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Ogle SX1000 on Ebay is not for sale
A while ago, a few months before I found what is my own Ogle SX1000 now (this one) I received a number of messages from readers who'd spotted one such car on Ebay. No, it wasn't offered for sale there...
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Ranger Cubs found in a field + mystery motor
Ranger Cubs three-wheelers keep on turning up in the last few years and latest now comes from Stuart Christopher Satchell, who recently bumped into not one but two Cubs in a field in the Midlands. They...
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French museum closes - Hustler 6 seeks new home
Méan Sonora-owner Louis Lempereur told me about the upcoming closure of the Musée Automobile de Provence in southern France. The museum will be closed and the premises destroyed to build houses. Many...
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A new Peter Filby book: Cars through the mists of time
Motoring journalists usually can't be bothered with the obscure corners of the automotive world. But from somewhere in the 1970s to deep into the new millennium there was the great exception known as...
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Tony's Jem: Restoration finished and up for sale
Reader Tony Fysh restored a Mk2 Mini Jem a few years ago and enjoyed the job so much, he decided to do another! Well, his second Jem had in fact been in his ownership for decades and was waiting for a...
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Aussie Broadspeed GT hillclimber
A few more pictures of a Brian Foley built Broadspeed GT seen in action in Australia were unearthed by Mark Lambert recently. Mark says they were taken at the Newcastle Mattara hillclimb, probably in...
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Lining up the Mini derivatives!
There's no doubt that Mini derivatives are gaining popularity. The NEC in Birmingham was the venue of a classic car show last weekend and the Minikits Club had really done its best to show a wide...
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Prisoner Moke breaks record
You may have read or heard that the Mini Moke 'HLT 709C', as famously used in the 1960s series The Prisoner was sold in auction last weekend. I asked the car's owner Phil Caunt, who beatifully restored...
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Hrubon Phaeton Six - meant as a rallying Twini?!
The Hrubon Phaeton as well as its later sibling the Schmitt, both made in France, were a sort of Mini Moke but then substantially shorter so that it could be parked head-first in a spot. But there was...
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Autocrossing 1967
Thanks for several messages with links to two lovely videos from the 1967 Players No.6 Autocross Championship, showing some great action filmed that year. There's a number of Mini based cars to be seen...
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Biota restoration in Belgium
Rene Sontrop from France and the brothers Peter & Jos Niessen from The Netherlands aren't the only Biota owners on this side of Europe. Peter Morley is another. He lives in Belgium and has had his...
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Jidéhem knew his Minis
When you are Belgian or French you will know the work of comic artist Jidéhem. The characters he invented made it to Spirou magazine every week and were loved by many. In the 1960s and 1970s a number...
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Le Mans Mini Marcos: the build begins
Boy, has it been a long time since I wrote an update on the Le Mans Mini Marcos project. I could tell you all about the reasons for the delay but let's not worry about that here. Fact is that more...
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Peel Viking's original owner gets in touch
Here is a bit of a 'longread', perhaps quite suitable for the weekend? I love it when the history of a car is unraveled and Mike Athay made my day when he contacted me from Canada with some most...
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Meet the 1963 MiniSprint
You and I know the MiniSprint as the Neville Trickett Mini-variant with its low roof- and waistline, built from 1965-on. But did you know that two years earlier another MiniSprint had been there? Or,...
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Unipower GT book finally there
Ah, the mighty Unipower GT! So many of us are attracted to the model and so it is great that this particular Mini derivative has finally received a tome of its own describing its creation and...
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Enzo Ferrari's Mini - another picture
It's only recently that I noticed that there are more than two versions of the well-known pictures of Alec Issigonis and Enzo Ferrari with a Mini at a Shell petrol station when a third was sent over....
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Another book: Richard Oakes - Master of Design
If there is one kit car designer that deserves a book of his own, it's Richard Oakes. Not even Barry Stimson can match him in sheer numbers of designs. Between the early 1970s and today Oakes designed...
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Find of the Year 2021: the candidates
Well-well, 2021 was a remarkable year when it came to long-lost Mini based cars. With 24 exciting discoveries in sheds, barns, gardens and woods the number of Mini derivatives being rediscovered keeps...
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Le Mans Mini Marcos: Update from Pau (1)
I am very glad to write to you that work is progressing on the Mini Marcos' mechanicals over at Philippe Quirière's Mini World Center in Pau, France. These pictures came just in and show a bit more of...
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