Acceptable In The 80s

MiniWorld’s Deputy Editor, Jim Jupp, became obsessed with the Mini due to some very infl uential friends.

- Jim Jupp

Little did I know, back in the in the late 1980s and early 1990s, that my mates would start to shape my love for the Mini. Rob, who I met at college and worked with on my first job, ‘borrowed’ his sister Helen’s Mini one snowy winter in deepest Croydon to practice J-turns in a supermarket car park. It’s a pastime that is much frowned upon today but one that I think teaches you so much about car control.

My only previous link with Mini was fond memories of my older cousin Jenny taking me and my brother for days out in her Mini. My first car was not a Mini. In fact, I was looking for my third car when I got my first Mini. It needed to be cheaper to drive and insure, even though I had a clean licence. My Vauxhall 1.8GL got through wheel bearings and tyres way too quickly.