Firstly, I did not say that the cars sold by John were sold as anything other than what they were - I said the cars were converted to Mini K spec, not converted into Mini Ks. That is an important distinction. I do not believe John would have sold the cars as anything other than what they were.

Secondly, the image of the police Mini in Issue 17 letters page seems to be causing a bit confusion as well, though not really surprising.

Here is the entire photo, as it was sent to me. As you can see, the front of the car is missing from the original photo. It was also received as fairly low resolution, but was quite suitable for the small use in the magazine.



There are a few interesting points about this car that do require clarification, but not all questions can be answered.

The car is clearly a square-fronted car, not a round-nose, so the square taillights are correct for the car.

The twin tanks are interesting, particularly as the car does not have wheel arch flares and has standard rims with hubcaps. There are no GT stripes, but it appears all (or at least most) police Clubman GTs were supplied without stripes, so this doesn't give anything away.

Looking closely at the interior it appears the top dash rail is painted, rather than padded.

The boot badge is rectangular, as per the Clubman series, and cannot be read, but the shortness of it suggests it would be Mini 1100, rather than Mini Clubman or Clubman GT.

The sun visor would have been either fitted by the police garage or by the dealership - by this time Larke Hoskins was the primary supplier of Minis to NSW Police.

There is an interesting small door mirror quite low down. Again, this would have been fitted either by the dealership or the police.

I would suggest this car is a base model Mini 1100 with twin fuel tanks. The right-hand tank would have been either fitted by the dealership or the police garage.

SPO27 was the Special Production Option for police specification Minis (non Clubman GT), and lists oil gauge, temperature indicator and handbrake warning light. By this time, reversing lights were standard, as they were required by ADR 1 from 1 January 1972.

Neither the sun-visor, the right-hand tank or the external mirror were listed as part of SPO 27. It is difficult to decipher from the SPO list (found Leyland publication PUB 1052) but it would seem that the station cars came with the oval binnacle of the Mini K or with the Mini Clubman (two-gauge) dashboard plus an oil gauge.

However, getting back to the original question - this car is not a Mini K, so is really not relevant.

Cheers,

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Watto .
Photojournalist
Mini historian and enthusiast
http://www.theminiexperience.com.au

looks curved to me on the the front n not 100% about dash rail as said mini k's could have twins but not common nor standard but could have one

I know many mini deluxes with twin tanks and 1275's but that's another story , most mini shows have them on show too

The driver's door mirror is the standard Wibroc item that was fitted to most NSW Police vehicles, as is the wind deflector and sun visor.

What is the small badge near the bottom door hinge?

I concur that it looks to be a station car that has been fitted with a second fuel tank, perhaps because it was assigned to a NSW country station and did long stints as an escort vehicle for over-sized loads or for general running around. It's the first non-Cooper S / Clubman GT NSW Police Mini I've seen that has twin tanks.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

yes definately correct on the mirror etc

& i`d guess the badge is the early die-cast round mini 1100 badge

the front looks a bit funny to me,,, maybe it`s just the sunlight but ...Hmmm,,, looks kinda more roundy than clubby to me but then i`m old & stuffed & can`t even remember what day it is

why are you all typing words into my microwave oven anyways???

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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.

Did the povo packs have early hubcaps

Yes.

Looks can be deceptive, especially from this angle.

So, is this pic of a round nose or square nose?





What about this one? Roundy or Clubby?










But, as you say, not standard - ie: not from the factory, which is the whole point of the original question.




But only modified - that's the point.





Thanks Doug. But were these fitted by the dealership - usually Larke Hoskins - or by the Police garage?






Not sure. It looks a bit like the British Leyland badge but is positioned very low. Unfortunately, as mentioned, the photo is low resolution, so I can't see any detail when enlarged.




That makes sense.





Same here. In fact, until this thread brought it up, I hadn't even realised that's what it was.

Cheers,

_________________
Watto .
Photojournalist
Mini historian and enthusiast
http://www.theminiexperience.com.au

Well, according to Evan Green - ex BMC then Leyland Employee - they did fit twin tanks to at least one Mini Deluxe in the factory.

I also know that JE Allen of Dural, a BMC and Leyland Distributor / Dealer also offered and fitted twin tanks as a Dealer option.

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first one`s a roundy

2nd ones a clubby

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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.

but yes,,, the answer to the original question was,,, is,,, & always will be --> "No"

_________________
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.

They also fitted twin tanks to a Morris 1100, fitted a turbo to a Morris 1500 and a V8 to an Austin 1800 and all this was done in the factory.
They didn't do these things to regular production vehicles that went down the production line. So the answer to twin tanks in a K is no.

And you know this because.....you can see in front of the front wheel. There is a difference in the length of the front of the guard and in the bumper. But not so easy to tell if you can't see beyond the front wheel arch, as in the photo of the police Mini.

I would hardly consider one-off cars built in the Experimental Department as being done "in the factory". Certainly not production. So the answer is still no.

Cheers,

_________________
Watto .
Photojournalist
Mini historian and enthusiast
http://www.theminiexperience.com.au

looks curved to me on the the front[/quote]

Looks can be deceptive, especially from this angle.

So, is this pic of a round nose or square nose?





What about this one? Roundy or Clubby?








But only modified - that's the point. - don't tell the poor sods that bought them and paid cooper s prices


Well the pics are easy, you can see the curve of the front near head light and roll of the guard just like the Police mini

Yes one off don't count but like holdens if a dealer wanted to sell a car things happened, and you waved cash about they got what they wanted too, one offs and these cars always throw a spanner in the works

the original photo is definitely the slab front mini.

You can see because on the far guard you would normally see a ditch where it joins the bonnet. But it is flat all the way across aka clubman style.

Therefore as Watto and others suggested is a base model leyland Yg2S6 model and therefore is irrelevant.

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ah,,, it`s just the roll & the droop of the guard really... never fear,,, tiss (as said earlier) irrelevant to the original question so i`ll let it slide
















(but i still can`t see the typical straight line of a clubby guard on that cop car)

_________________
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.