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photos discovered in ancient bmc representative in Uruguay which closed about 30 years.
crash tests are fiberglass bodywork???

that didnt bend as much as a steel one!

It's the Peel built Grp car for Chile being tested at MIRA in 1967. I wrote about it in January 2011 Mini World.

Does anybody know if any of the Peel cars survived, because I think a friend of mine may have one.

As Rich says not as much distortion/crumpling as you'd get with a steel car but the energy's got to go somewhere as I'm sure any living passenger would have testified !

If you read the article we do go in to some detail on the cars. Peel only made 1 car "The Green one" as it was affectionally known and they made all the jigs and moulds. All this was then sent to Pressed Steel in Oxford, the complete car was painted white and taken to MIRA (they brought the Peel engineerers over for the testing). A further 6 prototypes where made at PSF to a slightly modified design for evaluation of suitability for the domestic market. The original Peel moulds etc were sent out to Chili along with 1 of the PSF made cars so all the cars made in Chili are to the same design as the Peel car but the 6 PSF cars are different. Some of these PSF cars survive, email me some photos and I will be able to identify it for your friend. I could then put him in touch with some of the other surviving cars owners.

In 1275 Uruguay was manufactured in 1976 and today you can still see.
Where do I find information about manufactured in Chile??

Great cars, I've just written a piece on the Uruguay built Morris 1275 GT's, it's out in the next issue of Mini Magazine (May 2013), I also covered the Chilean built GRP Mini's in the South American installment of Mini Magazines current Minis of the World series (March 2013). I wrote in great detail about the Chili built GRP Mini's in January 2011 Mini World focusing on Peels' involvement. I went to the Isle of Man and interviewed George Gelling who was the factory foreman and while not the boss was pretty much in charge of all the GRP car stuff, Cyril Canning who owned Peel was very good at ideas but less good at seeing them through, that's where George came in. Fascinating chap, restores vintage Tractors now!

Bill

Several years ago I worked on a fishing boat with a fisherman called Jorge from Chile. Despite his broken English and my non-existent Spanish we learnt that we were both mad about Minis. He had owned a few GRP Minis back home and thought quite highly of them, although he mentioned that they had gained a bad reputation due to people repairing them cut-and-shut style. He said that it wasn't unusual to find that the shiny mini you had just bought was really the front half of one car grafted to the back half of another. I guess less skill is required to do a cut and shut with resin and glassfibre.

Tim

Fibreglass 1969 Mini Cooper made in Chile - posted on TMF by 'cooperS' (MOC Santiago, Chile)
http://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/to ... ?p=3353804

I worked at Pressed Steel Cowley as a Millwright in circa 1973 .. while having a wander around the Factory in an outside area, i came across a Plastic Mini Shell apparently abandoned outside & the mini floor was filled with rainwater & plant life ! .. it had been left there unprotected without any paint & stored in a area near some old press tools & the "body in white" MGB shells that came in from Swindon .. i tried to find out if that Chile plastic mini shell was to be scrapped as there was a Cowley Scrap Store that sold off items such as panels & trim etc; to employees ..but I left Pressed Steel as the Ted Heath 3 day working week started & i needed a living wage .. just another old gits story.
Norman.

Would make a great track day car any for sale?