Inhaltsverzeichnis für Summer 2022 in Mini Magazine

The creativity within the Mini scene has the power to constantly surprise and amaze. This iconic little machine may be as old as Naked Lunch and Juke Box Jury, but it’s still got more than a few tricks up its sleeve. Witness our two cover stars, each one a leading light in today’s modified Mini scene in the UK: Chris Denn’s ‘Purist’ returns for its second cover feature, now totally reworked with a twin-cam 16v motor, home-made aero and endless custom touches. Ben Gregory’s Bagsport Mini is a long-running exercise in how far the potential of a stock 998 block can be stretched. We’ve also got a hot Mk2 Cooper S that gets used just as an old-school road-racer should, plus an exclusive on ex-BTCC champ Andrew Jordan’s new Mini…

Beaulieu’s ever-popular Spring Autojumble will be returning on 14th/15th May, taking its rightful place in the packed events calendar after a two-year absence. Following in the tyre-tracks of the International Autojumble, which successfully returned to the Beaulieu parkland in 2021, the show will combine colourful car displays and hundreds of bargain-filled stands, for a busy and vibrant motoring-themed weekend. Looking to buy your own classic or seeking a new project? On both days of the show, a range of classics will be on sale in Automart and Dealermart – and with event tickets also including all of the features of the Beaulieu attraction, showgoers can head inside the National Motor Museum to enjoy their various fascinating exhibits; the new Bond in Motion exhibition features many of the original vehicles, gadgets…

The British Mini Club’s season opener had to arrive a little late in 2022. Having been hobbled by Covid the year before, the organisers of Mini Fair were – very sensibly – taking no chances when it came to public safety, and the original date of January 30th was pushed back to March 13th to be on the safe side. Oh, but it really was worth the wait! Always a stellar show, this year’s running of Mini Fair was particularly special for the fact that so many enthusiasts had been squirrelled away in their garages and lockups over lockdown, creating fresh and exciting things, and there was a whole lot of eye-widening stuff being unveiled at Bingley Hall. The British Mini Club’s own stand sported a triumvirate of special creations;…

It takes a special kind of car to earn itself a magazine feature. There’s no specific formula for what makes a build feature-worthy – it might be a commitment to originality, or an offbeat approach to finding innovative new ways to modify, or an endearing ownership story… the over-arching element is that near-intangible quality of specialness. This is all the more true for the cars that earn the coveted cover spot. So what does it take for a Mini to find itself on the cover of this magazine more than once? Well, it really doesn’t happen very often, but when we’re talking about something as fundamentally intriguing as Chris Denn’s ever-evolving ‘Purist’ Mini, we just had to give it another airing. Regular readers may recall this car gracing the cover…

Never has the proverb ‘If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it’ been more apt than with historic race car builder and competitor, Andrew Jordan. Alongside dad, Mike, the duo’s Jordan Racing Team looks after some 40-odd historic race cars for customers all over Europe, and that doesn’t include the impressive line-up of cars they get asked to build year-upon-year. And yet, despite the punishing work load and commitments, the pair still manage to find the time to build and run their own cars — latterly with the Mini 7 Racing Club’s long-running and still incredibly popular Mini Se7en and Mini Miglia championships. “It’s a bit of fun - our chance to switch off from work, really” “It’s our bit of fun,” reveals Andrew, who’s just…

my MINI story started when I decided to sell my oldtimer and started looking for a fun weekend toy. At first the MINI wasn’t on my scope, until the day that a colleague showed me his R56 and a friend got an F56 JCW; from that day on I started gathering information on MINIs, and began to give some real though to which model would suit me the best. After reading through some ownership stories and spending hours on the internet I made my choice: the fun car should be an R53. The iconic details of the MINI combined with the supercharged engine, that’s what made the decision for me! And so the search began. From the beginning of my quest I bookmarked an R53 Checkmate John Cooper Works, but…

For those of us who grew up in the eighties (or, indeed, those who are growing up now but still get their milk delivered every day), the thrill of the daily dairy delivery was tangible and huge. The electric whirring sound of the approaching milk float, the pre-dawn clinking of the bottles, and – most of all – the feeling of superiority if you managed to beat your siblings to the front step to collect that freshly delivered bottle of silver-top. Why? Dibs, that’s why. First person to the door gets to knock the foil top off and decant a fat glob of cream onto their cornflakes, leaving everyone else with ordinary humdrum milk. “After a chance meeting with Dave Tippett, I started attending events” Cream, you see, rises to…

Send ‘Your Minis’ pictures to minimag.ed@kelsey.co.uk ORANGE CRUSH Name: Dan Leverett Car: 1998 Rover Mini Location: Norwich Volcano Orange is always an intriguing choice when it comes to late-model Minis – it’s so bright and vibrant it almost looks like a hot rod shade, like something you’d buy from House of Kolor. But no, this was a factory option, and it really suits the Rover doesn’t it? The vivid hue was certainly an attractive element for Dan Leverett and his dad, convincing them to finally pull the trigger on classic Mini ownership following a lot of procrastination. “After a while of saving up and a lot of years of talking about it, my dad and I bought this ’98 1275 two years ago,” he says. “We went 50/50 on everything.…

