The decision by Leyland Motor Corporation Australia to destroy most of the company records when it wound up in early 1983 left enthusiasts of its car brands without a reliable source of data on vehicle production. In an effort to reconstruct the data some enthusiasts started collating vehicle information found in driver's handbooks, car sales advertisements and through owners word of mouth. One individual at the forefront of the Cooper S and Clubman GT data compilation effort is Craig Watson, publisher of The BMC Experience magazine (previously called The Mini Experience). Whilst access to information in 'Watto's registers' for these two marques has for some time been available to individuals upon request Watto feels it is now time for the data to be more easily accessible by the wider Mini enthusiast community.

Watto and the current administrators of the registers have agreed that your forum, Ausmini, should be the repository for the Australian Cooper S and Clubman GT Registers. The decision should be seen as a glowing endorsement of Ausmini as the premier source of online Mini knowledge in Australia. This could only have been achieved through the valuable contribution of the members in discussion and healthy debate over a long period, plus strong forum management and moderation behind the scenes.

Your comments and suggestions are requested so we make the most of this opportunity and ensure its ongoing success. Please feel free to post responses here, or send a PM to one of the forum Moderators.

Here is an outline of the proposed design:

- Registers will be in their own folder (click on Board Index above left to view their proposed location)
- Data held for each vehicle (where known) will be car number, body number, current and/or original engine prefix and number, delivery date, body colour(s), trim colour, date sold, selling dealer and/or state, and original registration number.
- Details of original or current ownership will not be displayed, except in notable cases such as a works race or rally car, Police or other government agency or business vehicle.
- Data will be read only, with updates administered by trusted Registrars, as currently occurs.
- Access only to registered members of Ausmini.

Is there anything else that needs to be considered?

Following publication we hope and believe the Ausmini community will help to source missing or incomplete data so as to make the registers more accurate and hence more useful as the primary source of Australian Cooper S and Clubman GT production data.

The opportunity exists for holders of registers for other marques, such as Morris 850, Mini Matic, Mini Deluxe, Mini K, etc. to publish their content in the same way.

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

Maybe a dead register as well. There have been a lot of cars wrecked or faked over years. What can we do to track these cars?

It was the intention to not specifically identify in the register that a car is wrecked or 'dead' as these may then be a target for re-birthing. Further discussion on this point encouraged.

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

A faked register or id/compliance plates sold register would be fine. Maybe have a wrecked car register kept by the admistrators only similar to the current system with the Cooper S register. That way a car for sale could be checked against several registers.

I can see some people being uneasy, but a lot of information is out there already if you know where to look. I looked up a rego plate on the Vic mini club and typed it in here. Now I know the VIN number, engine number, year of manufacture etc:
https://vre.vicroads.vic.gov.au/VRESearch.aspx

NSW have a similar system, I'm not sure about the other states...

I wonder how many people who keep their own register will agree with the numbers that Watto has?

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Maybe a donation of $5 or $10 to access that part of the forum for say 12 months

I know of 2 forums who do this for parts manuals and other stuff they say it covers the cost of scanning and uploading of the pages to the forum

Afternoon all,
I like the idea for the public registers and agree with the concerns about re-birthing. Whether the register is public or confidential their will always be people worried about giving out their vehicle details, like my father for example. He doesn't keep the original chassis plate on his 70 MK2 S for fear of it going missing. IMO it's a positive move and one the Ausmini and wider mini community will benefit from.

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1969 Morris Mini Cooper S MK2 - In need of some serious work!!!
1977 Mini Clubman 1275 LS
1961 Morris Mini 850
1964 Morris Mini Deluxe with 1100 S engine - rolled it

I think you have covered all the important points, Doug.

I am a firm believer that the more information that is available is a good thing and actually helps prevent the rebirthing or faking of cars, because anyone considering buying a car that they have any doubt over can access the information on the database just as easily as anyone thinking about duplicating cars' details.

