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1989 Austin Mini (Gavin)
Rog02:
Nice looking Mini Stew! :clap: Those things are a blast to rip around in, just a bit too cramped for my 6'2" (mostly leg) frame though. I always wanted to take the drivers seat out and drive from the back seat. Not to worry though I can't fit into a MG midget without putting the top down first either, however I have owned my fair share of MGB roadsters and GTs. All was good once I got in (my knees folded a bit better in those days).
One Saturday evening several of our friends from the IAM asked Linsey and I to join them for an evening of racing at Cowdenbeath. As an old dirt track racer with credentials as an ASA asphalt late model crew chief, an evening of watching cars whiz around a soccer pitch going the wrong way was intriguing so we joined them. The first heat up was the Mini class. What a HOOT! There must have been 25 of those things in one heat. Little 600 CC engines buzzing away like asthmatic bumble bees, cars bouncing off the wall and each other. It was funnier than watching the dachshund races.
A couple of weeks after that, Linsey was given a new BMW Mini to do a drivers evaluation on for one of the motoring magazines. We flogged that thing daily for a couple of weeks. It was a decent enough car but was rather gutless in my opinion.
I still kid Linsey about getting a Robbins Reliant. They are just so ugly, they are cute. :lol:
gilessim:
Hi there, I am also a great mini fan, I've owned 5 of them ,unfortunately they all ended up at the scrappers!
in about 1980 I worked for a while in an auto parts shop and one day, for something to do, we worked out how much it would cost to make a new mini just from parts, I seem to remember that it came to about £20,000! when a new one cost about £3000!
Giles
bogstandard:
Rog,
I rode about in Reliants for many years, and even drove about in one of these for a bit, when a mate would let me borrow it.
It is based around the Reliant chassis and engine, and was a classic icon in the early 70's.
http://www.bondbug.com/gallery/general_gallery.asp#
The engines could be tuned up to race performance, in the early models, 700cc all Aluminium. In later Reliant models they were bored out to 850cc.
It wouldn't look too far out on the roads today.
Bogs
sbwhart:
Hi Giles
:wave:
Pleases you like our Mini we keep him in the garage through the winter to protect him from the salt that they spread on the roads. I can't remember what we paid for him new it must have bin £3000 to £5000, I do know it cost us in total £3500 to have brought up to good condition, this included a complete new front, new doors skins, new right hand rear wing, new boot, new bumpers, and a loads of new trim, we had the work done by a company in Stoke on Trent called Mini Mine that specialise in renovating mini's. Mechanically he was in good condition the problem was with the body work rusting.
Reliants wouldn't have a rusting problem as they had fiberglass bodies.
Cheers :wave:
Stew
gilessim:
I remember that my mate had a reliant robin (known affectionately as the plastic pig) you could drive them with a motorbike license so he didn't bother with his car license for some time, we all had souped up minis and such like and we used to take the p**s out of him all the time, great little cars though, when he eventually crashed it ,it exploded into a million little pieces!
another mate had a bond bug, remember those?, I think it had a 500cc villiers engine and to start it you had to open the bonnet and put your leg in to kickstart it!
Giles
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