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We had a history of all Manton's cars in Issue 8 of The Mini Experience (we will be revisiting the story and updating it in an upcoming issue of The Mini Experience Reloaded). I was able to nut out the complicated history thanks in part to Neville Watts, Manton's engineer and mate who has since passed away, as well as from trophies, photos and other information from Manton's collection that was loaned to me in 2006, as well as paper and magazine files, period film and news reports and other photos from Autopics.
Manton's first Mini, in early 1961, was an 850 - almost certainly one of the first three UK cars that came here for evaluation. It is unknown what became of that car after it was sold by Manton.
By November 1961 he was racing an Australian-assembled Morris 850, which still ran with the lighter welded steel trailing arms from the UK Mini.
Manton then bought a Mini from Ron Flockhart, which had been brought out from UK. It appears this car was a "Cooperised" 850 and may even have had "Cooper Mini" badges on it. Details are a bit sketchy about this car.
The next car was an early Australian assembled 997 Cooper (the 166th one assembled) - this is the car that Keith McKay has owned since mid-1964. It was originally Red with white roof but was painted in Neptune colours for the 1964 season. Keith repainted it to its original red/white, which it remains.
Peter's next Mini was a UK-sourced (imported by BMC Australia) 1071cc Cooper S. It was only run in this configuration on a couple of occasions before being converted to 1275cc. This was the car he crashed spectacularly at Warwick Farm on 6 August 1965.
The car was rebodied with an Australian Mini De Luxe shell, delivered from the factory without any sound deadening, under sealing or unnecessary brackets and with no car number stamped into the body. A number of parts, including the engine, wheels, interior trim and boot lid, from the 1071S were transferred to the De Luxe. This car was taken to WA in late 1965, where Peter won the Bosch Trophy. He returned to WA in 1966 and again won the Bosch Trophy, this time entered under the team name of the Tridents Racing Team, but still painted in Neptune colours. The car was sold to Jeff Dunkerton the day after the WATCC race. It was then repainted in red with white stripes and competed as part of the Terry Le May Racing Team. This car went through a couple of other owners before being abandoned on a farm, where it was eventually recovered in very poor condition without any running gear by Al Munday. Munday (who has since passed away) never got around to restoring and sold the car to Andrew Bergan in Sydney, who rebuilt it in the Neptune team colours.
Back in Melbourne in 1966, Manton built another Mini to replace the one he sold. Details of its origin are unknown, but this was the car that in 1967 was painted black, with yellow and red stripes, and raced in the Tridents Racing Team. In 1968 it was painted in the Shell colours light blue with red and yellow stripes. In 1969 it was sold to Rob Bessant in Tasmania and this is the car that David King bought in the mid-1970s and crashed in 1982.
The next Mini was originally painted in the blue Shell livery in 1969 but in 1970 the team colours changed to yellow with red stripes. This car was raced until November 1971 by Manton, then sold in late 1972 to Brent Benzie, a former employee of Manton's at Monaro Motors. Benzie repainted the Mini green and raced it for a few years, before moving to the US and putting the Mini in storage. I spoke with Brent in 2006 when researching the Manton Minis and got some of the history from him. This is the car that Greg has just purchased.
There was one more Mini raced by Manton in 1971, in a Mini-only Series Production racing series at Calder Park. That Mini went through a couple of owners before being bought by David King and used as a road car for a while, before he sold it on. It's whereabouts now are unknown.
So, that makes 9 Manton Minis (plus the BMC-entered car driven by Manton/Foley at Bathurst in 1965) that we can identify. Whether Manton changed any of those cars around for others during those periods is not entirely known, although Neville Watts told me that wasn't the case and that the nine Minis I have identified would be about it - he was fairly sure of that, but not 100% definitive.
Cheers,
Watto.
_________________ Watto .  Photojournalist Mini historian and enthusiast http://www.theminiexperience.com.au
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you got me thinking. It would certainly work for Winton! 
Tamiya model I made of the car a few years ago..
