* selection of photos of Minis owned pre 2000 in the UK.

Mini #1 850CC White. Round nose. Time owned 6 months. 17 y.old Crashed on a wet rainy Saturday heading to a rugby game late in Blackburn I went back to recover it with a trailor the next day and it had been stripped.

Mini #2 1100CC Clubman (No photos of this one) Time owned 4 months. Blue. Stolen (From Tonge Moor) and used as a get away car in a robbery. Found / unrecoverable. I tinted the windows of this one added louvres to the back window. Fabricated a centre console that had a blaupunkt stereo hidden behind a Am/FM radio and hid the speakers on the back shelf under acoustic cloth. Rebadged it as a 1275GT - probably why it was stolen.

Mini #3 was actually a Austin Metro 1100CC again no photos of this a tyre blow out on the motorway on route to a mini show - blew the top wing seam apart and I slammed it into the central reservation. Crashed.

Mini #4 1100CC Clubman AEB858T. Time Owned 4 months. 17 y.old. I added spot lights / CB radio / Dual aerials and joined the National Mini Owners Club. Vandalised in Bolton Town Centre while I was working behind the bar in the town hall.

Mini #5 1000CC Round nose. Brown. WDK656T. Stage one tuning kit from MiniSport. RC40 exhaust / K&N filter / needle to match / Water heated manifold. Member of both local and national clubs. Regularly attended events. Crashed - flexing on a mini roundabout in Blackburn (Art College).

Mini #6 1275CC ‘Sprite’ A672XSD. Stage one tuning kit from MiniSport. Seats from a Suzuki Swift. Rear roll cage. This beast saw me through my uni days driving 8 hours through the night down to Cornwall I when through 2 engines in this thing one of which reverse gear didn’t work for a full term. Everyone in Falmouth got to know it as the mini that can't reverse. The locals wouyld often give me a nudge backwards if I needed it. I did the usual. Stage one kit, roll cage, swift seats, custom interior, custom grill - including lock. Air horns. 11 speaker sound system sub in the boot. Deseamed the the rear bumper. This saw many events including racing events at Oulton Park. The engine blow up and seized in the middle of Bodin Moor but I was able to recover parts to transfer into the next mini… Years later BLUE.

(Then a mini break for reliability/comfort… Volvo 360GLT those motorway miles for Uni - Which I sold to my Brother).

Mini #7 1100CC Round nose. Brown/Yellow/BLUE. This one was my last for a number of years and was until now my most customised. I transferred everything from the Sprite into this with more attention to detail. I sprayed the Blue myself with cans. (I know right) I have access to a trade account. Custom dash / custom interior. From the back the car was yellow with the word BLUE in yellow but the rest of the car was blue. Tinted windows. Blue Weller wheels / Yellow brake drums. This one I sold and bought a Volvo 480ES Turbo followed by a 3dr Honda civic before moving to NZ in 2000.

While in NZ… Mazda MX6 / Mazda 323 / Honda Odyssey X2 / Volvo XC90 T6  / 1975 Mini Van HULK (#8) / 2006 MINI Cooper (#9) / 2011 MINI Cooper from new (#10)  / 2014 MINI CooperS (#11)  / 2020 MINI Countryman S from new (#12).