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i dont know if its just me, or does anyone else look at the prices mk1 minis are fetching and shed a little tear to one that slipped through your net.

i sold my 1961 mini traveller to my mate 2 years ago for 600 quid and the shell wasnt too bad. i regret this practically every day now.

To be honest, I know that there are many people who feel like this. You wouldn't believe the number of mails, telephone calls & conversations I have on this particular subject.

I seems that there are an increasing number of people who no longer aspire to owning a really nice early Mini, not because they don't have an interest, simply because they don't think they will ever be able to afford one.

The truth is that unless you are really picky & are only interested in a 59, a Cooper or an S there are still pretty good project cars to be had. OK, they are not "Cheap cheap" like they used to be, but a decent car for restoration can still be found for less than £2,000 & respectable runners can be found for not much more. With a bit of work & time, cars like this can be brought up to a superb standard.

I have said many times on this forum that I can't imagine myself buying another Mini, this is still the case. Mainly for the simple reason that I am in the enviable position of owning 3 cars that are pretty much as good as I could ever expect to own, an untouched 1961 850 with 17,000 on the clock, a Trickett Sprint & the 1275S Speedwell demonstrator. I could NEVER hope to be able to buy any of these cars now, but was lucky enough to have bought them some years ago. I have however lost the joy of driving them regularly as even I am scared of loosing my pension fund.

You can have more fun in a ratty old Mini than you ever will do in something that is now an appreciable asset, simply because you won't have to worry about damaging it.

I am sure that the "real" fans will start to look at 70's Minis, as really fine examples of these car still be picked up for comparative sod all.

Mark F

I know it's nothing major, but I had a 61 Morris 1000. 2 door. It was beautiful. The front chassis legs were rotten and I scrapped it. (the rest of the car was solid and like new). Easy repair, nice car. I still reckon I could stick that through country lanes quicker than the mini. The front wheels did exactly what you told them to the nanometer.

It started getting silly a number of years ago (2003), I got very badly burned buying a 64 Super Deluxe for £800. It was very rotten and had been bodged up with weetabix packets, wire mesh and filler and then given a beautiful respray. I felt sick and realised that it was beyond my "give a tossness" to weld it up. I broke the thing and got £1800 on evilbay. That was the start of the madness.

So, I bought a 66 Morris Cooper (bastard-bitsa) for £1500. That was like new. When I say "it was like new" it was like new. I spent £570 on a 1430 race engine (Bill Richards) it had done 3 races and then lived in the back of a workshop.....SCCR, Drops, LSD, 37/31 sleeved ports, 48 weber, etc, etc, etc....then a set of minilites (Tech Del - like new, no porosity x5) for £100.

It has gone totally silly. The other day someone spent more money on a glass washer bottle than I did on my race engine. I don't know what my whole collection of bits is worth. All I know is that I very very very much don't want to be replacing any of it.

My mate has an early 60 mini which has been sat in my folks carport for the last 5 years or so. He paid £500 and it was in very solid order (ex race car, so it's a bit of an eyesore). It now needs a new front end, but I think despite it being sat there, it's probably worth strong money. Madness.

I could type forever on this subject....Mk2 RS2000 in 2001 for £1600 now would cost me £10k ish...I couldn't believe last year that my Mk2 Cooper I sold in 2009 for £4k was up at over £8k...really not worth that imho...

So at present I have the MGB Roadster (willing to deal if anyone fancies one) and hope to be back in a Mini before end of summer....my problem with Minis is that as a fmaily we've had them since the 60's...owned 20 or so,1st car was a 1340 Mini etc etc...so it's hard to get away from the

These days I'm thinking that a really decent early seventies Mini 1000 in something like Aqua or harvest gold would be the way to go because they are now so rare. Find a decent, saveable nineties shell and a suitable V5* and you could probably build one for a couple of grand. Drum brakes, a 998 A Series engine and box and the relevant 69-76 trim and bits aren't worth a great deal.



