saw the nicest mini down in melbourne...

[gazah]

having just spent a coupla days down south for work, i must say the highlight was sitting out the front of a cafe on fitzroy st on saturday afternoon & admiring a great-looking old mini... BRG with John Cooper signature stripes, 4 driving lights, leather sports seats & a full John Cooper interior with great knurled pedals & aluminium door handles / window winders etc! it looked absolutely fantastic, but...

i never really got to have a good look inside or have a chat to the owner as he'd left his lights [including spots] on, & so was a little distracted by the flat battery when he eventually came back to the car!

[fortunately] that meant i got to watch it a bit longer as i finished by risotto, by which time the battery had gained enough charge to atleast turn the engine over... then i got to hear it nip off down the road!

made my afternoon... & put some excitement into an otherwise uneventful work trip!

.g

[TimboK]

That's very similar to one of my old minis, although by the sounds of it, it was a 1990's rover one...

Nothing beats the original :-)

[bkwalker]

Quote: Originally Posted by TimboK

That's very similar to one of my old minis, although by the sounds of it, it was a 1990's rover one...

Nothing beats the original :-)

what exactly are these 1990 rover ones?

[brett]

The Original Mini's were Morris and Austin
THen they merged and became BMC
which then bought out by Leyland
Then Leyland was bought out by Rover

The Rover Mini wsa manufactured from the Mid '80's to 2000.

Check out the Italian job. It was a 1996- 2000 model mini built by Rover THey handle fantastic, that Stella Bridger drove after doing the job for the FBI

[bkwalker]

so your saying that red and white mini in the italian job is a relativly new car?!?!?

i had no idea! i thought it was old and had been restored

[brett]

check out this news story
http://www.carsource.co.uk/mini.htm

[TimboK]

They are still built on basically the same antiquated platform though. They are 1.3Efi, although I think from memory that they actually make less power than the late 60's mkII 1275cc Cooper S! I drove one before I bought my Mkii Cooper S - mine had Koni's and handled heaps better than the newer Rover ones!