Hi Folks - I'm Peter on the Sunshine Coast in QLD. My first car was a '67 Deluxe (wrapped it 'round a tree doing handbrake 'boot-legger' turns). Then a '68 1100 with a shot motor. I bought a motorkhana buggy I was told had once been Australian champion and put the motor in my road car for a while, then my Dad (bless 'im) gave me $2500, which was a couple of hundred short of what I needed to buy Min in 1981. She was apparently ex-Bathurst, ex-police blah blah, and was fitted with twin 1.75" SUs - the only performance items I could see. We've been together ever since (cue violins). I did the full refurbishment/mechanicals/1380/complete strip and paint in '86, and over the next couple of decades gradually added/replaced/put back what I had before/and you know the drill - never just leave it alone and drive it! Apart from CSI dissy all the mods are period. She's not very user-friendly and I like her that way. We usually get home without too much drama, and I enjoy the reactions from people of all shapes and sizes - amazing how many people have had a mini at some time.
I've also had bikes, the last was a KTM 950 Supermoto - and the 'other woman' is a '93 S-class Benz, just might be the 2nd best car in the world, but feels like a well-upholstered aircraft carrier after driving Min.
I believe in having fun, but not endangering others. My time and energies are limited by having Parkinsons, (cue violins again), but nearly everybody has something to struggle with, so get in, belt up, hit the starter and let's go embarrass the heck out of the modern, high tech, electroplasmagorical world. They may be saving the lesser spotted mainland dingbat, and emitting less noxious gas than the collective flatulence of an ant colony.....but we'll be the ones with wide eyes, dirty fingernails and the knowledge that nothing but a 22b can catch us through a roundabout, and nothing (legal) can deliver the smiles per kilometre that our ridiculous, magnificent little flying bricks can. And when bricks are flyin', you'd better climb on board, or get out of the way!
