Rallying a Cox GTM

We've seen an odd rally car come by here (click) - here's another. Yep, that's a Cox GTM rallied in the mid-1970s by Tim and Nick Porter. Hang on, it could be a Heerey GTM, too, I'm not sure. Anyway: the Porter's weren't doing bad with their little Gran Turismo Mini, coming fifth overall in the Somerset Stages rally in 1977. The car came with a 1293cc engine with inclined valves and head of around 130 bhp. It used a straight cut gearbox with drop gears and was bought in Edinburgh where it had previously been rallycrossed..! Oh! And the good news is that it survives to this...

Rallying a Cox GTM, here at a stage at the Cricket St. Thomas estate in 1977

Picture courtesy gtmdrivers.com

Over the bridge and straight lecft. Thundering along country lanes was never cooler

Picture courtesy gtmdrivers.com

'YRM 675 J' survives to this day. Not sure if it is a Cox or Heerey GTM though

Picture courtesy ebay.co.uk

Arches were seriously widened. Please do not put a motorbike engine in it

Picture courtesy ebay.co.uk

Good looking could-have-been: the MG Wasp

Avid readers know I squeeze in an 1100 based car here every now and than as there have been some groovy designs based on these cars, too. Remember this one? Or this one here? And how about this? Time for another one now: the MG Wasp. If that's a model you have never heard of - don't worry. In fact the Wasp was a project car by American motoring magazine Sports Car Graphic in 1964, which I don't think ever got finished. The idea was to follow the car's built in a series of articles, starting in February 1964. It was followed up in the next month's issue but faded into obscurity after that. A tubular chassis was made though and was supposed to carry a standard and mid-mounted 1100 engine plus one very good looking body. The idea was to start up a small production line and sell them for 3,000 dollars. I don't think it ever got that far, but it would be nice if someone knew for sure...

The 1100 based MG Wasp by sports Car Graphic. Did it only exist on paper?

Picture courtesy Sports Car Graphic magazine

Cutaway drawing shows chassis and suspension nicely. Plus 1100 A-series

Picture courtesy Sports Car Graphic magazine

MG Wasp was supposed to have an 85" wheelbase, 43.6" height and weight of 900lbs

Picture courtesy Sports Car Graphic magazine

The third Australian Mini Coupe

You may have heard of the Buckle Monaco - a fastback version of the good old Mini that was built in Brookvale, Australia between 1966 and 1967. And there was the Ecurie de Dez, too, a car of a similar coupe concept and also Australian, this time built in Salisbury South bewteen 1969 and 1970. Two cars alike. Would there be place for a third? It seems like someone at least thought so. I never found out more about the exploits of 'Automotive Refabrication Pty. Ltd.', other then the 1967 ad which you can see here. But I came across another picture of what I believe to be the same car more recently. The remarkable thing is that, like Buckle, this company was based in Brookvale, too. As a matter of fact it was just around the corner from Bill Buckle's workshop, or so Google Maps learned me. So was it a competitor who believed he could get a piece of the pie, too? Perhaps even an ex-Buckle employee who started on his own? Or was it somebody who decided to carry on with the project in 1967 after Buckle finished it..?

Not Buckle Monaco nor Ecurie de Dez. This is a third Australian Mini Coupe

Picture courtesy Australian Hot Rod magazine

Air vents in c-post and boot with no number plate recess distinguishes it easily from others

picture courtesy oldholden.com

Please keep these cars alive!

In the last few weeks I have come across some sad advertisements. Advertisements for rare cars, or what was left of them. There was one for a Phoenix (the rare all-fibreglass estate designed by ex-Lotus man Paul Hausauer), one of an Elswick Envoy (the Mini based disabled car that was born out of a William Towns - of Aston Martin fame - concept) plus one of a mystery Moke lookalike, probably a one-off.

What all of these had in common is that I'd seen them before - these particular ones I mean. And all of them not too long ago and in a considerable better shape. I'm fearing their mechanicals were robbed to provide a far duller standard Mini with them. A bloody shame if you ask me. Please stop killing these rare Mini derivatives!

