Who are you & where do you come from?

[Jebo]

Hi! I am Jeroen Bouten - 35 years and living in The Netherlands

My dad was a general car nut, but we never had any classics at home. My love for the Mini came when I was about 8 years old with a scale model of a white and black MK1 Cooper. Since that moment I was hooked at started collecting everything related to classic mini's.

My First car was a SPI British open, very useful and reliable as a first daily driver. But soon after college I moved abroad: Newcastle in England, Malaga in Spain and Chicago in the United States - unfortunately without a Mini, but Miniworld and Mini Magazine made a fortune on shipping the magazines every month around the world.

After first rebuilding my First house, finally came the time to fuel my passion again with the purchase of a classic Mini again. I loved the MK1 and MK2, but found a very original Dutch MK3 with only 40.000Kms on it. Which seemed like a good project, ended up in a 6 years nut and bolt rebuilt.

Even though I loved the process of thinking in my head how my perfect Mini would look like and buying parts for it, nothing beats driving it finally! Now I am the proud dad of two kids (3 and 5 years) and love to take the first trips as a family through the country side and fuel their passion and memories together. At least my son thinks I drive the coolest car around

[mini63]

G’day, Michael here....from Australia.
I’m 51 and had minis on an off since i was 16.
Apprenticed by a BMC dealer and hands on Minis for 7 years after which I moved from there to restoring MGs, Jaguars and Big Healeys among loads of other british makes in my own business for about 12years.
I then got off the tools and went into Mechanical Engineering at Uni as a mature age student, then worked in development engineering for Mitsubishi Motors, then Mining Engineering and now Defence Logistics Engineering.
Minis went a little quiet for me during the study and work/family/children period but remained in the background as one of my biggest interests and pastime.
In recent years Ive returned to them and to my interest in what minis brought to the world. The cultural shift in how this little car changed the world. The way it changed the way engineers package the design of cars and the way it changed the way we live our lives with cars. Minis are single handedly, the most significant motor car ever made in my opinion.
Ive owned Cooper esses, a Minivan, Jaguar XJ6s, Subaru WRX, MGBs.
I love the 1960s, Art Deco architecture, the Beatles, Pink Floyd and Wine...Australia makes the best wine in the world.....shut up....we do.
I still have the 997 that started it all along with a 1947 MGTC i helped restore with my father (now passed on) when i was 14.
If youre ever downunder...its my shout.
Cheers MG.

[Frogeye61]

This sounds fun.

Hi. Donn Engler 60 in Broenshoej Denmark. Nearly 30 years ago I was from Washington DC area. My mom's dad worked in auto manufacturing in Indiana in the early 1900's. My dad was electrical engineer and rebuilt a 58 Mercedes which I rode around in as a kid. When my brother and I were old enough to be interested in cars, my brother found a TR4 which introduced me to British cars. It was first the 63 TR4, 61 Frogeye Sprite, 61 TR3, 63 Land Rover, 68 Jag E... The list goes on for more than a hundred cars, which includes Austins, Morris Minors, Alfas, Mercedes, Opels, racing sprites and the occasional odd marques; and of course a 66 998 Cooper with 1275 Austin America motor, a 62 Mini 850 and 64 850. As a young man I had friends who raced Minis while my brother and I helped. From there my brother and I ended up with a 62 Mini with a 67 Cooper S engine, unfortunately sold before moving to Denmark.

I worked for almost 20 years at small European auto repair shops both in US and in Denmark.
My dad and brother are long gone now. My son of 34 has zero interest in cars. I have moved to Denmark with my 2nd wife and have a Danish daughter 23 with similarly little interest in cars. I've gotten a Danish Mechanical Engineering education, work with control systems for very large ship engines and have close to 10 cars at home, most in the process of rebuilding. After many years of looking, and thinking the prices for MK1s were too high, I finally found a completely decrepit 64 850 for sale locally. Arbitrarily the same day a neighbour had decided he didn't have the capability of rebuilding a 78 850 so he gave it to me. Shortly afterwards a colleague got a 64 with a 1275 and way too much rust so I have three Minis at home now. (see the blogs "1964 Rust Project" and "1964 Rust Project again")

I still have the Frogeye and the 63 Land Rover 88 SW (and 70 Amazon, 57 Triumph T20 Tiger Cub, 73 Alfa Giulia. For the daughter, MB 190e, and for the wife, Volvo V70)

[Nathan1293]

Hi, I'm Nathan, aged 41 and live in Berkshire. I thought this might be quite short, but once started I realised that not many of you know me (not met in person yet), and my mini problem!!!

