Half the price including shipping by buying from the UK.

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1974 1150cc Leyland Mini S racer,
1975 No motor Leyland Mini "ute"
1991 IPRA Honda Integra (in the build)
1995 Land Rover Discovery 300Tdi

CAMS Scrutineer

A tip for driving a Mini in traffic. Don't sit alongside other vehicles in multi lanes of traffic. Drop behind or get ahead but don't sit alongside them. Drive so others can see you.
They will change lanes. They won't see you. They will hit you. It is not your fault. But you can prevent it by not being there when they do change lanes.

I agree, I drive my rover mini daily, and have a magna wagon "as a weekender tow car", the mini has cost me 3 years and about $8000, but it is now reliable enough and safe enough to let my mother drive it daily if she wanted. And like everyone else has said, just leave for work a little earlier for the servo convos, and the extra "carefulness" you will experience. No one wants their mini squished by soccer mums in their toorak tractors..

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88 Rover 1.3i "Reggie"
99 Rover 1.3i “Grover”
12 Mini Cooper S "The shitter"
17 Mini Clubman JCW “Noddy”

Living in a place where Porsches don't get a second look and ferraris barely raise a eyebrow (well, the non botoxed ones) i was surprised by the number of second looks the mini gets. Drive it, it is cool and a large number of random punters will appreciate seeing something less homogenous on the roads (other then 74snails boss that is).

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"Beware the lollipop of mediocrity: lick it once and you'll suck forever" Brian Wilson

well I've been mulling it over with the missus and we've made the decision to put it on the road and just enjoy it. I'm going to just fix up the motor i have till i can afford to fit a 1275 and do the disc brakes etc. Thanks for all the positive replies guys, you've definately put me at ease on using my mini as a daily

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Regards Kermit (TadPole)

came in to post about left lane driving - are you a wizard? OP, this man knows.

OT, I find mine runs better the more its driven. Almost all my issues have come about because I left it sitting for too long in between drives.

Drive it and it will reward you.

yeah I am hearing that alot about the minis, drive em more often and no issues haha. I am excited to start driving it. It's got a few issues at the moment that is beyond my knowledge so I will probably have to pay a mechanic to do it which I don't like cos I prefer to do as much as I can my self. But every one has their limits i guess.

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Regards Kermit (TadPole)

Wise, wise, wise advice. Listen to this!

I couldn't hope to count the number of times I've been carved up in traffic driving the Mini. Driving a Mini in traffic is a lot like riding a bike - nobody sees you. You have to drive with the expectation that the people around you are going to do something stupid, because they will. Give yourself an escape route at all times - know without looking that you can change lanes in a hurry when the truck you're passing pulls into your lane to squish you.

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Simon

The adventures of an owner builder in the Tallarook Ranges

So train horn on the mini then? Lol

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Regards Kermit (TadPole)

I had very loud air horns on a Mini and it had an undesirable effect. It scared the crap out of people and made them agressive. A decent late model car horn will do.

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Brett Nicholson
Greendale (near Ballan) VIC.
1971 Morris Mini Moke
1966 Austin Mini
1965 Morris Mini Traveller
1973 LR Series 3 88
2007 LR Freelander 2

If you fit a truck horn to a Mini when you blow the horn people look for a truck and still don't see a Mini.

Mini horn is a joke.
I run Fiamm twin metal air horns (off one of my Fiat 124 sports)- if you touch it lightly it's a 1 horn polite beep, lean on it though and they say get the F out of my waaaay..

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

The Morris 1100 hi and low note horns are the go.
Basically two Mini horns tuned differently. (one is a Mini horn and the other has a different length trumpet)

Yeah you have a point, they would more than likely look for a truck.
I have been checking out some horns on ebay, their are some that are like 110 decibels that just look like standard horns. he had a vid of them and the noise was incredible and they were pretty reasonably priced too. I think for around 30-40 + postage. the one that is in it at the moment isn't loud at all. kind of sounds like a fart that some one is trying to hold in lol. thank you for the advice though will definately keep that in mind.

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Regards Kermit (TadPole)

Always wanted to get me a train horn like "Goodbye Pork Pie" the movie.

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1965 Riley Elf
1974 Ex Army Moke
1997 Rover Cooper
2002 JCW Cooper
2003 JCW Cooper S