* Did I suggest tax exempt? I'm sure I didn't, honest.

Regrets . Beat this i sold a RS 1800 BDA Escort , alloy block model for £4800, and a ferrari 246 dino just before enzo died for £15,000 . But at the time that was the market value . The Ferrari really hurts

Two cars for me

AKY 188B Morris Cooper 1071 'S' - A car that i owned for a short period but one which was my absolute dream - Surf Blue, 1071, Morris and with Tony Falls signature on the log book but a car which was so far gone i could have never have restored it properly and that is what it deserved and that is what it is now getting thanks to Nev.

EDV 32C Austin Cooper 998. One family owned Old English White / Black. Full history file from brand new. This car had every receipt, document and piece of history from 26th May 1965 to date. When i restored it, all that was replaced was the drivers side narrow sill!! A truly incredible car.

.........and now? Yep im looking for another one after saying Never again!!

Tim

We all have regrets on what we should have bought mine was a DB5 for £5,500 but saved my money and instead bought a Frogeye for £500 and a 69 998 Cooper and a knackered 68 1275 'S' still a great car which I had great fun in but the values didn't rise quite so sharply

There are still bargains out there In the last couple of months I bought a MK3 'S' for £8k which needs work but is perfectly usable and presentable and I don't have to worry about parking it up unlike my other cars and is great fun thrashing around

9330FN wrote: There are still bargains out there In the last couple of months I bought a MK3 'S' for £8k which needs work but is perfectly usable and presentable and I don't have to worry about parking it up unlike my other cars and is great fun thrashing around

I would be worried about parking up an £8k Mk3 'S'...........with the number of classic Mini's being reported stolen recently.
http://www.classicandsportscar.com/news ... tom_link_1

You can have more fun in a ratty old Mini than you ever will do in something that is now an appreciable asset, simply because you won't have to worry about damaging it.

i think that every time i rally my 1 0wner 998, but then again you have to get in the mind set of using a particular car for a purpose, the car then finds it value in a different market place, i do still however agree with mark that every day driving can be hampered by thinking about damaging your asset, i worry more about leaving them and returning to an empty parking place though. the 1293 has had a 576 lens stolen, the 998 had a set of 700 spots removed and for those that remember my maestro, that had an original set of super oscars removed while parked at my local ...................................... bas@@@ds

My regret is not buying an "S" ten or twelve years ago when I considered not changing my every day car for a few more years and spending the money on a Mini then, I didn't and bought a new VW Passat instead, it's been and gone and lost all it's value, a really good Cooper for the same money would be worth £10K more today So now I've had to spend as much on an 850 as would have bought a good "S" all those years ago, So I'll just be content and happy to have a really nice standard Mk1 in the garage, so it hasn't got a little S script on the bonnet and boot, it's not fast but it has all the cute features and makes me smile everytime I get into it and really that's just what it's all about for me.

i've got a very mk11 super deluxe which is tuned to near cooper spec. and with disc brakes it,s a laugh a minute. i,m 60, so of course you look back at all
the lovely cars you owned through rose tinted spectacles, but it,s pointless really. enjoy what you've got.

Exactly. Enjoy what you've got. It matters not what it is. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there with a "perfect" Mk1S and suchlike who never use it and don't get any pleasure out of it.

ANY Mini can be fun

i've owned a lot of cars in my 61 years ..my biggest screw up is the demise of my 1st mini purchased in 1970,GOY746D. green metallic stuart-arden mini sprint gt. i turned it into a mullholland street racer. the 1st week i purchased it i pulled the engine/trans, built a sccr box,welded diff,648 cam,weber,headers,ported head,lt flywheel...all the stuff.then richard longman sent me a set of 7 x12 minilites,dunlop cr somethings,reradiused wheelwells,grp 5 flares.the only good thing is that i did all the work myself with a lot of advice from the people with "the knowlege" i still have all original parts just no car. it's amazing that i lived through my misguided youth