Rare Phoenix Estate looked to be in a show condition only a few years ago

But look at it now. All that's left is a shell for which so far there are no takers

Mystery Moke lookalike like it appeared in 2011. It needed work but was complete

Somebody put an awfull lot of work in it, but this is all that is left of it now 

Nice Elswick Envoy. The paint had faded but it was all complete and running

Together with a sister car it was offered last week in a totally derelict state

Unipower on road and track

Do we need an excuse to post another period picture of a Unipower GT? Of course we don't. In fact, I came across two cool shots of the 'Mini Miura' recently, so why not post both of them? First is supposedly taken in London in 1966. The car clearly is a works demonstrator, with its UPD 1000 registration, and I understand the photographer snapping it is a famous one, too. Who can confirm this? Secondly, there is the photograph of a car in action. This one was taken during the 6-hour race of Barcelona in April 1968. The car was raced there by Jaime De Agustin and Esteban Barrachina who'd both did the 6-hour race in a Mini Cooper the previous year. Unfortunately they didn't finish the GT. Could it be same car that was later raced in and around Barcelona by local boy Miquel Brunells (click)?

London 1966. Universal Power Drive's demonstrator is posing willingly for famous snapper

Picture: Press Association Images

Two years later, a sister car is driven hard in the Spanish 6-hour race in Barcelona

Picture courtesy Manolo Serrano Caso

And where's James Garner's coachbuilt Cooper?

Let's have a look at one more celebrity owned coachbuilt Mini. Another one that seemingly dissappeared, just like John Lennon's, Enzo Ferrari's or Mike 'Monkees' Nesmith's (this is turning into a series or so it seems). Anyway: James Garner's Mini Cooper 'S', coachbuilt by Harold Radford of London and bought by him when filming in Europe. It must have been quite a cool car, in its gorgeous mid-blue / silver paint scheme and no doubt fully loaded, too. In an interview with Car & Driver magazine, back in May 2012 an interviewer asked Garner: "Of the cars you’ve owned over the years, is there any one you regret selling?" And Garner answered: "I wish I’d held onto my pale-blue 1966 Mini Cooper. After shooting The Great Escape in Germany, Steve McQueen and I both brought Minis home with us—they had to be among the first imported to the U.S. Steve was my next-door neighbor, and we’d race them up and down our street. I loved that little car and could do anything with it." So there we go. McQueen's does survive for a change! But anyone out there who knows what happened to 'UIL 807'?

James Garner with his pride and joy: a 1966 Morris Cooper S, coachbuilt by Radford

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Well known picture of Garner and his 'Coop'. Wide alloys with Goodyears suit it well

Picture courtesy minimania.com

Big boy. Sun roof surely was a special request by mister Garner. Is the interior blue, too?

Picture courtesy minimania.com

Siva & Stimson on film

Well, well, it's been very quiet on here for a while. But there's a good reason for that as I was on another jaunt through the UK to photograph more cars and interview people for the next book.
Meanwhile, Paul Wylde sent over some cool film footage that somebody was kind enough to post on the world wide web (thank you!). I understand it is from a BBC programme called Wheelbase that was broadcast in the 1960s and 1970s and was all about the lighter side of motoring. In this particular episode presenter Michael Frostrick takes five buggies to the beach, of which two are Mini based ones: a Siva Buggy and a Stimson Minibug 2. "Well, what's the future of the beach buggy?" says Frostrick. "In a nutshell it's here surrounding me, it's fine for sports as long as you know the sort of sports it's fine for." Spot on, boy.

I am anorak enough to see if I could dish out more about the Siva and Stimson in question, and was not surprised to find out both were demonstrators. TRU 902J is the white car used in Siva's advertisments which later became the demonstrator of Skyspeed, Siva's distributor for the London area. It also appeared in a test in the September 1970 issue of Motoring News. NPX 144J, the Stimson, had a rather sad history as this was the car that got written off in Monaco in Summer 1970. Barry Stimson had managed to persuade Jacky Stewart to drive the thing on the F1-course in Monaco for a parade lap preceeding the race. Stimson’s business partner Ian Smith drove the car down to France where Morning Telegraph-journalist David Benson took it over for a report, and then crashed it just before Stewart had even seen it. Ouch! It did appear in Benson's write up though in July, 1971, of which I enclose another picture. The Wheelbase footage has to predate that, I reckon.