I am a research scientist (sounds better than it is as the UK is renowned for poor pay for scientists, but I do have a great work life balance, so there is an upside). In my role I use computers to model experiments and make use of existing data to predict what to do next. For the two of you that might be interested google Computational Chemistry...

My father had a modified Mk1 mini in the early 70's when he was an apprentice mechanic, with a one piece fibreglass front and banded shell rims with a self built modified 1275 mainly in the car. He had a lightly breathed on 1100 as a standby engine. Which sadly I never saw, and rumour has it I may have been concevied in !!! possibly explaining my natural love of the car.

While learning to drive, Dad thought it would a good idea for me to have a safe and slow car as my first car. I asked a few friends at School (A-levels) and one had an aunt that owned an 850cc 1979 mini super that had recently failed it's MOT. We went to see the car an evening shortly after finding out, and there it was an honest MOT failure. There was some rust in the usual places, hence the fail, without too many bodge repairs. The shocks were leaking, and at least one exhaust valve was leacking on the central cylinders. After a bit of bartering the sale was agreed at £50.

The following evening we collected the car, Dad driving it home. The the strip down began. Dad and I working on the car on the drive, together we replaced the front wings, front panel, A-panels, inner wing repair panels, top sills, inner sill repair panels, outer sills, rear valence, seam covers, door skins, and made repair panels to the floors, and boot floor. The car was repainted (thanks to a friendly garage, Dad worked for the insurance industry at this time), keeping the main car black, but a white roof was added and boonet stripes, coach lines and cooper rosette. It looked like a convincing rover cooper look alike to the casual observer, but on 10" weller wheels. Plus two new exhaust valves. Total cost spend £500!

It turned out to be a great idea by Dad for me to have a very underpowered first car, and I learnt the art of preserving speed (well what little I had). After a while this car had a economy metro 1275 unit installed and Cooper S discs. But Dad and I thought the car too nice to get very modified and damaged. So I bought my friends first car also an 850 mini, from 1964. Sadly the car had been damaged when someone reversed out of their drive and pushed inthe newarside door panel and rear quarter panel. The damage wasn't that bad, but he didn't want to do the work. This car was canery yellow.

This car then went through nummerous upgrades, ending up being heavily modified. fibre galss two piece front, Metro front mounted rad, with a 1293cc engine, kent 286 cam, webber 45 DCOE, lightened and balanced bottom end, self modified cylinder head guided by Vizard's books, with rim flow valves, and maniflow inlet and exhaust. plus revolution 6 x 10 wheels and Yoko A008's.

This car was so much fun, and surprisingly looked very sleeper. Returning from University to visit my parents was always fun playing with "proper" cars on the A14 and M25! Sadly I overheated the car in traffic a couple of times and cracked the cylinder head and couldn't afford to fix it and the car was laid up awating repair.

At the same time the 850 was sold and I purchased another 1964 car, a 998 cooper, that needed a lot of work to restore.

Both of these cars have ended by waiting (too) long a time before I could work on them, due to funds and a lack of anywhere to work onthem myself.

Although that is finally going to change as the work on renovating my house is close to an end. Sadly the garage isn't built but a lean to will be built initially.

So hopefully in the autumn I will be bale to start a build thread for one of the cars.

[Church of Noise]

Hi, my name's Alexander, I live in Belgium and I'm 36.

I've been on the verge of buying an early Mini many times but somehow never managed to, I do have 3 MGs currently (2 early MGB roadsters, 1 MGB GT V8). The list of cars I'd like to own is tremendously long, and a Mini is still high up on it!

The way I ended up here is as I am really interested in period tuning. I came across Mark's wonderful site quite a while ago when I was looking into Alexander Conversions/Engineering, as I'd just managed to find a rare crossflow cylinder head plus manifolds for my MGB.

In real life, I've studied mechanical engineering but have spent some time in management consulting before ending up in operations management.

