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Happy Birthday To The Mini

My first car 30 years ago was a Mini, I loved that car so much! I brought it for £150 from a friend and used to practice in it before I took my test in December 1986.

It was a P reg first time round, which was I think mid '70's and I had it resprayed black with the small steering wheel fitted and my beloved stereo and speakers, the seats were more gaffa tape than upholstery, so my boyfriend at the time was a mechanic (very useful!) got me some seats from the scrap yard to replace them. I remember coming home after taking my test at Quinton and mom standing on the doorstep waiting for me to say I'd passed! Taking the "L" plates off my Mini was brilliant.

I went so many places in that Mini, 4 of us used to squeeze into it to go to Town at the weekend, parking it on the Navigation Street car park, we went to Clent, Stourport and Bewdley in it.

It was written off on my birthday in 1988, I had a drunk driver not stop at a junction and went straight into my passenger side, then tried to blame me. No mobiles or anything like that then, but I was lucky as the car who was behind him stopped and helped me and a man who had seen what had happened, phoned the police. He got a ban.

I still love to see original Minis being driven, the new ones are not the same.
 
adap2it said:
My first car was a 1959 Mini Minor. I believe it was made in August of that year, possibly the first run. I got it used in 1961 for my 21st birthday. I still have the invoice from Pride & Clarke, AKA Snide & Shark for obvious reasons....I have pictures at home. I loved that car and so did all my mates!
Dave A
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I'm back home now with access to my scanner. I have a picture of my mini taken in Nov 1963 outside a pub in Crawley, Sussex, where I lived at the time.
Dave AIMG_20170408_0004.jpg
 
And here is another one "pushing it" round a roundabout...

Dave A
 

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great photos dave i take it you are in the driving seat...did you manage to get all 6 of you in that mini:D

lyn
 
Astoness said:
great photos dave i take it you are in the driving seat...did you manage to get all 6 of you in that mini:D

lyn
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Yes we did Lyn, many times...we even drove up to Birmingham with 6 people and slept outside the Villa ground. Talk about the good old days!
Dave A
 
Had a few minis and can remember a few breakdowns, faulty electric fuel pump where it stopped working if you drove round a roundabout to fast and water getting onto the distributor causing the car to breakdown whenever it rained. Fastest one I ever drove was one owned by the son of RG Brown steel stockholders. He used to race it and brought it in to the garage where I worked to have all the goodies stripped out before he sold it, I was able to take it home one night and boy did it fly.
 
nickcc101 said:
Had a few minis and can remember a few breakdowns, faulty electric fuel pump where it stopped working if you drove round a roundabout to fast and water getting onto the distributor causing the car to breakdown whenever it rained. Fastest one I ever drove was one owned by the son of RG Brown steel stockholders. He used to race it and brought it in to the garage where I worked to have all the goodies stripped out before he sold it, I was able to take it home one night and boy did it fly.
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Never had fuel pump problems and I never drove slow anywhere, I was always in a hurry! As you know, with a transverse engine, the distributer was facing forward towards the grill, It was common practice to mount the number plate on the grill, to shield the distributer cap from water on the roads.
Dave A
 
Working for an Austin agent we had many problems with the mini and the 1100 with water causing ignition failure. Customers often used a rubber glove over the ignition leads until Austin/Morris introduced the insulation kit. This would have been early sixties when no self respecting owner would have moved the front number plate onto the front grill.
I can remember having to bend a 1/2"af spanner to enable you to remove the clutch housing bolts. One mini van I owned had the 848cc engine which I changed for the 1100cc engine, went like whatsit off a shovel.
 
