Now in Maximum Mini Newsletter #124

2026 Season in Swing

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The intrepid IMM trio: Ranger Cub 4

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New picture emerges - but where is this Mk2 Biota now?

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Supercharged 997 Spenceley Special is rather special

Last events of the year in pictures

Broadspeed GTS raced in Adelaide Rally - plus replica in the making

Classic Motor Show 2023 - the Mini derivatives

Go to the NEC this weekend for the Classic Motor Show and you are likely to bump into the Minikits Club there. They have another great display of Mini based cars with a Siva Buggy, Jimini 2, Stimson Safari Six, wild Scamp Mk3 and rare Turner Ranger. Great stuff! Last year they even won a Classic and Sports Car Club Award for their effort. 

Another club attending is Midas Owners Club with a lovely Mk3 Mini Marcos jammed in between two Midases and somebody spotted a coachbuilt Mini, too, believed to have been built by former Wood & Pickett employees. Have a good weekend.

A Mk3 Mini Marcos sandwiches by two Midases!

Picture Midas Cars

And five more Mini based cars on the Minikits stand

Picture Paul Wylde

Restored Stimson Safari Six is among them

Picture Paul Wylde

And how about this? A lovely and road registered Turner Ranger

Picture Paul Wylde

This coachbuilt Mini is said to be built by ex-W&P employees

Picture Marc Eden

Stimson cars tribute at Restoration Show

Have there ever been five different Stimson designs together on one display? I don't think so. Paul Wylde and his team of Minikits enthusiasts have been working for ages to get just that together and they've finally succeeded, too. This weekend you can see a most colourful display of Stimson vehicles brought together at the Classic Car & Restoration Show in the NEC in Birmingham. The Stimson Mini Bug is there in two variants, joined by a Stimson Scorcher, Stimson Trek and Stimson Safari Six as a grand tribute to their creator who passed away on the last day of 2022.

Paul added: "I will send you some with Roger Fauchon's family (Roger was the man who built many of the bodies for Stimson) who will be here tomorrow and with the Stimson family on Saturday." Well done guys!

UPDATE 27 March 2023: pictures of Fouchon and Stimson families and more added, see below.

A colourful display of Stimson vehicles can be seen in Birmingham now

Picture Paul Wylde

This as a tribute to Barry Stimson, who died on December 31st last year

Picture Paul Wylde

Paul's Mk2 Stimson Mini Bug

Picture Paul Wylde

Barry Tibury's Mini Bug, as used in 'The Freewheelers'

Picture Paul Wylde

Colin Baines' Stimson Safari Six

Picture Paul Wylde

Philip Lyons' Stimson Scorcher

Picture Paul Wylde

Barry Tibury's Stimson Trek

Picture Paul Wylde

Bonus - 1960 Mini with ultra rare LMB boot. One owner from 1960 to 2020!

Picture Paul Wylde

Paul Wylde (center) with Roger Fouchon's daughters and grand daughter

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde

Caroline Stimson and sons try out the Stimson Scorcher!

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde 

The Minikits team together with the Stimsons on Saturday

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde

Lovely painting of Barry Stimson presented to Caroline

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde 

Barry Stimson dies at 82

A real shocker on the last day of the year: Barry Stimson died at the age of 82 yesterday. Barry was the man behind a great number of designs, many of them Mini based. Best-known of these was the Stimson Mini Bug, but there were also the Stimson Safari Six, Stimson Scorcher, Stimson Trek and many more. Apart from cars there were also boats, camper vans, bikes and even the odd amphibian or tracked vehicle, most of them coming to life in the 1970s and 1980s. He once told me: "Oh, there were plenty of other plans, I mean, I had some sort of design diarrhea at the time." Some of his ideas never reached production while others made it to the prototype stage. But apart from being a very prolific designer, he was a lovely and funny man in the first place who was always happy to see you and dish up some good stories from his many travels and all the vehicles he used on them.

Barry's wife Caroline told me that in September he'd had a stroke and had to have a blood clot removed from his brain. This morning she wrote: "Hi Jeroen. Just wanted to let you know that Barry passed away peacefully last night" I will start the new year with a series of articles about this very special man. Meanwhile, I wish all the best to Caroline and the rest of the Stimson family.

Barry Stimson with one of his more controversial designs: the 1976 Stimson Scorcher

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

He designed anything from amphibians to six-wheelers, here the Stimson Safari Six with its creator

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

And working on the Stimson Trek here: his personal favourite vehicle design

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

This was his best-known and best-selling Stimson: the Stimson Mini Bug

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

 But there were many more, not all of them Mini powered and not all reaching production

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Apart from cars Barry had a great love for traveling. Here at age 17 in Venice on his way to Africa

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Caroline and Barry a couple of years ago at their home in Portsmouth. He will be much missed!

Picture Jeroen Booij

Stimson Safari Six, as seen on Swiss tv

Seen in a 1985 magazine: a tiny picture of a Stimson Safari Six. I don't think it's one I have seen before, looking to be registered 'GDW 531E'. Interestingly the snippet about the National Mini Day in June that year mentions the following: "Some of the more interesting vehicles at the really included the Mini Mk1 which starred in the BBC television series 'One by One' and a rare six-wheeled Stimson Safari Six, one of only 12 built. This bizarre machine has glassfibre bodywork on a space frame chassis and travelled to the rally straight from Zurich where it has received substantial television coverage."

