castle coombe Action day went the same way, all fine but mixing MINIs and minis on a race track is bad news therefore old minis avoid it and it becomes a new MINI event .
Subsequently goes tits up not only for the event ,but the classic mini traders too.

[W1NG3D]

I braved the rain to attend the show in my Mk1 yesterday. I must say I was tempted to bring my 2016 MINI Clubman instead, but was glad I took the classic even if I did need to dry out the floor with some old towels after getting back home in the afternoon



There were definitely more modern MINIs at the show than I've seen previously, and no doubt the rain was a big factor in discouraging more classics from coming along, but I think the presence of post-2000 cars at general Mini events is simply becoming more and more commonplace. Classics are no longer affordable for a lot of people, whereas a decent 1st or 2nd gen Cooper S hatch can be picked up for a couple of grand or less, and they're great fun to drive and modify.

I personally don't mind a mix of classic and modern at these events, but I understand that there is very much an "old vs new" divide and the modern cars simply don't appeal to all classic fans (and vice versa).