Identifying a car can be easy when you have enough historical photographs. I found quite a lot of holes on the car I recently bought, and all of them can be traced back to its past, wether they have been filled or not. It was the major key to identifying the car as the Le Mans Mini Marcos.
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Holes for the side indicators were a giveaway on the Le Mans Mini Marcos.
But what's that little hole just in front of it?
Picture Jeroen Booij
This is the signature indicator like it should be, seen here at the Le Mans weigh bridge
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
But here we see the car again in 1970 at the start of the Treffort hill climb with the added hole. I have no idea what is was for. Also note the modified bonnet, just like it is today
Picture via Enguerrand Lecesne
Holes were drilled in both doors to illuminate the door numbers during the night section
They have all been filled but cannot be rubbed out completely
Picture Jeroen Booij
The same door can be seen here with the lights still in it
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
And also from the inside it's clear that it used to have holes here. The doors appear never
to have had side boxes like most other early Mini Marcoses have
Picture Jeroen Booij
This is just to show the left hand side had similar lights fitted to illuminate the number 50
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
This is the modified bonnet of the car. You can still see the holes were the little bulges
were made to make the 1 1/2" SU carburetors fit properly
Picture Jeroen Booij
These bulges can be seen here, this picture was taken at Le Mans test day,
they were painted during the actual 24 hours race
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
The rear lights used came from a Simca 1000 and these should still fit in perfectly today
Picture Jeroen Booij
There they are as shown at the Le Mans pit street back in 1966
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
The big filler gap, now filled, was of course another great giveaway clou in identifying the car
Picture Jeroen Booij
Seen here with the now missing, and rather huge, filler cap. The tank is still there
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
This was another clue. The car originally had one of the fake louvres on the left hand side
opened up. It's still the same after all these years
Picture Jeroen Booij
Here again from the same angle, but now taken in 1966. The opened louvre is good visible
Picture Jeroen Booij archive
Not much of the interior is left, but the dashboard still shows plenty of recognition marks
There are three holes on top, right of the centre, plus one on each side on the left
Picture Jeroen Booij
This is the only good historical photograph I have of the car's interior, taken in 1975
You can clearly see all the holes that are still there. Also note two holes in left hand door
Picture Michel Tasset / Jeroen Booij archive
The car used just a single wiper on the left hand side as it was left hand driven
Picture Jeroen Booij
Initially a wiper could have been fitted on the right, too, but this hole was later filled
Picture Jeroen Booij archive