Palmer Caputo of Rome is a great Mini enthusiast who built a number of luxuriously equipped Minis for the Italian market under the Palmerspeed name. He told me many years ago he also owned a Wood & Pickett Mini Margrave and I have been pestering him about that ever since. And so it was a great surprise when last year he finally sent me some pictures of the car!
The blue Margrave is fully deseamed and comes with ivory leather interior but - it must be said - is looking pretty sorry for itself, too. Palmer added: "It is necessary to make a complete restoration because it has many rust problems!" It is registered 'PGP 920Y', which tells us it is based on a 1979 Austin Mini with 1275cc power. Colour scheme and some details make it look quite similar to Elton John's car, but that was registered 'NOB 209M', which surely has to make that a different car..? Who knows more about this faded beauty?
UPDATE 14:00 - Jens Christian Lillelund writes: "Elton John's car was scrapped many many years ago - great shame he gave it away in a raffle. The glass fiber wheel arches survived on another coachbuilt Mini - not sure were the rest ended up? Some hoarder or on a fake car - who knows..?"