more to share if anyone cares.......in 1970 a friend and i drove the sprint 400 miles north to laguna seca for the october ca am race on friday morning.we got there in 6 hours including a lot of gas stops.10 mpg tops.we snuck into paddock/pits with the car and we see Stirling Moss talking to 2 hotties. he sees the sprint and actually hurries over to us and starts talking about cars and things in general. couldn't believe it. since we snuck in we couldn't leave and get back in.i unbolted the front seats and slept in it for 2 nights. the uop shadow can am team fed us. Peter Bryant was the cars designer and 2 days before his heart attack i got to spend 3 great days with him just a few years ago.what a guy. he wrote a book about his life which is a great book.he was a real racer. jw

jay weinstein wrote:more to share if anyone cares.......in 1970 a friend and i drove the sprint 400 miles north to laguna seca for the october ca am race on friday morning.we got there in 6 hours including a lot of gas stops.10 mpg tops.we snuck into paddock/pits with the car and we see Stirling Moss talking to 2 hotties. he sees the sprint and actually hurries over to us and starts talking about cars and things in general. couldn't believe it. since we snuck in we couldn't leave and get back in.i unbolted the front seats and slept in it for 2 nights. the uop shadow can am team fed us. Peter Bryant was the cars designer and 2 days before his heart attack i got to spend 3 great days with him just a few years ago.what a guy. he wrote a book about his life which is a great book.he was a real racer. jw

great storie and great car have a friend who owned a S&A Sprint in the 70ies, it was sold in favor of a Lotus Europa.

The Lotus is the wrong model (French engine) and is now sitting in a garage, somewhere in Wales rusting away.

I saw it (the Lotus) more than 10 years ago, and the garage roof was already leaking back then, so the interior was covered with mould, the alloy was covered with White corrosion,
and the frame was thick with severe rust all over.
Dont think it will be worth much these days


PS - good thing its not the S&A Sprint he kept

it gets worse...in the early 80's an idiot,self named "danny daytona" who actually owned a ferrari daytona came to my shop with a red s.a. sprint that was so rusty that he welded the subframes and body together with 1/4"steel plate like a tank. eventually he placed the car on a 20 foot pole. it was only a few miles from me..maybe it's still there

Yes, you are far from alone in looking back and thinking "What the hell was I thinking????"

Do you have any photos of the sprint? I think we all enjoy photos from "back in the day" and don't worry, we all take a bit of guilty pleasure when cars which these days would be subject to careful resortation to uncluttered perfection, pictured in their 'slightly past their prime' (usually mid '70s) when they have been loaded up with every tacky accesory, wide arches, horrid alloys, and for an added bonus include the owner sporting man made fibre flares, wide collared shirt, and hair like Frank Zappa (matching moustace earns even more bonus points!)

Ritches 850 being a prime example ('till he ruined it by taking off the jelly mould bonnet / front end )

Al

jay weinstein wrote:i've owned a lot of cars in my 61 years ..my biggest screw up is the demise of my 1st mini purchased in 1970,GOY746D. green metallic stuart-arden mini sprint gt. i turned it into a mullholland street racer. the 1st week i purchased it i pulled the engine/trans, built a sccr box,welded diff,648 cam,weber,headers,ported head,lt flywheel...all the stuff.then richard longman sent me a set of 7 x12 minilites,dunlop cr somethings,reradiused wheelwells,grp 5 flares.the only good thing is that i did all the work myself with a lot of advice from the people with "the knowlege" i still have all original parts just no car. it's amazing that i lived through my misguided youth

Did it have 10" mag Minilites on it and a fancy dash when you got it ? I'm sure I've seen photos of that car !

it had 10x4.5 minilites. standard looking dash with a vicking pod on the column. pictures of the car before i purchased it and starting ruining it are used in the s.a. ad on the sprint site on this site. GOY746D the rear plate is hanging in my living room. i've got some pictures of the car when i was a kid in an album. i have hundreds of photos i'd love to share but need help doing it. any volunteers? when i got car it was as nice as shown in the ad