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The 'National Mini Owners Club' was formed by Chris Cheal in 1979 (the same year as Ray Holman's Mini Cooper Club). Before this there were no National Mini enthusiast clubs in the UK that I knew of except for the 'Mini Se7en Racing Club' which was mainly centred around circuit racing and started around 1966.
These photos were taken by me while attending the first ever National Mini Owners Club Meeting in a field at Twycross Zoo, Warwickshire on 6th June 1982. Much to my surprise on the day I won a trophy for the best modified Mini ! This event eventually grew in size over the years from these modest beginnings to became the Stanford Hall Mini Show which is still organised by Chris Cheal today, although the NMOC is no longer run by him as an owners club due to Chris's wife suffering serious ill health in recent years.
The photos were pretty much all the field of Mini's that attended the event and was the largest national meeting for Mini's that I am aware of up to this date, other than the Mini 20th Extravaganza at Donnington organised by BL in 1979, which seemed to kick off the general interest in forming Mini clubs, shows and enthusiast gatherings.
The only 'traders' were the white NMOC tent/stand which can be seen in the photos busy selling a few Mini parts, accessories, Mini books, MOC club magazines and regalia. Also around this time the 'Mini Cooper Club' was in the early stages of organising the annual camping weekend for a handful of interested members at Beaulieu, which of course grew into todays Beaulieu Mini Cooper Day now run by the Mini Cooper Register.

CBW757B
Vehicle make AUSTIN
Date of first registration 22 July 1964
Cylinder capacity (cc) 1071cc
CO₂Emissions Not available
Fuel type PETROL
Export marker No
Vehicle status Not taxed - Expired: 26 September 1985
Vehicle colour WHITE

Great pics. Good to see GRX 5D....you don't see many photos of works cars from the early eighties....perhaps an interesting idea for a thread, photos from the 70's and (early ) 80's of works cars. I wonder how many pics of the ( registered ) cars around today we'd get ??

Love the old pics .

It's funny to think that Java Green GT would have been a nearly new car when that pic was taken (and looks it).

Mab, which is your mini you won the prize with?

I can remember when mini shows where like that, you turned up parked in a row, wandered about for a bit and looked at other cars.

none of this £15 quid to get in, pre-book for a place, concours with mirrors under the cars and bits of plastic chain around the cars to keep people away............


great photos, great cars....the er-cooper s would have fitted right in!

As MAB says, the NMOC were selling some bits such as repro door seals etc. There were actually 2 other stalls. One was selling car cleaning materials, sponges, wax and the like, the other was mine. At that time it was called Minibitz (before attack from BMW). I was selling real used mini parts like wheels, heads, carbs and some interesting 60's add-on stuff. I have chatted with Chris Cheal about that first MOC in '82 day when we both no grey hair ! A few years after this you could hardly move for traders.
The guy with no shirt on leaning on the bronze yellow 1100, which had the reg LEA 52K, is my mate Mike Machin who was there 'helping' me on the stall.
Thanks for the pictures, they bring great memories.

This of course means that I have been trading at Mini shows for at least 32 years !

Jamie wrote:Mab, which is your mini you won the prize with?

The red Mk3 with Tilling smoke tinted glass, W&P arches and nudge bars, 6x10 Cosmic Supaslots, 165 Goodyear Rally Specials, Mota-Lita, Recaros, etc.....as near as I could get to the 1970's W&P look at the time! It also had quite a quick 1275 engine built by my brothers (see my Historic racing threads) and myself with a Chris Tyrrell modified head

Nick......good to hear you were also there in the very early days of Mini shows......can't remember if I bought anything off your stall that day but I have bought a few bits from you since!

I have just found some of my photos from the Mini 20th and 25th celebrations so will post them up once i have scanned them, also lots more '70's/80's race Mini pics to come (+ some Metro Challenge race pics I will put on the TenTenths forum, as our friend the late Chris Tyrrell did a couple of seasons racing Metros before returning to Mini 7).

Scanned from the Autumn 1982 MOC magazine.