[zbarbera]

Zach Barbera, 47 years old. I live in Boxford Massachusetts in the US. Finally seem to have settled after a lot of moving around in my youth!

Born in Western PA (Hey Johnny! My son almost picked Pitt, so would have come out to say Hi, but he ended up at Ohio State). Lived in New Jersey, South Carolina, Ohio, Massachusetts, Singapore, back to NJ and back to MA since 1999.

My first Mini was something of an unintentional and unexpected event. If I were to go for a classic car I probably would have leaned toward 70s American muscle car a Nova or Duster or something along those lines. Not to say I don't love the Mini. My father was a big car guy specifically Minis. Born 1952, his first car was a Lotus 7 and he went through a succession of British cars. At some point having a Morris that he raced, a Countryman woody, a Bugeye Sprite, 1973 Europa (survivor), 1998 Elise, Lancia Stratos whose husk (minus engine) he came across at a used car dealership on the outskirts of Bangkok, among many more. Something of an Anglophile! He worked for VW almost his entire life, which is why I ended up in Singapore for a few years after college. At the time he was the regional sales and marketing executive for all of Asia (except China and Japan who have their own divisions). Since before I was born he always had a Mini in some form. He had the 1071S built in Singapore and brought it back when he came to the States. He has almost always had a Mini but that 1071 was the dream car. So when he unexpectedly passed away back in 2014 his friends and I agreed that it couldn't be sold off. And much to the dismay and continuing disapproval of my wife I inherited the car and have had it since.

[billycooper]

Managed to find an unopened for 10 years memory stick that I've added to Flickr, of my Mk 3 (reshelled !) Cooper S Hillclimb car, 8049SR ex Radford car and couple of other bits of cars ive owned

may or may not be of interest to anyone but ................

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16788879@N02/?

[spoon.450]

Managed to find an unopened for 10 years memory stick that I've added to Flickr, of my Mk 3 (reshelled !) Cooper S Hillclimb car, 8049SR ex Radford car and couple of other bits of cars ive owned

may or may not be of interest to anyone but ................

https://www.flickr.com/photos/16788879@N02/?

You have PM Steve

[Costafortune]

Andy, 51 from Sheffield - but lived in Somerset, Devon, Berkshire, Oxford, Bucks, Darlington, Cambridge, Hamburg, Notts plus another one I forget. Freelance motoring writer since 1994 and other stuff in between like BMW sales for a main dealer, parts sales etc.

Lots of Minis, but I haven't owned one since 2000.

Some of them are;

1962 Austin Mini (1974) Aged 6 or 7, my folks bought this for £20 as it had a new Peco exhaust and other bits used to keep one of ours on the road. It sat in the garden as a play den for my mates and I, cops and robbers, swinging on the doors until the drivers hinge broke.

970S ABW56C: I built this from a shell in 1990, green and white, not overly standard (it started off as white/black which I hate). The car is in Japan, the V5 in the UK still. Quell surprise!

1275GT LHK497J: A piece of shit. Nothing but ******* trouble.

VSV605: This was the ex works 850 618AOG, originally pale grey or blue, can't recall. It was hand painted green and on a Q plate but had the correct VIN. I bought it in 1985 for 30 quid from a Mini breaker in Reading, stripped it to a shell, bare metalled it and did it red and white, sporting Cooper grille and badges. It looked epic. I used the V5 from a 1960 Mini that had been plate raped as the Q was a bit naff. It had Cooper discs, Cosmic wheels and an 1100 Clubman engine and box. I plundered an Elf for the interior. Sold it in 1987 for £550. The car went to Japan in 1988 but the number plate VSV605 was taken off and is now on something else. Lost forever!

VRD515: A 1960 Seven, plate raped by me and it was absolutely gopping.

BPE770B: A 1071 S that belonged to Francis Rossi in the seventies. This had lived in a garden in Islip (Oxon) and was very unoriginal. When it was blasted @ 2001 there wasn't much Almond green under the Ford Tawny bronze colour. However it was rebuilt and lives abroad somewhere.

TMO626M: A super clean Mini 1000 in Harvest gold, cost £30 in 1986 and I welded a sill step in and sold it. From when Minis were cheap and cheerful.

74 Clubman Estate DTV455V: The donor for VSV605, a LHD import with 30'000km from new and front end damaged. Not bad for £25.

