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Hello.
It's been 5 years since I registered on this forum and this is my first post! It's never too late!
Well, I'm from France and I own a Mk1 Austin Cooper from 1967 (RHD).
I bought it years ago but due to other projects, it remained stored in a dry place.
As I've finished my last project (see here), I'm planning to start the restoration soon.

First, I'm trying to know more about my car.
Back in 1967, the Daily Mirror and Gillette organized a competition called "The Big Dig". It was a treasure hunt at Camber Sands on August 8, 1967: "The Big Dig Bank Holiday Competition for £60,000 worth of prizes". There was a selection of 100 competitors. Each competitor could be helped with one person of his choice. To be selected, people had to send a form on which they had to list five objects they would take on a desert island + one additional object and explain the reason for this last one. We'll focus here on a man named Cooper (I'm not joking!). Mr Cooper sent his form and said he would take a mosquito tent "Because it’s too hot to itch and I’m too lazy to scratch". He was then one of the 100 people selected for the treasure hunt at Camber Sands.

The beach was divided into squares and each square contained two boxes stuck in the sand. Competitors couldn't change square as long as the two boxes were not found.
Mr Cooper and his wife had a square near the water, which means wet sand so harder to dig. Mrs Cooper was very frail and become quickly exhausted. Mr Cooper never stopped digging and a few minutes before the gong, he found a box announcing he had won a Mini Cooper!

Mr Cooper loved his Mini Cooper and enjoyed every mile with it. He kept it until his death in 2000. When he died, his daughter (who married a French man and lives in France) knew the car was "special" and kept it in the family. After a few years, she realized she couldn't manage to restore it and decided to sell it. She wanted the Mini to go to a Mini enthusiast's home. And here I am!

Let's talk about the car itself now. I know only a few things but I'd love to know more about these 10 Mini Coopers and the best thing would be to find more Gillette Coopers (if there is more than one surviving car...).
The 10 cars were 1967 Austin Cooper 998cc. They were all built on the 31st of May 1967 as Tweed grey with OEW roofs Minis. On the 1st of June, they were dispatched to Kennings (London NW1) where they've been painted in silver. Note that only the exterior was painted. Interior, boot and engine bay are still Tweed grey. In his last years, Mr Cooper decided to repaint his car with a brush... That's why it looks drab.

I was told years ago by the Cooper Register that a 998 Cooper with a chassis number close from my Mini's left Longbridge at the same time, with Tweed grey and OEW roof colors. This car was registered PLM537E (Mine is PLM538E). I know that a chap named Tim Branigan used to own it. Then the car has been sold to someone else. By the time, the car had been painted dark blue. That's all I know. PLM537E gives nothing anymore in the DVLA base but the car was restored around 2000 so I bet it still exists. Tim Branigan and the next owner don't know anything about the Gillette past of this car.

In order to collect and centralize informations, I've just created this page on FB: https://www.facebook.com/Gillette-Austi ... 664643609/
Please have a look, like, and share. That will be the best way to get informations from people.

I'd love to be in UK to investigate about all this but I'm in France. So any help from enthusiast would be really appreciated.

A few pics now...

You'll find a few pictures taken on August 8, 1967 at Camber Sands here: http://www.alamy.com/search.html?qt=The ... day&imgt=0





I've found this on the internet. This episode is dedicated to the Gillette Big Dig Competition and I know Mr Cooper and his wife can be seen in it but I can't find a way to watch it! The links don't work. Any help would be appreciated.


This picture was taken in August 1967. Mr Cooper had just won the Mini and made a trip to Scotland with it in the following days.


The car as it is today.

what a great story and a fantastic little bit of history

Saw this story on Facebook - absolutely fascinating!

Nice to have so much interesting history with a car.

Great story Even better little car

Brilliant story and lovely car.

It's amazing that it's survived for so long without being messed with.

How solid is it underneath? It would be a lovely car to see sympathetically recommissioned.

Thank you for your comments.
It seems that the car has already had some welding at some time. The body is solid and I hope I won't have bad surprise during the restoration.

I plan to restore it as it was for the competition, which means silver for the exterior and tweed grey for the engine bay, the boot and the interior.
It will be restored to original specification.

Agreed, what a fantastic story. Amazing to have the provenance and materials to go with the car.

It's also quaint to think of such a wild marketing stunt like burying "prizes" in the sand. Very few companies would get that inventive these days..