Who knows more..?

UPDATE 18:00: Mystery solved! It's a young Colin Baines leaning against the car, which was his at the time (he's owned more than one!). Colin: "Ha! Yes this was me age 25 at the Mini Cooper Club meeting at Beaulieu, I'd just driven over from the International Mini meeting in Switzerland where it won 'Der Ungewöhnlichste Mini' trophy - (The Most Unusual Mini) on TV." Footage from it can be seen here. Thanks Paul and Colin!

Stimson Safari Six, which supposedly appeared on Swiss television

Picture Jeroen Booij archive / Classic Cars magazine

Stimson Safari Six turns up at show

Earlier this week there was this lovely Mk1 Stimson Mini Bug that had resurfaced, today it's time for another great Stimson creation. This was one I'd heard about but which I'd never come across before - a black Stimson Safari Six, registered 'YTP 1L'. But here it is! These pictures were recently made by Marc Simonnet and show the car in all its shiny black splendour at a show. 

Safari Sixes that I know of are in the list below. Drop me a line if I miss out on any other cars:

NPX 144J - red

NGF 419K - red

JYM 2K - orange

GOT 133K - yellow

EAW 340L - red

PGF 289L - beige

YPX 676L - yellow

YTP 1L - black

Unregistered car - blue

Perfect car if you like to get some attention at the local car show: Stimson Safari Six

Picture Marc Simonnet

This one looks to be in an excellent condition and has to be the only one in black?

Picture Marc Simonnet

As with Stimson Mini Bugs there are Mk1's and Mk2's. 'YTP 1L' appears to be a Mk2

Picture Marc Simonnet

Shikari resurfaces in Winchester

After the Stimson Safari Six had been built in small numbers by Barry Stimson's company Design Developments, the project was sold and the production rights taken over by a company named Automotive Services, based in Winchester. They supposedly planned to relaunch the car as the Shikari with Ford Fiesta- or Peugeot-engine but the only evidence that I ever came across was a tiny little flyer dated October 1973 and just mentioning it. An actual car never materialized, or so it seemed. 

Wrong! This photograph was taken recently by Gary Bygrave and it appears to show a Shikari after all. Bygrave saw it in Winchester, so it certainly didn't seem to have travelled far. Note the plastic (cracked) windscreen and square headlights, which seem to be of a later era then the 1970s? 

Anyone who knows more about it? 

This certainly seems to be a Shikari prototype, as spotted in Winchester recently

Picture Gary Bygrave

Lainston Investment Services Ltd. planned the Shikari for 1974

Picture Paul Wylde / Jeroen Booij archive

The Tonics drive Stimson Safari Six

Ha! This one was a bit of a surprise to me. A single of pop group The Tonics shows the boys with a Stimson Safari Six. 'All Summer Long' is a Brian Wilson - of Beach Boys fame - song and 'Stand Back' on the B-side certainly seems Wilson-inspired, too. What it sounds like? For the A-side click here, for the B-side here.

The Stimson Safari Six they used may well have been a demonstrator that was seen in more promotional  material of the time? I found some pictures in the files of a red Safari Six that was used for the Godfrey Davis Truck Rental's yearly calendar. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the same car.

The Tonics and a Stimson Safari Six - the European Beach Boys..?

Picture via Bart Vanreusel

And here another red Safari Six in very sunny surroundings. The same car..?

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Used for a calendar of 1973, it was of course not just about the car!

Picture Jeroen Booij archive

Mini 25 at Donington Park - the variants

I was tipped off about this cool video by Pete Flanagan. It shows the 25th anniversary party of the Mini held at Donington Park in August 1984 as it was filmed by members of the Mini Club Oldenburg in Germany. From their arrival at the shores of Blighty (per hovercraft!) to the parade laps at the track. What's most interesting to me is that the filmers had a keen eye for the Mini based cars. 

Skip to 3.20 minutes to see a duo of TiCis, one of them being the works demonstrator, followed by a duo of Stimson Safari Sixes, one of them still being owned by Maximum Mini fan Colin Baines (this one). Then over to a Mini Marcos, an interesting hatchback Mini Cooper 'S', a Status Minipower (owned by Arthur Bills at the time, more here), an LDD Monaco and early Midas. Go ahead to 8.15 to see a Hustler Six, Hustler in Wood and - I think - Hustler Sport. Then at 8.50 there's that funny green mystery roadster seen here before (click here and here) and a Gecko, again the works demonstrator I think. The parade laps shows even more stuff such as the Michelotti Mini (ADO 70) and a Scamp six-wheeler. Pete wrote "You're gonna love this..." Well... I do! 

10 Derivatives at NEC show Birmingham

Don't say that Mini derivatives are still underrated cars. As a matter of fact a big display with 10 of them can be seen this weekend at the NEC in Birmingham, where the Classic Car & Restoration show takes place. Paul Wylde, who is one of the enthusiasts attending the show with his Stimson, took a series of photographs for me to enjoy. And naturally I enclose them here for you also. Say hello to Paul and his mates when you are Birmingham this weekend!

Stimson Safari Six

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde

Cox GTM Cars and Car Conversions

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde

Domino Premier

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde

And a Domino Pimlico

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde

Elswick Envoy

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde

GTM Coupe

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde

GTM Rossa

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde

Jiffy Pick-up

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde

Mk4 Mini Marcos

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde

Minus Mini

Picture courtesy Paul Wylde