FLS577S: My first Mini, a 1977 998 Van. Had been painted Russet brown with a white roof and had all manner of escapades. Apparently still around.

YBL345H: My other ex works Mini. Well, an 850 Van registered to BLMC Comps in Abingdon! The plate is on retention - I sold the car 30 years ago.

JAF576N, BVF688J, VMW679K, FPL96C (A Cooper with a 970S engine), CUO688L, ALA262A, GUR388Y (a 1977 Belgian Special 1100), SAM501N, SRO96R, EHU869K, FOH665L, VBW600T (a blue 1000 bought especially for Mini 30), HGM185W, 864JUE are on the roll call of cheap Minis bought and used/abused.

I'm into the really old stuff, up to and including early Mark 3 stuff but nothing later. I doubt I'll own another because to me - as someone who has been there/seen it/done it - they aren't worth the crazy prices now being asked.

Everyday car, a Mark 6 Golf GTi and an old 320d Estate winter snotter. Also owned/sold: Twin Cam and RS1600 Escorts, 3.0 CSL BMW Coupe, E30 M3 and a couple of Alpina BMW's, XK150S wreck, two early XJ-S V12's and Christ knows what else. A pretty wide range!

[kit of bits]

I spotted this thread and found it interesting, as I’m sure there’s lots of new members since the last entry I thought I’d bump it up..it would be nice to put some cars to some faces so why not add some pictures (of the cars!)

Here’s me
Dave, kit of bits.
Live in south Northants
Born 1974
Work, classic car restoration mostly 1950’s stuff.
1 wife mini lover & driver luckily! 2 kids 10&16,
Foster carer to many more.

Minis.
1998 mpi owned from new
1964 SDL owned since I was 12
1963 cafe racer project
1965 moke..

Bump up and update..
Any new members/ members cars? Updates/ pictures etc..
Me
Still Dave.
Still a foster career!
Kids 12&18 yo.
Wife x1, still mini/fast car mad.
Still in south northants
Cars,
Mini moke 1966
Mini SDL 1964
Mini 1275GT 1978
Mini mpi 1998.
Still a classic car restorer/race preparer mostly 1950’s sports racing cars.

Anyone going to continue?
D

[Coalhod]

Ok, I'll bite.

Andrew from Pennsylvania aka Coalhod as I have worked in the coal mine for 30+ years hope to retire soon in one piece.

Hooked on these cars since 1967 when my brother purchased a new S. I was 12 at the time and after riding along a few times found out where the term "giant killer" came from.

Have had my current Mini Cooper for 40 years or so and do my own work on it because very few shops recognize the car and the shops have bodged various things on the car over the years. I have been stopped and asked "What is it?" and they look puzzled on my reply as they think of the BMW car and do not know the history of the Mini. I always say "see the resemblance?" but it stops there.

Glad to be a part of this forum for the knowledge here.

[66 1275S]

Hi, James Horner from Pontefract West Yorks. 46yrs young! Been working in the classic restoration world since 1990, mainly 1950s MGs. first Mini at the age of 17 and never without one. Just finished a 1275s build and starting on a 62 van next.

[rogerotto66s]

Roger Williams, 68, Collegeville, PA, USA

Loved minis since I was a teen during the Monte Carlo years. I raced to the newsstand to purchase AutoCar magazine.

Bought my 1966 Austin Cooper S in 1993 from the original owner who was a Brit.
He bought as a Personal Export, drove it some in England and then shipped to the US.
It is the real deal re: numbers match.

I worked on it from 93-99 (totally disassembled, body work, paint, engine rebuild) and then it sat until retirement in 2018. Having a blast putting it back together.

Also had a 2002 BMW mini for ten years before selling.

[TECH396]

Hello to everyone. I'm new to this site, but not new to Minis.
Born in 1961 in Fleetwood UK, where my Dad had his first Cooper in 1963
We Immigrated to Canada in 1964 and call the west coast of Canada home.
I served my apprenticeship working on British Cars, then owned and operated a British car service facility for 7years before moving into estate property management, and in charge of maintenance of all equipment and site infrastructure.

My car (A 1968 1275 S )was built in April 1968. Has only 12000 original miles as a result of being in storage since 1974 !
I've owned 15 minis in total.