Good thing he won the Mini and not the live Greyhound!

Nice to see you on here Brett, I remember you talking about your car on the old MCR forum years ago (before it hit the buffers ).

This seems to be the only other Gillette Austin on the DVLA database...


Registration number: PLM 541E

✗ Untaxed
Tax due: 01 April 1982

MOT
No details held by DVLA

Vehicle details
Vehicle make :AUSTIN
Date of first registration :02 June 1967
Cylinder capacity (cc) :998cc
CO₂Emissions :Not available
Fuel type :PETROL
Vehicle status :Not taxed
Vehicle colour :BLUE
Vehicle type approval :Not available
Wheelplan :2 AXLE RIGID BODY
Revenue weight :Not available

Thank you for that Pete. I didn't remember this car but you're definitely right!
Is PLM541E somewhere in a barn? It is recorded as a blue Mini which might not be its original color.

I remember now that PLM537E had a Webasto sunroof but this was removed during the car's restoration and replaced by a "standard" roof panel.
If anyone knows what this car has become... It obviously has changed registration as PLM537E gives no result on the DVLA base.

Brett wrote: It obviously has changed registration as PLM537E gives no result on the DVLA base.

The online database isn't definitive as I've just found out. I bought a 997 Cooper this year that had been off the road many years. It wasn't on the database when I checked but when I called DVLA they said they had it recorded. Sometimes they're not recorded correctly as Austin or Morris.

If I contact DVLA explaining that I'm looking for informations about those 10 Mini Coopers, explaining why, etc., do you think it would be possible to get some results or they won't accept to help me?

I doubt they'll talk to you about someone else's car. It doesn't look like there's going to be more than one or two surviving and PML 541E looks like it's out of action. They won't have a great survival rate I suspect, certainly not as good as some of the coachbuilt or Crayford cars for instance though there could have been the odd one sent overseas perhaps. Facebook might be quite useful , perhaps put a post on the Mk1 Mini group?

I've already put a post on the Mk1 Mini Group on Facebook and I've also created a Facebook page (see my signature for the link).
MiniWorld might publish an article soon about this so it could bring answers to some questions.

I own a Mini-based 3 wheeler named Mosquito (see my signature again for the link ) and back in 2007, I didn't know anything about those 3 wheelers and only knew the existence of approx. 7 cars built. I've created the website below in order to collect informations. I introduced my website to many forums (Mini, kit-cars, etc.), magazines, etc. and it worked. People came back to me with great informations! Now, I know from the people who produced them that 26ish cars were produced and I've located 22 cars around the world! (Mainly in Europe but one is in Australia and one is in South Africa)

Let's do the same with the Gillette Minis.

Like Pete, I remember hearing of this car a few years ago. Good luck with the restoration. A very interesting history.

I also remember seeing Robert Moss driving his Mosquito around Kidlington in the early 1970s. He owned a plastic injection factory in the town and often used the Mosquito to commute in although he also owned rather more grand machines too.
You've brought back some memories!

Yes great thread and pics .. funny the things you don't remember and this is one of them.. I do remember the Crayford Heinz promo tho ?... must have had better exposure/adv at the time .. ...made me smile as I used to dig Camber way for Lugworm before I went fishing at Dungeness as a 15 year old in 67 !!! .......foxy52

I doubt the Maserati and the Jaguar E-Type from the competition have been scrapped... Could be great to find them too.

Today I got the following informations:
- The Maserati was won by a man named Richard Pugh from Kenilworth (Warwickshire). He was only 19 when he won the Maserati!
- The Jaguar E-Type was won by a man named Mr Dinley from Edinburgh.

Let's see if we can find something...

Brett wrote:
Today I got the following informations:
- The Maserati was won by a man named Richard Pugh from Kenilworth (Warwickshire). He was only 19 when he won the Maserati!


Let's see if we can find something...

Hmm 19 years old, and a Maserati - not the best combo

It's been quite a long time.

After several years of dry storage, PLM538E recently came out of its barn and is now in my garage. Restoration work will begin in the coming weeks.

You can follow the work on this thread or on my Facebook page that I invite you to like: Gillette Mini Cooper (link below).

On the historical side, I unfortunately did not recover more information than what I already had, which makes it even rarer!

Here are a few pictures. I must say the interior lamp is the only missing part.