Was in Malta for the weekend and saw loads of minis - on an island of 400,000 people I saw more in 2 days than I usually see in Sydney in a month (pop 4.5 million)!!

Saw a few that were driving around and kind of haft heartedly tried to get my camera out of it's pouch and switched on and take a pic but was too slow by far every time. Then somehow it became a bit of an obsession that I MUST capture a mini before sunday night - and in the end i got 5.....

First one taken from a moving bus, just visible black mini in car park...


Next - again from bus - blue clubby (estate i think)...


tasty racing stripes...


Got this one from front and rear...



and last one parked up next to a couple of Skodas (also very popular in Malta)

a girl at my uni saw my little brg roundie and told me she had just left hers which looked exactly the same back in malta

_________________
Enjoy Chris

Nice shots...check out the medals that the Mini has won....outstanding

_________________
"Show me the Mini!"

An the thing on the far left (Is that a Skoda?) hasnt got any - he he he.

"d1ck0" An the thing on the far left (Is that a Skoda?) hasnt got any - he he he.

But you can order one from Valletta

_________________
"Show me the Mini!"

The car on the far left is a Skoda Estelle/120L. We had one when I was a kid... mildy dangerous but not in a good way.

I had to work on one once. The clutch was stuffed, no non genuine bits available. We called the distributor who said "theres one in a container on its way to Australia, the only problem is we dont know where the ship is!"

The clutch didnt get fixed.

I was born in Malta and lived there for the first 27 years of my life (then I came to heaven-Australia) One of the pics above was taken in the town of MSIDA where I was brought up I spotted the sign post. I remember in the sixties and seventies there were thousands of Minis on the Island. I left Malta in 1980 and never had any interest in the car till I came here. Those days I was a Fiat and Alfa Romeo person as I was employed by the Malta Dealedship of those cars as an Auto Electrician. Malta even had it's own Morris/Leyland/Triumph Car assembly Plant at a place called 'Marsa' and there they used to assemble Minis and Triumph Herald (1360) and also unique to Malta they also produced a Diesel powered Morris Marina for the European Market. As we still own a Flat in Malta we go there every couple of years and for transport while on Holiday I have an old friends who buys and sells cars he always lends me a Mini or a Metro depending on what cars he has for sale at the time. Last time I was there was in April/ May/ June 2006 and he lent me something different....a Datsun 120y hatchback. We called it the "Mustang". Amazing place Malta, it is a small Island with an area of 64 sq Miles and there are well over 250,000 cars there. Also it amazes me how they preserve their cars there even though the island is small and no matter which part you are in you are always close to the sea. They don't seem to rust that much. They sure have some nice well kept relics there. They have horrible driving habbits though ! Great place for a Holiday though. I still love it.

_________________
DID I MENTION THAT I AM THE BEST SUPPLIER FOR MINI ELECTRICAL PARTS AND REPAIRS?
"Let us remove your "SHORTS"

Yeah - saw tons of Marinas, quite a few Heralds as well. Looked it up as soon as i got back as i thought that there had to be a reason why there were so many Marinas there.

here's a couple of snaps of Marinas - like you said the cars there seem so well kept with so little rust - i can't remember the last time i saw 70s british cars looking so shiny!!


...and also saw a red version of our current London summer runabout...


PS. If anyone knows anyone in London looking for a great cheap fun runaround in mid Sept - we'll be selling our white 1992 Nissan NX Coupe for about 600 pounds.

PPS. I highly recommend Malta for a visit if you're ever over this way - it's got everything from sunshine, water parks, dolphins, multiple world heritage sites, churches, beautiful coastline and natural wonders, amazing history (,ancient monuments, temples, knights of St John & what a huge part it played in WW2)

Now please shut up as you are making home sick.... I am not planing to go there till 2009 as we are also going to UK for the Mini 50 th Celebrations. Can't wait. Cheers.

_________________
DID I MENTION THAT I AM THE BEST SUPPLIER FOR MINI ELECTRICAL PARTS AND REPAIRS?
"Let us remove your "SHORTS"

Oops, sorry....

I think overall, out of all of my relatives and family in malta, nearly evry family owns or has owned a mini.
We buy them pretty cheap over there too!

Hmmmm I wonder if you lifted the bonnet on one of those Marinas would you see some Aussie parts....I suppose we could have exported them to Malta as in the past we had a special relationship (part of the C'wealth)

[I have resisted the urge to mention the word cross...but it has been hard ]

_________________
"Show me the Mini!"

This was spotted in Mlata recently..But I will not say by Whome but here is the additional info for you all
This is a Picture that was taken in Malta. These guys were towing this Mini to the spray painter down the road....a couple of miles. Notice the car has no brakes.... You can see the "Passenger" trying to stop the car with his leg out of the door ! More of these sort of Pics are seen on "www.onlyinmalta.com" I love the wheel Chair parking..Hours of fun to be had on theis website

_________________
Stop Licking the Dog...I Don't Care Who Started It

I was on Ebay UK earlier tonight and came across this... ebay.co.uk
Some very nice cars in Malta.

So about this flat Convertible Mini?