Paul.

[Bitsilly]

Gudday all,
I am Ed, or bitsilly, a name I got ages ago from putting a tuned V8 in a Westfield and driving it through a hedge.
I used to buy the only minis I could afford for less than £100, weld them up from the inside and drive them for as long as possible, I guess I had 6 or seven like that.
Once the budget allowed, I had two RSP's and a like new MPi none of which I enjoyed as much as the old ones.
I now spend most of my time restoring old british cars as keepers, quickly getting bored of them and selling them for a hideous loss.
But I love it!

Ed

[hanlminiman]

Hello my name is Cliff.
I had my first Mini experience outside the school gates when an older kid (17) arrived in a 850 Mini around 1964/65. My Dad wouldn't let me have a Mini as my first car as he had experienced French front wheel drive cars in 1944 & 1945 in Normandy and northern France; he would never explain why but he was serving in the "Bomb disposal section." I am a fan of A series engines though as my first car was an A35. Around 1968/69 a friend had a Mk2 Mini and I directed him around the local lanes. We were doing quite well but in 1972 my career changed and my rallying days ended. Marriage & family got in the way for many years but I did get to spectate on a few Lombard rallies in the 1980s & 1990s.
In 1999 I attended Mini 40 at Silverstone but not in a Mini. The family did have one as my 16 year old son was not impressed with a Metro but we did manage to source and acquire an x reg, 10" wheel Mini City which he drove to destruction from 1996 to 1999.
At Silverstone I saw the Ex Works display and also the Italian Job Charity Run stand. In 1969 I went to the local cinema to see the Italian Job film with a my friend, soon to become my brother in law in 1971. 3000 miles in my son's Mini with him - YES. Sadly an AA report recommended no further than 3000mm!
Dejected or what?
In the year 2000 there was a supermarket handout "Autotrader?" I picked one up and noticed and advert for a 1997 mpi close by. My father in law suggested I went and had a look. We did. I have had that car since March 2000. I am the 2nd private owner. The first name registered was "John Cpper Garages."
Italian Job - Millemium Run. Most Sponsorship award.
Italian Job 2001 - Participant.
2004 Lombard Rally Revival Rally - Finisher award.
2005 & 2006. Mk3 s HRCR Road Rally Championship competitor.
2005 & 2006 Mpib Endurance Rally Champioship events.
2005 - became custodian of 1965 Austin Mini Cooper S Radford de Ville GT - Countryman Hatchback conversion
Restored the Mk3 s after a little incident. Luckliy not a couple of weeks before in Northmberland on Niall's MCR event. Currently refurbishing the Radford since February 2019 and during lockdown this year after multi panel replacement with other repairs plus full bare metal respray.
It's a Mini adventure and I'm loving every minute.


I

[Pete]

Many years later, in the early nineties I bought a white, black roof one owner '63 Austin 1071S, 4420 PF, with under 30,000 miles on the clock. Mini Machine freshened up the body. It was perfect, Why did I sell it, especially to Sussex Sportscars, who bought it unseen. I think it went to Japan.

As you know Bryan 4420 PF did go to Japan to ‘British Garage Weslake’ but as you know it wasn’t Sussex who shipped it, it was Heritage Garage who sold it to the Japanese buyer. He’s still got it after thirty years and it’s barely done a few thousand miles in all that time. Probably one of the most original 1071 Ss I’ve ever seen, never been welded, original chassis, engine, body and FE plates all still in situ and there can’t be another 1071 on the planet with lower mileage than that can there? 2nd owner bought it from the Cooper Car Co 2nd hand, in fact the invoice for that purchase was separated from the car and sold on EBay in 2006. (Obviously paperwork like that has its own value) but the 2nd owner barely drove it and you bought it from his family when he passed. Knowing how few 1071s survive completely intact nowadays I’d say that’s a pretty special car! You may remember that John Parnell himself inspected the car to get an up to date logbook for it back in 1992.

[Joel Welsh 4769VU]

Hmmm. Never saw this thread!

Well, I'm joel welsh. Hence the screen name.
Now, 51 years old.
I'm American, living in Ohio, originally from michigan.

I grew up around cars, working on them at a young age with my father- who went to college for an automotive degree, and became a certified master mechanic.