Hi Guys
the mini car as always been a great litle nippie car for years now and i think the new mini they brought out
of todays model are really super i would like to purchase one for myself but i need the big car for business
It was ashamed what happenend to our car industry especialy the old austin motor works
and surprizing just how vast it really was when you drive up and around the longbridge factory
Lord Austin , done us all proud us brummies and made our city famous along with Dunlops making the tyes
for our great cars that we brummies produced for Lord Austin and the world
This is where the Empire started and finished at Dunlops the Tyre manufacturing for all our prstigeous cars
 

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Hello oldMohawk,
Yes, my car still looks exactly the same, had to have a new wheel cylinder last year, but other than that, nothing new since I put the pic on the Forum. Do you remember we also talked about Terry Smith from the Mohawks at Spring Hill Ice rink?
 
nickcc101 said:
Working for an Austin agent we had many problems with the mini and the 1100 with water causing ignition failure. Customers often used a rubber glove over the ignition leads until Austin/Morris introduced the insulation kit. This would have been early sixties when no self respecting owner would have moved the front number plate onto the front grill.
I can remember having to bend a 1/2"af spanner to enable you to remove the clutch housing bolts. One mini van I owned had the 848cc engine which I changed for the 1100cc engine, went like whatsit off a shovel.
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I guess that I was one of many no self respecting owners back then. I did many modifications to improve the performance...one recurring problem was blowing the head gaskets, which I cured by using a stainless steel solid type, that also raised the compression ratio slightly. My dad was the super mechanic with any internal combustion engine and I was the beneficiary of his endless knowledge. I had access to unlimited tools, including the specials...I was also a toolmaker and could use the shop anytime after hours, so I took full advantage of that.
Dave A
 
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hi maggs hope you dont mind but i think your mini at 48 years old is worth posting on this thread..what fantastic condition it is still inmaggs 1968 mini.JPG

lyn
 
Oh thanks Lyn, I see you have put the old lady on again. Hope people enjoy seeing it. When I go out in it, it does attract a lot of attention, which I find a bit awkward. I often think they are saying something like 'My mom had one of those'...Oh dear. Still, I am proud of the car really.
 
hello maggs you really should not feel awkward about the attention you get..i think its wonderful and rightly so that you are proud of it..

lyn x
 
Receipt for my MINI....dated May 13 1961, my 21st birthday! Still has the 2d stamp in the top right hand corner. They used to do that back then for some legal documents.
Dave A
 

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Adapit2it
yesterday on my way home from brum i went back to worc via the old A38
as i got to wcychbold passing webbs garden centre and heading to wards Bromsgrove there was a huge
Convy of these gracking little motors all driving in one line bumper to bumper they was
there was about twenty of them heading towards brum ,
I would have imaginied they was heading for longbridge and they all had the large white wedding ribbon,s on
from the doors to there bumpers , as they passed me
I gave every one a good tooting one by one as they passed me
does any bodyknow where there was any demonstration or show of any kind in brum
Best wishes Astonian,,,,,,Alan,,,,,
 
adap2it said:
Receipt for my MINI....dated May 13 1961, my 21st birthday! Still has the 2d stamp in the top right hand corner. They used to do that back then for some legal documents.
Dave A
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If I am reading it correctly you traded in a one year old nearly new Norton Jubilee Motorbike for a second hand Morris Mini Minor ... going from 'out in all weathers' to the 'luxury' of a car even though they sometimes did not have good heaters back then. I bought my first car in 1964 but can't find the receipt. :)
 
Our first car was a 'surf blue' Morris Mini, my father passed his driving test when he was 18 but he couldn't afford his own car until I was in the first year at Senior School in 1963. It was originally my cousin's and Dad had to go down to Bournemouth to collect it.

We used to go on holiday to Cornwall in it - my parents, my grandmother, my sister and myself plus the dog, we all managed to squeeze in. We had to put the suitcase on the roof rack - not much room in the old mini's boot!!

Happy days :)
 
oldMohawk said:
If I am reading it correctly you traded in a one year old nearly new Norton Jubilee Motorbike for a second hand Morris Mini Minor ... going from 'out in all weathers' to the 'luxury' of a car even though they sometimes did not have good heaters back then. I bought my first car in 1964 but can't find the receipt. :)
Click to expand...
Yes you read that correct. To be honest, I'm not sure what my thinking was back then but I was on my 4th motorbike and I remember being in love with the mini. I would go to Brands Hatch to watch the saloon car racing, where the mini's were beginning to dominate. I also thrashed the daylights out of the Jubilee and quickly got tired of it. I've attached a shot of my Jubilee, 884 ALL.
Dave A
 

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