1963 - 1983 Can One Have Too Many Minis?

I/we owned perhaps six in all. You know Minis? Not the new, chic, expensive machine re-engineered by the Germans but the very English piece of outrageousness designed by Alec Issigonis (spelling?).

It pioneered so much; front mounted, transverse mounted engine, front wheel drive, rubber shocks, SMALLLLness and numerous other smaller innovations. It was also to suffer from many inadequacies too but best not dwell on those.

There were Austin Minis, Morris Minis, Mini Coopers and Mini Cooper Ss, and Riley Elves and Wolsey Hornets and Mini Mokes ... but they were all Minis.

The mini skirt helped make them more famous or was it the other way around? Mini's won so many rallies, especially the Monte Carlo Rally that there were moves to have it banned from competition. Rally drivers who drove Minis became household names in England. Yes indeed, the Mini was a force to be reckoned with in its day.

For me the love affair started in Singapore. Probably 1963 when Flt. Lt. Bachelor arrived at Seletar Yacht Club with one. Love at first sight for me (the car not the Flt.Lt!)

When we returned to England car fever seemd to have hit the country. We'd been away for two and a half years and in that time England had seemingly become a car oriented country. RAF bases always had a parade ground, now these had become car parks. Where once an airman had had a bike or travelled by train and bus or by hitchhiking he now had a car and I suppose the rest of society was headed in the same direction.

Driving lessons followed (another story) and the test was passed. I went to a car salesroom in nearby Oakham (Rutland county's county town) and ordered a Mini.

Soon enough we were car owners. A Morris Mini in Tahiti blue. How proud I was, the care I lavished on that little car! I installed seat belts, the newest thing back then. I washed our Mini and waxed it and cleaned it. Its registration was AFP599B - some things you never forget.

We owned that Mini for four years, right up to our emmigrating. Broke my heart to sell it. It was likely in better condition than when we bought it.



Canada! Yes the Mini had crossed the Atlantic. New, they were $1,400 - you pay more tax than that on a car today. It was natural I'd get another Mini. But did I have to buy such a derelict specimen? Well, money was tight and I thought I could fix anything. But, buying a car for $25 should suggest something about its condition, shouldn't it?

I went to the address I'd been given. A Mini ... eek! It was a Mini Traveller which meant it was a make-believe station wagon with wood strips on the sides (real oak) and doors that opened at the back. But, she was in a bad way. The seller and I got it started and then discovered the brakes were seized on. While I drove, he bounced energetically up and down in the back until the brakes freed. Cutting the story short I got the little beast home and parked it behind the apartment block. With no license I set about getting our "new" transport roadworthy. (The acquiring of a Quebec driver's license is yet another magic tale).

I renewed the whole brake system and, as time went on, I did much much-needed bodywork and installed another engine that I'd rebuilt in our next apartment. Even the woodwork got scraped down and varnished. Oh! The work just went on and on. We even drove it down into the States. She was my second Mini (the third I bought for the above mentioned engine, the body I cut up in the garage under the apartment)

In time we bought a VW 1600 Variant and the Mini was sold .................. for $110. A profit?

There followed a lull in Mini-ownership. The VW came and went, a new Datsun 510 followed, we moved to Nova Scotia, Mitch wrote the Datsun off (almost ) in 1974, a brief ownership of an old Ford Mustang followed that. Then in a mad moment I bought a brand new Mini!!! This was dark blue and a delightful change of style and pace.

We'd not had that long before I spun it one sad morning during freezing rain in Enfield and was hit by another car. After I'd climbed out, she was struck again by a third vehicle. I was OK but the insurance company called her a write off. (In fact a fibreglass front end was fitted after we'd parted company and "my" Mini was seen again 'on the road').

The insurance money bought another one! White this time. It seemed to decay at an alarming rate (more salt on the roads? Worse British steel?).

A brown, second hand Mini was acquired, (I think the original colour was gold under the brown?). This exotic vehicle was for Martin' s use I think? But this was a constant source of mechanical grief. While extracting its left-hand half shaft with Martin I managed a torn knee cartilidge which put me in hospital. Its right hand door was transferred by Martin to the white one.

Eventually I sold it to Martin for $1. Legend has it that he lost his virginity therein during a trip to Prince Edward Island.

The Mini saga pretty well ends there. Truth be told I'm not sure what happened the white Mini. It seemed to rust as you watched it. Maybe it just rotted quietly away? As a family we moved on to a sucession of Toyota 'Tercels' and my passion for Minis evaporated, the world had moved on while the British Motor Corporation had stood still.

A little footnote: the Lady Vivian had owned a Mini in her younger days. Yellow in colour, she loved it.

Here they are, she and her yellow Mini in the late 1970s she thinks: