Rugd1022

Yours must have been one of the last built and registered David, as I mentioned sales were quite slow and it took a while to shift the last ones off the line. There were a few early H reg'd ones but most were J reg'd with the last few stragglers not sold until after the K plate came out in August '71. Just been chatting via the Mk1 Performance forum with the owner of this nicely modded Mk3 S, it was sold new to a doctor who took it straight to John Sprinzel's workshop in Lancaster Mews to have the mag alloys, Wood & Pickett arches and Shadolite tinted glass fitted. I do like the uncluttered look of the Mk3, from the front especially it looks like any other Mk3 850 or 1000 with the same grille and bonnet badge, if it were mine though I don't think I could resist adding more period goodies to it. The current owner also has a '65 Radford being restored which belonged to George Harrison and his brother Peter...

Find yourself a very early untouched Mk3 Mini 850 or 1000 from October '69 and you've got yourself a bonafide classic, they are surprisingly rare now and differ from the 1976 MkIV onwards more than you'd think. The Mk2 was really just a facelifted interim model, but only because BMC lacked the funds to retool the entire range in one go to have the same (slightly larger and differently shaped) internally hinged doors with wind up windows as the Mk3 Elf and Hornet. Not surprisingly there are more Mk2 Coopers and Ss around than the 850 and 1000 models as in the early days of Minis being seen as classics they were worth restoring, but all Mk2s can be considered 'rare' as they were only made from September '67 to February '70. Ironically the sought after Mk1 1275 S is much more common! Early Clubmans and 1275GTs are now becoming sought after too as the values of the Cooper models have put them out of reach for many enthusiasts. The Mk3 S is often rightly seen as a better car overall than the earlier Coopers, there weren't many official road test reports when they were new but everything I've managed to dig up gives them the thumbs up in the areas of comfort, equipment levels and performance. Sales were admittedly slow, partly because they looked almost identical to a Mini 1000 and because the 1275GT had been launched almost five months previously and some buyers wanted something new and different, but with only 1,570 built from March '70 to July '71 the Mk3 S is now a niche model. Simon Wheatcroft the MCR Mk3 S Registrar has about four hundred known cars on his books, which isn't bad going considering the usual attrition rate for British cars from the '70s and the fact that only 792 were sold I the UK. (Some of those four hundred have been repatriated from overseas). This 1970 example is a beauty, one of the lads on the Mk1 Performance Forum went to see it last week and says it's a minter and the real McCoy... https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1071730 ...

A few shots from Race & Retro at Stoneleigh on Saturday afternoon... the green and white South African built Mk1 997 Cooper was for sale and I'm told it went for £17k yesterday...

Marc Bolan's wife Gloria with her 1275GT in Upper Richmond Road, East Sheen...

With DB losing interest in much of the UK's freight traffic it's no wonder we (Freightliner in my case) are picking up more work. In some cases DB drivers and groundstaff are moving across along with the work (for example the Mendips traffic we've recently picked up). Heard a rumour recently that DB will be pulling out of Bescot altogether and GBRf will be moving in. I was at Toton a couple of weeks ago, I dumped my ballast train in the Meadow sidings at the south end and walked round the back of the shed to pick a staff van up, it's quite a jungle down there with derelict '60s at every turn. And foxes. Lots of foxes..!

More pointless Mini trivia... the only Mini variant to leave the factory fitted with bucket seats was the South African built 1000E, you could have any colour you like so long as it was green...!

My first Mini, my first car too - a 1977 1000, looks red in this rubbish photo but it was much more 'baked bean orange' in hue. The peeling vinyl roof was all that was holding it together, I hated the plastic BL wheel trims and black grille and had big plans to turn it into a Beatle-esque Radford on a budget of fourteen quid but a few months after the photo was taken the engine threw the towel in big time on a dark, wet January night in Leicestershire, so that was that. Note the bonus broken down R reg'd example being pushed onto my neighbour's drive...

These are definitely in the 'old' camp... the Mrs and I have just been watching 'A Shot In The Dark' with Peter Sellers and co pootling about in the Radford modified Mini Cooper which happily is still doing the rounds...

Original photographer unknown, photo c/o Richard Coleman (a long time lurker hereabouts), D5379 down at Bridge Street, Northampton...

Star Maker - The Kids From Fame

And Your Bird Can Sing - Revolving Fabs '66 style...

When The Music's Over - The Doors

No fear of being boiled alive Russ, opinions on old cars have always differed regarding originality / modification and long may it continue! If I had a pound for every dirty look the metallic purple paint job on my Mk2 S received from some of the concours boys I'd be quids in by now...

The engine in Nesmith's Radford was done by Downton so the rocker cover was probably supplied by them too (Since I sold the Jap Mini I've been looking at other older Minis again, the Mk3 Cooper S I had an eye on has sold very quickly but a rare and unusual '67 South African built Mk1 has popped up on the radar).

Some screen grabs from a French TV news crew of The Fabs (and a stray Mick Jagger) alighting in North Wales on 25th August 1967...

Some more shots of Nesmith's Radford, it was said to have been the most expensive Mini they'd ever done up to that point...

This is the only photo I can find of it in the states, looks like it was taken at Burbank Studios in California in '67 or early '68... rumour has it that it was stolen and torched not long afterwards...

Just been sent this cracking photo of Monkee Mike Nesmith picking up his new Radford Cooper S in July '67, the location was a hotel close to Heathrow Airport...

The changeover from Jan to August in '67 caused some manufacturers to have to airbrush some of their pre-release artwork, for example the very early press fleet Mk2 Minis had 'E' registrations which were changed to 'F' for publication in September and October, just in time for the Earls Court Motor Show. If you ever find a Mk2 Mini for sale with an 'E' suffix it'll also have some subtle differences inside to the production cars. The Mk2 Mini range was supposed to have been launched in June / July '67, before the new August registration changeover kicked in but it was delayed because behind the scenes things were very chaotic at BMC at the time.

No photos alas as I was driving 4L89 at the time, but for a few days this week there's been a rather lovely Rolls Royce Silver Shadow parked up behind the up slow platform at Leighton Buzzard. Couldn't see the reg' number but the two tone 'silver over dark green' paintjob looked fantastic.

The Girl From Iponema - various artistes

Well, it takes all sorts..! I think the headlamp rims are from a Wolseley or Riley 1.5, there's a slight 'peak' at the top on some of these and when fitted to Minis the top of the wing is reprofiled by hand to match them. Not keen on them myself but I do like the car itself. Boy would I love a proper Radford Mini...

A newly discovered Radford Cooper S which has popped up in Japan, it was originally two tone brown and gold with Minilites and was registered 'AJK 848C' in 1965 but looks very swish in its subtle new colour scheme with a set of very rare Mk1 Cosmic alloys (the same as used on all of The Beatles Minis...

The Mach One was a much larger looking car than the 'Bullitt' version. Talking of which, I watched it again recently and think it's actually underated as a film in its own right, the famous car chase gets all the attention but the look and feel of the film makes it a fantastic period piece, the late '60s San Francisco backdrop, the excellent supporting cast and Lalo Schifrin's perfect score giving it something 'extra' which a lot of films don't have. When director Peter Yates spoke to Schifrin about scoring the car chase Schifrin told him it would be much better with almost no music at all and he was right... One of the two Mustangs used in the film was found and restored a while ago, last year I think, it had been repainted white but digging deeper beneath the paint and filler revealed some of the dents from the car chase were still there. Wouldn't mind a replica some day..!

A Norman Preedy shot of 444 at Crewe, 1st June 1971...