Two Mini based buggies in BBC's 'Wheelbase'. I expect the programme to be of 1970 vintage

Courtesy of youtube.com/desirendirect

The white Siva Buggy was a demonstrator for Siva's London distributor Skyspeed

Picture courtesy Motoring News

The Stimson Mini bug before it was written off. The lady is Ian Smiths wife Liz

Picture courtesy Morning Telegraph

Bitten by the Bison (8)

It's been over a year since we heard from our mystery restorer, working on the one and only CJC Bison, better known as the Mini Lamborghini (click here for his previous adventures). As a matter of fact things didn't look good for a while. I received a message earlier this Spring: "If you fancy a nice project, I am thinking of selling the Bison – less the engine and gearbox. The grp dust is playing havoc with my eczema (indeed my skin specialist thinks it may have been the trigger for it). It would do you perfect, super rare!" I answered in shock that I believed it wasn't a good idea and - to my own surprise - he listened! He dropped me a line earlier this week with the happy heading 'Mojo returned!'. It said: "I've bought a new spraygun so I could paint the side of my Mk1 Cooper S. That went okay, and I was bored on Sunday, plus it was a reasonable day. So… Just a single solid colour has made me cheer up about it. It needs a colour sand and probably a final quick pass over coat, but all the awkward bits and the edges are done." He made my day. Keep up the spirit pal!

Work is resumed on the restoration of the CJC Bison. The body is finished now

And with a first layer of fresh paint it is beginning to look like a car once again!

Mystery Mini derivative (33)

You know Mini derivatives are everywhere, but this Mini based mystery motor was the last thing I expected to bump into while on holiday in southern France last week. It is, however, exactly what happened. I spent some time there on the Cote d'Azur where you see many Mini Mokes zooming around, and spotted this cheeky little tangarine thing in the town of Ramatuelle, not far from Saint-Tropez. Parked in between dull euroboxes it is clearly very different to a Moke. I have no clue at all what it could be as it doesn't look like one of the many other Mock-Mokes that I have come across so far. I do quite like it though, including the very neat interior it came with, trimmed in the colour of the hood. When I returned later it was still there, with no sign of its owner. Now, who can throw a light on it?

British registration is of 1963 and classifies it as a Mini Moke, which it clearly isn't

Picture Jeroen Booij

It's slab sided and all very simple, but built and detailing appear to be very good

Picture Jeroen Booij

There's a somewhat strange looking offset between bonnet and the rest of the body

Picture Jeroen Booij

I saw many Mini Mokes on and around the Cote d'Azur, but what on earth is this?

Picture Jeroen Booij

UPDATE 14 May 2013:
Mick Davey wrote: "I bought this car for my wife in 2002 and understood it was built for RAF Culdrose with a view to throwing it out of the back of a plane. It looked quite different when we first got it - no hood and a different screen surround... We sold it quite a few years ago - surprised to see it is still on the road... As far as I know, it was a one-off, built from a Mk1 Mini, spending most of its life in Cornwall. The log book states it is a Mini Moke, registered in 1963 (I do have a copy of the log book somewhere in the house) but Mokes date from 1964, so yet another mystery surfaces. I named it Mini Poke just to be awkward." Thanks Mick!

Was the 'Mini Poke' built for army purposes? One former owner says so

Picture courtesy Mick Davey

Another reader remembers it being previously green. Davey says it was red when he bought it

Picture courtesy Mick Davey

Low slung Swedish special: the Holmbarth

Not much is known about this car - a Swedish racing special with Mini or Mini Cooper power that Peter Camping found out about. It's known as the BMC Holmbarth 1100, which suggests it was equiped with an 1100 engine. The car was offered for sale in April 1970 through an ad in 'Sportvagnen och Vi' - the magazine of the Stockholm Sports Car Club. Seller was one Eriksson - there have to be more of these in Sweden - who offered it for sale for 6,500 Swedish crowns at the time. The only extra information he added to that was that it used a 10.5:1 compression and that it did the quarter mile in 14.5 seconds. Bjorn Bellander, who came past here once or twice before says he knew about the car "But the Holmbart never succeeded in racing and I never saw it on the track."

Swedish Mini powered Holmbart Special was as low as it could get. Does it survive?

Picture courtesy Sportvagnen och Vi / Peter Camping

Do we see twin SUs poking through there? 'Till Salu' sign means that it's for sale

Picture courtesy Sportvagnen och Vi / Peter Camping

The car was offered for sale in April 1970 but there the track appears to end

Picture courtesy Sportvagnen och Vi / Peter Camping