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That is insane! I feel this is the Start of the End!!!!

Barn find look, no thanks

Perfect restoration every time.

Originality is king, it can not be restored.

At Beaulieu last weekend three or four cars grabbed more attention than most of the others and none of them had shiny paint on them. The one that seemed to be surrounded most of the day was the barn find Traveller



I do hope the new owner of that 1071 just cleans it and recommissions it, leaving the patina alone.

It's all about the model the 'S' is king.

Not sure who would risk in investing in a Mini Estate.

Notice there were no pictures of the boot floor or certain other interesting areas. Do the buyers get to see it in the flesh before buying?

Can't believe it's all good underneath, although the floor pans didn't look too bad.

But if you've got 39k for starters I don't suppose you'll be too worried by what it throws up.

At least it's probably never been raced or rallied!

Got to admire the lady's foresight for not cashing-in on the £300 she would have got for it in 1976.

Now there must have been some other 'ladies' using a Cooper S to commute to work back then who retired the car to the nearest 'barn', it's just a matter of finding them!

Or is that it now?

Surely there can't be many more genuine barn finds!

Wow, that is a crazy price.

I was told the other day about a barn find DB5 not too far from me. What would that be worth, another zero on that S price?

AM'S are in a different league to Minis price wise.

John-B wrote:AM'S are in a different league to Minis price wise.

Yep, excellent restored examples are pushing £750k after the recent madness and the James Bond factor.
It's all relative I suppose. Who'd have thought we'd ever see a £50k Cooper S not too long ago, other than a (so called) works car?!

It's a pity too many potential owners are being priced out of mini ownership.

John-B wrote:It's all about the model the 'S' is king.

Not sure who would risk in investing in a Mini Estate.

The estate found a new owner at Beaulieu. The car looked quite solid, unlike most of the crusty things that turn up on the interweb.

Nevsmini wrote:That is insane! I feel this is the Start of the End!!!!

This may be the beginning of the end because as already stated how on earth can a working person ever afford such crazy prices. It is also now very apparent that a large number of standard Mk1 and Mk2 Minis have been converted into Cooper fakes. I attended the largest classic car show in Ireland yesterday and it was full of Cooper Minis and I never spotted a single standard Mk1 / 2 Mini saloon. Where have all they went?

Alan

It is also now very apparent that a large number of standard Mk1 and Mk2 Minis have been converted into Cooper fakes.

I think you've answered your own question

That's a good point. In the 1960s and 1970s Minis were everywhere but a "Cooper" was relatively rare. I took my original Mk1 850 to Beaulieu last weekend and you're right - it seemed to be in a minority. I joked with somebody who was looking round it that mine was a "rare 850 version" of the Mini

An original "untouched" Cooper S like that is a rare thing but it'll need a fair bit of work and expenditure just to recommission it, let alone fully restore it. Prices do seem to have gone a bit mad though - I sold a Mk1 S less than 2 years ago. It had covered a lower mileage and had fewer owners than the red car and was certainly in better condition. The best price I could get was not much more than half that price - and that still seemed a lot!

As an aside, the woody estates have been rare and sought after for some years now so I'm not surprised that the car pictured found a new home fairly easily.

Why do people moan when minis go up in value . I don't get it ! . Do these same people moan when there houses go up in value . ... It's not just minis , lots of classic cars are going up . As long as interest rates are low classic cars will appreciate . If interest rates are high people will will put there money back in the bank . ... The trick is knowing when to buy and when to sell !.... I've only got seven mk1S .. Wished I found more now ... Ken

Are these high value cars being driven around with agreed value insurance or being driven at risk?

I think the thing with auctions is that the results are very subjective. High prices do always tend to get highlighted, same with Ebay, and subsequently sellers often quote those when trying to achieve over optimistic prices their cars. On the other hand we rarely hear about all the cars that went for reasonable money or bargain buys. For every £40K project sold at auction there's probably a handful of similar cars that sell for reasonable money but you tend not to hear about them. I recently found a similar S to that one, never been welded, totally original and it was £16K!
On the other hand Minis, Escorts and other highly regarded classics have certainly gone skyward in the last few years, a Mk1 Mini of any flavour has probably quadrupled in the last 20 years unlike many other 60's cars like MGs, Moggys, ADO16s, Imps, Anglias etc which have all remained comparitively static.
It's great for those who own Mk1 Minis already (unless you need to buy original parts) but the hike is sure to restrict their ownership in the future to fifty and sixty somethings... sadly.

Steve. Barn find AM.

My ex-ex-ex girlfriend had a mate who was somewhere near lincoln. They were farmers, she had a mini which was some crappy "old mini with wellers", we went to the farmhouse for lunch and there was a DB5 in a lean to, which had been there for years. I said "I've got a Morris Minor" and the old man chirped up that he had a Minor Million in a barn. I could be wrong, but it had a distinctive number plate....I think the number was either 100 or 500. Their surname was Burston.

£39k for an unrestored S is mental. I idiotically passed up an opportunity 10ish years ago to buy an almost identical car for about £4k. It was a farm auction. That was a B reg 1071 as well. I had ASBO, which was fine and thought "Why would I want that". Hindsight's a funny thing.

Someone said to me the other day, why doesn't someone make 78 window (or whatever they are) VW Samba busses anymore, they command such a ridiculous price. I said something about EU regs.

The way that these cars are (over) restored, someone might as well get the chinese to whack together some tooling and remake Mk1 Cooper S-es. It's just crazy, but then again, I did a drilling job on the house of a guy who invented the chip and pin device (one of them) and he was into classic bentleys and money was just numbers. If he wanted something, he'd just keep increasing the numbers beyond the next man. All it takes is an Elton John, or a Chris Evans and you're off.

In the shed wrote:
£39k for an unrestored S is mental. I idiotically passed up an opportunity 10ish years ago to buy an almost identical car for about £4k. It was a farm auction. That was a B reg 1071 as well

It's not mental to the buyer, he/she is probably really happy they got a complete and original 1071 and realises the chances of finding another are very very slim indeed. The car you passed up at the farm auction had been reshelled like most have, wasn't complete and obviously wasn't well publicised, it does make a huge difference.

So, they'll bead blast the shell back to metal, have it painted in superduper new paint, replace various panels, find out the XYZ is knackered and replace that, etc, etc, etc....with the result that it's irrelevant what it was before they started out, because the end result will be just the same as any other over restored mini we are bored with seeing.

It's a very nice car, but that kind of money is mental. Are the works ones up to £200k yet?

In the shed wrote: the result that it's irrelevant what it was before they started out, because the end result will be just the same as any other over restored mini

Not to the buyer I suspect ,probably why they paid big money for it.