I have some skills in metal fabrication, welding, woodworking, i own a vinyl film plotter for stickers, do amateur gun refinishing/cerakoting, and to top it off... built myself a forge to learn knife making.

I joined the US Army in 1995, and got out in 2007.
Have been stationed in germany, hawaii, and finally texas. Deployed to the Bosnian conflict, and twice to Iraq. Got out at the rank of SGT.
Injured in iraq, I'm ok- but i have vertabrea damage to my spine and have nerve damage which caused me to give up riding motorcycles, due to numbness in my hands and loss of some motor control in the same... (Which was my daily stress relief... riding) That- and a PTSD diagnosis have me disabilty rated.

So i gave up my bike- and found my mini that I'd searched for- for years.

"Dianna " as i call her is a '64 Austin that came to the US through Canada from the UK.
A soldier had bought her, and tried to drive her home... but was not allowed to cross the border due to the fact that the car was not in his name.
He had the vehicle shipped to texas, where he found he could not register it.

Neither could i when i found her.

Fast forward ten years or so after i brought her to ohio- and i got that sorted. So now, I'm working on getting her roadworthy enough to drive safely.
A slow, deliberate process for me.

It's been a tough year or two working on her, and many here have generously helped me along my way. Which I'm very thankful for.

Hopefully i can pay the favors forward someday.

Joel

[Peter Laidler]

Hello all, Born at a young age and like Joel, ex Army engineer, now living in Abingdon, the ancestral home of MG cars. Started off as a 15 year old 3 year engineering apprentice at Carlisle from 1963 to 65, went and served in various places in the Far East including Malaya, Australia, South Vietnam and New Zealand. Always had a love of mini Coopers as did many of my friends at the time. Had a basic 850 and my brother in law had a new tweed grey '65 Cooper S. I told mysef that I was going to get one - but went abroad!

Came back and to Uni, studied mech engineering and got a late Mk2 S in Jan'70, glacier white. This taught me several things. First that engines are nothing more than heat machines, 2nd that where there's a will, there's ALWAYS an easy or simple way. By this time B-in-law had a series of Lotus Cortinas. I had several more Coopers and moved on to MGB GT's and then on to a monster MGB GT V8 that I bought from a famous family. It was like a rocket sledge on rails after my MBGGT's and Mini Cooper S! Married by now I was a policeman and being a technical sort was a V5 vehicle examiner for many years. Then came my love for Golf GTi's - which I still have. But I always hankered for my first love. I couldn't have Susan but I could have a Cooper S!

I was offered my current car as a clapped out project. Took me 3 years to do it all - except the shell which I farmed out. If I'd known that it was a thrashed to within an inch of its life ex cop car, I wouldn't have touched it with a barge pole.

Left the back-biting and went back into the Army as a full time Territorial, including to some of the other trouble spots in Europe and 'warmer climes...'. Commissioned by now, until I finally retired but stayed on a a project engineer for another 5 years. Had a few more minis in the meantime, a white City, a 998 Cooper TRX177G and as a present to myself, a new, bright tarty red end-of-the-line Rover Cooper Sport in 2001. Done very few miles in it and it's like new, tucked away now together with my other love, a Norton Commando and a restored Raleigh Chopper!

Totally uninteresting. Have written several totally uninteresting and boring technical books and enjoy writing for the Forum...... especially with getting to grips with the arch enemy of all mini owners, Hydrolastic! Peter

[Stewartp]

Hi I'm Stewart,
Living in the beautiful Adelaide Hills south Australia, retired for eighteen years.
Born in Staffordshire, father was in RAF so moved every couple of years, lived on the IOM as a teenage.
Did an electronics apprenticeship before moving to South Australia,
Always wanted a mini but couldn't afford one and ended up with a A35, bought a Morris 1100 in Adelaide.
Still restoring an Aussie mk1 Cooper S, since 1990, can't rush theses things. But built and modified an Aussie Clubman with my son as his first car, he now regrets selling it.
Restored a 1972 mgbgt which my son now has.
I still have my 1993 MX5 I bought new, no rust, less than 100,000 km on clock.
Love my shed, would go stir crazy if we had to move to a house on the current postage stamp blocks with no room for garden let alone a shed.