For this reason, I am not opposed to including a list of wrecked cars, but only on the proviso that the demise of such cars can be proven beyond doubt. There would be nothing worse for an owner of a genuine car to find his pride and joy listed on a "dead" register and be unable to sell it if he desired. There are often cars thought long gone that turn up and are repaired or restored - some notable recent examples being Greg Coates' ex-Hopkirk/Foley 1967 Bathurst Racer and Rocky Canto's ex-Leggatt/Lander 1974 Bathurst racer. How would these people feel if their cars had been listed as "dead" just because everyone presumed they had gone for good, when in fact they were both very much still around, just hidden away.

However, as there are currently fewer than 1,000 cars identified on the register, there is only about a one in seven chance that any car will be listed there. By making the register public, even in a limited capacity, we hope that more people will be confident about providing their car's details. The more cars listed the stronger the overall protection for all people.

I believe the vast majority of Ausmini members want this information to be accessible and I believe the time is right to do so.

Cheers,
Watto.

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

As one of the people compiling these registers I must point out that many entries are from ID plates that someone has kept and the car gone to god or details from handbooks etc. I certainly don't think any list of dead cars should be done, especially if we have the info already in the database. We have a lot of info on many of the cars fate, but I don't think it should be made public. More than happy to use the info if someone is buying a car and wants to check what we know about it. I do that now on a regular basis through our club. I don't divulge the info, but can tell the prospective buyer if the car he is looking at may not be what the owner claims it is.
Thank god we can't do a rebirth of a car with only a number plate like the UK.

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1965 MK1 English Morris Cooper S (Downton)
1967 MK1 Morris Cooper S
1972 Clubman GT (6/72 Cadiz)
1968 MG Midget

So this Cooper S register is just a production list then. It will have nothing to do with alive or dead cars.

That's right. The current intent is to try and re-create the missing factory production records. It's not about where the car is now or its condition. Whether this aim changes or not I guess is up for discussion so feel free to comment.

The primary source of data is what's typed in the original driver's handbook, what's stamped on the ID plate or ADR Compliance plate, what letters and numbers are stamped on the body shell, plus data from any relevant factory documentation such as technical & service bulletins and the like, or other sources that are clearly in the public domain. Modifications made to the car subsequently are not sought but are sometimes held in the private section if offered by the owner, as are details of the source of the data (e.g. came from an ID plate being offered for sale online).

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

As a newbie this is all sounding good and positive. I like it.

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'78 1275 LS (Under Repair, Dependant #1's car)
'72 GT Powered Clubman (Mine)... Under (re) construction

Do you have access to the passports to service that we were emailing to John Sneddon? I think i sent him 3 or 4. viewtopic.php?t=86683

Maybe these mini owners who have left details of there mini should be contacted first before making a list on here to get there approval

Some may not want there car numbers known in a public forum even if there name or whereabouts of the car isn't included

My passport to service details left with john came from swap meets so since I'm the owner of them now I give approval of the details

It has always been the intention of making the list public at some stage and I am fairly sure that at least the vast majority of people who submitted their car's details were aware of this. As there are nearly 1,000 cars listed and with many it is not known the origin of the information, then it would simply not be practical to contact even those that we know of.

As the information we have always requested only relates to production information there is nothing really sensitive about the information and does nothing to identify the present ownership or location of any car, then there really should not be any reason to be concerned about the information being made available.

In fact, there have been some people who have not provided information because they were concerned about it being a "private" list held by an individual. For them, the public list offers an opportunity to provide the information for the benefit of the greater Mini community, without any perceived conflict of interest from any individual.

On the other hand, there are some people who have not supplied information because they are concerned about the information being made public. For them there will be no change in the situation, other than the list will be public, as opposed to potentially being public.

If anyone on Ausmini is concerned about the information they provided being made public they can contact myself or Winabbey via PM. Rest assured, though, that the information that will be made public will not in any way enable anyone to track down any particular car's location or ownership. The information will only be that which would have been available had the factory had the foresight not to destroy it all.

Cheers,
Watto.

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