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 Post subject: Mini Life
PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 6:18 pm 
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848cc
848cc
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Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2013 11:26 pm
Posts: 59
Location: Buderim, QLD
I love my car. After thirty-five years, that must be apparent to those who know
me, but for some reason I have resisted admitting it. ‘Min’ is a 1970 Morris
Cooper S, bought for $2750 (a loan from my father) in Brisbane, shortly after my
twenty-first birthday. Min is a ‘she’, and this has nothing to do with objectifying
women – it’s really about anthropomorphising the car, in the same way others do
to boats, dogs, shoes, houses and movie stars they will never meet.
I had two Minis previously – a yellow ’67 Deluxe (with windup windows and
bumblebee black stripes from a rattle can) which I wrapped around a tree in Fig
Tree Pocket, shortly after taking my girlfriend home. The second was a
scrounged body shell with the unbroken bits of the first grafted on, and survived
two years in the wilds of Gold Creek and Pullenvale, which at the time was an
eclectic mixture of wealthy ‘ranch-style’ houses and crumbling dairy farmers’
cottages occupied by left-over hippies and alternative life-stylers. The road was
dirt and rough, marihuana grew in the fields, and they were some of the happiest
days I can remember.
Not so for others however. A reckless moorhen dashed across the road near the
Queensland University pond and I couldn’t avoid it. Its neck was broken and I
wouldn’t leave it suffering. I had seen mutton birders despatching their catch
with a flick of the wrist – so tried that. Moorhens are not strongly put together,
and most of the bird landed on the windscreen of a car in the other lane, whose
occupants may not have understood why it appeared I had stopped just to
dismember a waterbird…and didn’t wait to find out.
That Mini was consigned to a paddock, after an early morning thrash through the
Surfer’s Paradise in a mate’s Cooper S - Weber carburettor growling behind the
dash as 7000 rpm splashed off the concrete and glass. No radar traps. I could not
believe how fast it was.
The current Min came into my life in ’81, and I rebuilt her in ’84. Then for thirty
years, she took a back seat to raising a family with the girl from Fig Tree Pocket.
I have since developed Parkinson’s Disease, and over the last three years have
spent a lot of time and money on Min - working on her when I am able – to
perhaps finally finish what was among the first, and what will be my last and
greatest car. She tolerates my slow and clumsy ministrations, but we will get
there eventually, and she will keep going well after I have pulled off the road.
An indignant man once berated me outside Woolworths for “butchering a
classic”, because I had repainted my Cooper S in a non-original colour and fitted
mag wheels.
A fortnight later another august gentleman waited by the car for a chat, and I
couldn’t prevent a flutter of anxiety. But he smiled broadly and told me he once
raced for Mercedes Benz, and was delighted to see the car being used. He had
visited one of his racers in a German museum, and it had been totally restored –
all dents, marks and his initials scratched inside the door removed -- and “It was
like meeting an old and passionate lover, now with a facelift, who can’t
remember anything about you.”
“But this old car,” he laid a gentle hand on Min, and I’m sure there was a glint in
his eye, “I think she is loved”. And so she is.

_________________
Min - 1970 MkII S, 119hp Dave Anton 1380, SH Engineering belt drive, 1.5 rollers, 123Tune ignition, 48 DCO SP Weber, HP Headers, MSD, Maniflow ex. Swiftune SC/CR 3.7 + ATB, all KAD front, antiroll bars and gas shocks, 6 inch Minilites with Dunlop Sports


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 Post subject: Re: Mini Life
PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 6:25 pm 
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848cc
848cc

Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2016 10:03 pm
Posts: 68
Location: Robertson NSW
How nice is that


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 Post subject: Re: Mini Life
PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 6:53 pm 
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998cc
998cc

Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2015 10:59 pm
Posts: 985
Location: Holt ACT
Thumbs up!!


Last edited by DavidE on Tue Nov 01, 2016 9:34 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: Mini Life
PostPosted: Mon Oct 31, 2016 7:18 pm 
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998cc
998cc

Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2014 12:36 pm
Posts: 611
Location: Bentleigh, Melbourne
Thats a seriously souped up mini....!

_________________
67 Deluxe
Dry suspension
1293cc, 11:1 comp, RE 282 camshaft, 45 Weber, extractors etc
4 synchro close ratio gbox
Cooper S brakes, no booster
Stealth box, as Doc says "goes harder and idles!"
RH tank cos I needed it crossing the Nullarbor etc..


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 Post subject: Re: Mini Life
PostPosted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 7:56 am 
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Yay For Hay!
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Joined: Wed Sep 08, 2004 9:27 pm
Posts: 15912
Location: Wodonga - Vic/NSW border
beautiful :)

_________________
did I tell you that I won a trophy?


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 Post subject: Re: Mini Life
PostPosted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 9:16 am 
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1360cc
1360cc
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Joined: Sun Apr 11, 2004 11:32 am
Posts: 12390
Location: Sthrn HiLoLands, NSW, Australia
"The road was dirt and rough, marihuana grew in the fields, and they were some of the happiest
days I can remember."...bet it was :!:

Nice story and you are living in some great Mini-road country...enjoy :D

_________________
"Show me the Mini!"


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 Post subject: Re: Mini Life
PostPosted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 2:41 pm 
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Bimmer Twinky
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Joined: Mon Sep 06, 2004 4:36 pm
Posts: 8606
Location: Brisbane
hits "like" button
:-)

_________________
No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.


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 Post subject: Re: Mini Life
PostPosted: Tue Nov 01, 2016 3:58 pm 
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848cc
848cc

Joined: Fri Jan 02, 2015 9:01 am
Posts: 483
Location: Perth, W.A.
Yes, totally understand your devotion to the little car. My resto has consumed my life for the past 2 or so years; always thinking about how best to get it looking like a proper mini (as it deserves).

I think when it finally comes home it will become part of the family.

:)


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