A Mini milestone

[Bobupndown]

60 years ago today on 18th June 1963 a lucky and probably excited new owner collected this Morris Mini Minor Super de Luxe from a BMC dealer in Carlisle. It was never to stray too far from the area until I bought it in 2012 and brought it to Northern Ireland. With just 81000 miles on the clock in its 6 decades its obviously led a quiet life. Originally registered as 14 LAO it lost this number to a cherished transfer in 1994 and received an age appropriate A suffix plate. If it stays dry today I'll take it out for a celebratory drive.

 

[Redsailor]

No words can describe that car, it's just. Looks as good as the day it came out of the dealers showroom.

Brings back lots of good memories when a mate and myself drove an Austin Mini van across Europe down to Sicily and back, late 1960's. Would love a Mini van today, alas have you seen the price of them now!

 

[My Old Landy]

That is certainly a thing of beauty

 

[magnet]

Wow! Lovely.

 

[pedrobedro]

That's pretty. I had a 1959 Mini in the 70s. Registration was YGB3 and the car was stolen and torched. I've had 6 Minis altogether.

 

[Bobupndown]

If you had the '59 and that reg today they'd be worth a nice amount between them.

 

[magnet]

Ive had a couple of mini 1000's a clubman and my favorite a mini van so many good memories around those cars. Yours is in a different league mind, its stunning.

 

[Chippie]

My first car was a mini 850 on a C plate (1965)...£140 it cost me..
A small fortune for a 17 yr old as an apprentice.

The one pictured is beautiful......

 

[brewdexta]

My first car was a 1971/2 Mini 1000 Clubman, so it was 7 or 8 years old when I got it, i think it was £300. It had holes under the wings so you got your knees wet when you went through a puddle. Roofing felt and underseal soon sorted that out, and an engine from an Austin 1100 gave it a bit more poke. The front seats had a nasty habit of falling on your ankles when courting in the back seat so used to carry a couple of blocks of wood as seat chocks around in the boot

 

[Smallfry]

That is surely not original ? If so, its astounding.
I have had several Minis including genuine 1071S and a Pickup with an overbored 1275 and Austin 1300 swivels and discs.
Loved them (most of the time) I did prefer the extra room in the 1100 though.

 

[Smallfry]

If you had the '59 and that reg today they'd be worth a nice amount between them.

I do not like robbing vehicles of their original registration number, and have never seen the point of "private" plates unless it reads something legible without questionable additions.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

I want a Mini to fully restore and am a bit shocked at how much even a total rusty heap is now worth. I can see yours now being worth, say, £15000 or more so am betting it's a brilliant investment as well as being a fun car to drive

 

[addjunkie]

The simplicity of the dash…..all you need! My first car was a 1970 mini 1000!

 

[Bobupndown]

That is surely not original ? If so, its astounding.
I have had several Minis including genuine 1071S and a Pickup with an overbored 1275 and Austin 1300 swivels and discs.
Loved them (most of the time) I did prefer the extra room in the 1100 though.

Sadly no, it has been restored. (At least once) it's not concours but pretty respectable, won a few trophies st various shows but not too immaculate that I can't drive it.

I want a Mini to fully restore and am a bit shocked at how much even a total rusty heap is now worth. I can see yours now being worth, say, £15000 or more so am betting it's a brilliant investment as well as being a fun car to drive

Probably doubled in value in the time I've had it, that's what it's agreed value insurance says it's worth. Crazy if you ask me for a basic slow old mini.

The simplicity of the dash…..all you need! My first car was a 1970 mini 1000!

That's what I like about it, but it's the posh one that actually has an oil pressure guage and temperature guage. The really basic one had just a speedo and fuel guage!

 

[Morrisman]

I do not like robbing vehicles of their original registration number, and have never seen the point of "private" plates unless it reads something legible without questionable additions.

I followed a car yesterday with a weird plate number....obviously it was meant to say something, with its weird spacing and questionable use of yellow/black mounting screws in odd places, but I could not for the life of me work out what. Somewhat pointless.

 

[armalites]

I want a Mini to fully restore and am a bit shocked at how much even a total rusty heap is now worth. I can see yours now being worth, say, £15000 or more so am betting it's a brilliant investment as well as being a fun car to drive

One of my colleagues is into them and there are still some deals out there. I've collected 3 for him now. The last one is an early 1275 Clubman, unfinished restoration, engine completely rebuilt and receipts for that alone run to £2K. I think he paid £5K for it and it had been on Facebook for a while.

He has a couple of others, he has one being restored at the moment and he happened to find a guy who does outstanding work for a pretty small day rate. One of the Mini Clubmans this chap restored made £35K. He does an amazing job and sends daily update pictures.

They really aren't my thing at all but values are climbing. I prefer Beetles and Campers but weirdly the market for them has dropped massively.