Mini Memories. What are yours?

[AMCrebel]

Nver been a fan of the horrid little things. I struggle to fit in them which is one of the reasons I don't like them the other is uncomfortable, slow, rusty, needy bloody things. I have a late cooper coming in on Thursday that the owner adores. It has been a nightmare though in the limited miles she does now after a 25k rebuild. It was "specialist" who ripped her off. She could of had it reshelled for that money. The rocker shaft is one of these uprated roller rocker affairs and totally fucked. I have been telling her to have it replaced for years but she is happy with it rattling away. There has always been better cars available so I never bothered owning one.

Agreed - they are like the British Beetle to me - inexplicably popular, but ultimately wank. Once the format was established, others did it so much better. Mind you, I don't blame Issigonis, he had big plans for better version that BL (or whatever it was called that week) scuppered.

[AMCrebel]

I have never owned nor driven a Mini either - been a passenger in a few including my Ma's 1961 Austin Seven.

[Jerzy Woking]

My first wife's father bought her an 850 Mini pick up when she passed her test. She hated it, especially the truck airhorns on the roof, and the wide Dunlop alloys painted black and white rubbing on the arches.

I really liked it, as with the canvas pick up cover on, 4 of my mates could sit in the pick up bed so 6 of us could go to the country pub 6 or 7 miles away. Never had to let off the accelerator through the bends, because I was a driving god. Or it was dog slow.

She hated the Mini so much, her mums first husband got her a deal on a Chevette HSR. She never let me drive that, after seeing how I drove her Mini.

[FatherJack]

A few proper Minis drifted in and out.

My Mum bought a D reg 850 with a few holes here and there and I helped my Dad change the clutch, by lifting the car off the subframe.
It sat in the garden for a while while Mum got driving lessons, she refused to have Dad teach her.

I learned how to wheel spin in the back garden one summer.
My mate wanted to have a go and learned how to reverse into a fence post.
This resulted in bit of a shoeing as I took the blame for my best mate who repaid me a few months later with a fat lip for reasons I cannot recall.
So a bent Mini 850 rewarded me with a whole summer holiday mostly on the former Girlfriend of my former best friend.

Dad used to buy stuff off the Students where he worked part time and had a white F mini 1000, the boot was cooper badged I think, rusty but did better wheel spins than the 850.
Bought for £20 and got £50 at the scrappers.

[Guest]

20190119_181042.jpg (247.14 KiB) Viewed 624 times

I learned to drive on the road in this one, I'd already driven Tractors, an Austin Somerset and A35 in fields.
It had been bought a few years before for my brother and cousin, also my one aunt tried learning to drive in it. It was eventually left in the garden and scrapped after my sister's horse stamped on it.

The photo of a photo is when I went with my dad and brother to dig my brother's Escort out of a snowdrift

[Guest]

I later worked for a BL distributor, in the warranty dept, so got to see and sometimes drive new faulty ones.
I owned this in the late 1980s, it was dreadful.

post-3477-0-21864900-1383065714.jpg (121.15 KiB) Viewed 623 times

[LynehamHerc]

20190119_181042.jpg

I learned to drive on the road in this one, I'd already driven Tractors, an Austin Somerset and A35 in fields.
It had been bought a few years before for my brother and cousin, also my one aunt tried learning to drive in it. It was eventually left in the garden and scrapped after my sister's horse stamped on it.

The photo of a photo is when I went with my dad and brother to dig my brother's Escort out of a snowdrift

How big was the bloody horse?

[Broccoli]

My second earliest memory, was in the back of my Mums yellowey - green mini. I was 3, being dropped off at pre school for the first time.

I remember thinking ‘she’ll never wake me up and drop me off if I’m asleep’. Next thing I’m dangling from the drivers seatbelt, hanging on for grim death, not touching the ground, as my Mum and auntie tried to oust me.

At about the same time, my grandad had a beige clubman and remember sitting in the back listening to Glen Miller and Perry Como. There was some promotion of some sort, where cartoon characters were printed on vinyl and sandwiched over a magnet. He had a Woody Woodpecker on his dash. I soooo wanted it!

My Mum started a cleaning company for a number of businesses in the center of Leicester. She got the contracts for offices in the garment manufacturing area, a cinema and a Barclays Bank. I remember hanging out in the evening there, being driven to and fro sitting in the back of a ‘company’ white mini van sat on a cushion in between the electric floor scrubber and Hoover. I was 4 or 5 at the time.

My Mum was doing night school at the same time and got an accounts qualification. The cleaning company (Care Clean) was wrapped up and the white mini became my Dads car to drive to work, which included dropping me off at school when I ‘accidentally’ missed the Midland red bus. We used to live at the top of a hill and the daily ritual was him pushing it the first few feet to get it rolling and then jump starting it a couple of times until it took.

He used to park at the top level of the multistory car park in Corby, as that gave him the most chances of getting it going before he got to road level.

Since then, I bought a clubman for an ex fiancée. Laughed my arse off when my friends borrowed (from his gran) clubman at uni, managed to roll itself down a hill and park itself firmly in a tree (writing it off), and lots of fun chasing friends over the moors in Cheddar in various years of minis and broken states.

[Guest]

LynehamHerc her horse was a big bastard thing, I didn't trust it and wouldn't go in the field with it loose. Of all the ones she has had, he was the evil one. She sold him to someone who did point to points and hunting. The replacement horse was lovely and docile, like a big dog.
It looks like the Moke survives, whilst not Mot'd the last tax ran out in August. I have no doubt it has been rebuilt a few times by now, it rotted if you looked at it.

[FhakeConcern]

I’m loving the posts in this thread, thanks to Warren for coming up with it!
I found Asimo’s police Mini memories very interesting, I don’t think I ever saw a police Mini IRL only as Corgi & Dinky toys.
Mercrocker, I was really surprised that you like Minis based on my own perception of you from this forum together with the avatars you’ve had and my stereotype formed from those things (if any of that makes sense?). I’ll elaborate, at the time I had the Minis one of my best friends was a Teddy Boy so I hung around with him and his mates quite a lot despite looking like a junior Neil Young myself. They all pretty much hated the Mini, equating it with the Swinging Sixties, The Beatles, front wheel drive crap cars and everything ruining Rock N Roll and fifties style. The only Ted who I knew had a Mini was a paint sprayer and it was light blue with a Confederate flag on the roof. He fixed the front wing of my 1000 after someone drove into it, being Blaze Orange it never matched the rest of the car until Mrs Concern had it restored and fully repainted. She then lent it to her sister who pranged the same wing and had it fixed so the wing was again a poor match!
However my Ted mate was happy enough to be driven in my Mini as his F Type Victor often FTP’d. We went to the Chelsea Cruise in it a few times, but he made me park it out of the way. I also went with him to quite a few gigs that I wouldn’t have expected to like, such as Motorhead and The Stray Cats.
I’m sure I’ll remember some more Mini stories to bore you all with later.