It’s a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster, but it all just works.” Ben Gregory’s self-deprecation is a masterclass in humility, as he’s the Dr Frankenstein responsible for injecting life into one of the most innovative and devastatingly inspiring custom Minis in the UK today. Bursting free from its manacles and rampaging across the scene like a needlessly tortured simile (sorry, we’ll stop that now), the essence of this project has been to see just how far it’s possible to push a 998 block that’s still running stock internals. “It hasn’t blown up yet!” he laughs. “Well, not in any serious way…” This car can perhaps be considered to be Ben’s magnum opus, not least for the fact that it’s been steadily evolving at his hands for over twelve years now.…

Our beloved Mini and its clever layout and parts positioning seem so commonplace now, but it’s easy to forget just how revolutionary the car was as a piece of packaging, when it launched to the world back in 1959. One of the biggest factors in this marvel of miniaturisation were the diminutive Dunlops that the car arrived on. At just 10” in diameter, they were truly a world first, allowing Sir Alec to maximise the floor space to an unforeseen degree, pushing the wheels out into the very corners of the car, creating a true four seat solution that would carry even sizeable adults. It’s fair to say that without Dunlop stepping up to the plate to give BMC what it needed, the humble Mini would have never been a…

MINI SPARES MAIN CAP DOWELS From £1.82 Anyone rebuilding an A-series will be pleased to hear that Mini Spares is now offering the special dowels required when refitting main caps. The special round dowels fit in the main bearing caps to locate the caps correctly, and ensure the bolts go through casings precisely where the surfaces meet. Two versions are available: dowel – main cap for 1300cc engines costs £2.16; dowel – main cap for all other A-series engines is priced at £1.82. The dowels are sold singly, and six will be required per engine. ● http://www.minispares.com/ MINI SPORT FRONT WHEEL ARCH LINERS £146.26 These front wheel arch liners from Mini Sport come as a pair, and are suitable for classic Mini models up to 1996. Manufactured from plastic, these…

It’s always great to see a father and son bond together, and what better way could there be than to tackle a classic Mini project from start to finish? Rather than opt for a relatively easy-to-find saloon, Jamie Cartwright and his dad, Alan, set their hearts on a genuine 1275 GT - and after many gruelling hours spent in the garage together, this is the highly impressive result. Although Jamie never had any previous experience in restoring a Mini, luckily his dad was already quite familiar with them. “This was one of the reasons we chose a Mini in the first place,” Jamie tells us. “My dad had rebuilt a few in the past, though it was a long time ago. We soon discovered there weren’t many original GTs left…

If your driving bucket list includes such adventures as the NC500 and Route 66, there’s a new one to add to the list: the South West 660. This 660-mile route runs from Poole in Dorset, around Devon and Cornwall, to Watchet in Somerset. It can be done in one marathon hit or split into sections, and includes some of Britain’s most acclaimed scenery, including two World Heritage Coastal Sites, with the vast majority of the roads within Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Packed with secret beaches and hidden attractions, it’s the perfect way to discover quiet waterside hamlets, beach cafes and pubs with sea views that only locals know about. Signing up to the South West 660 allows visitors to unlock curated routes and membership offers, and the scheme is…

It’s funny how changes in life happen, and you end up on a different path to what you expected. This is what happened to Steven and his wife when they opened up a butchers shop. Circumstances meant for another life direction change, and Steven is now a successful building surveyor, which is not quite a butcher, but it does allow him more time to stretch his mechanical knowledge once again on his 15-year Mini project. This Mini was bought by his dad just before Steven was 17. As most of us can relate to, owning your first car is something quite special, even if it needs some repairs to it. Two weeks after his 17th birthday, unfortunately he had an accident in the Mini which saw the car needing a…

I absolutely love Mossy. I’ve grown up with her being in the media, on the covers of magazines and all over TV (the four channels we had). Kate Moss is THE super stylish, supercool, supermodel of the ’90s and ’00s. Mini has always had impeccable taste when it comes to anniversary celebrations, their choice of designers for limited editions and collaborations, and this was no exception. In 1998 Kate Moss designed a Mini with cobwebs across the paintwork, inspired by Halloween, specifically a lace ‘cobweb’ dress she wore to a party in 1997. Anyone who knows me knows I am the Queen of Halloween… so Halloween + Kate Moss + classic Mini = epic collaboration! This partnership also invited a fresh take on custom car design, which shows how diversity…

Something a bit different for ‘Special Editions’ this month – not actually a special edition as such, but one of the more celebrated period Mini derivatives. The original Mini Marcos GT was unveiled in 1965, a fibreglass monocoque to which was mounted the subframes and running gear from the Mini. At its official launch in January 1966, the model was offered at a very reasonable £199 for the shell, with the adverts claiming (perhaps somewhat optimistically) that customers would be able to build up the car in 15-20 hours. A steady seller through the sixties, thanks in large part to a couple of Le Mans entries, it evolved through a few iterations until, in the summer of 1972, this evolution arrived: the Marcos GT Mk4. This was an unusual time…

this is an experiment I’ve wanted to try for some time. I’m a passionate classic Mini owner who’s more than happy to drive his pride and joy into the far reaches of Eastern Europe, but I’m also realistic enough to know that the cost of owning and maintaining one is no longer within the reach of everyone. However, with early MINIs, that’s a trend very much in reverse. Thus a cunning plan was hatched. I’d buy the cheapest road-going MINI I could lay my hands on, and see how good or bad it was with an extended road test. Initial searches revealed that finding a cheap MINI is not difficult, but most had fundamental issues requiring major surgery. Most commonly these were a broken Midlands gearbox, head gasket failure or…