Transformer

Phil Higham is the owner and co-builder of this beautifully proportioned 998cc roadster and we hope it’s going to get its fair share of trophies in 2017. His son, Wayne, tells us how it came together.

- Monty Watkins

Wayne Higham is heatproof. Once upon a time, he was a welder. Now he is a chef at the family fish and chip shop. He has spent years controlling the scorching fires of oblivion so now it’s second nature. When he is not up to his elbows in boiling oil, he still melts steel into small puddles for fun. His creations include seven Minis (most of them extremely modified), two 1930s Fords, a VW split-screen panel van and one top secret early Morris Mini with an unbelievable... but I can’t mention that one because it’s still secret. Wayne is, among many other things, a Mini practitioner.

The 1961 Austin Seven-derived roadster in these pages belongs to his dad Phil who, like Wayne, has the ability to transform nasty, rippled, thin, steel sheet into beguiling compound curves. Phil quite wanted a Mini shorty so he mentioned it to Wayne, who recalls that: “I did one for a friend 20 years ago, just cutting and joining work. When it was finished he went abroad for six months. I stored it for him and he said it would be cool if I took it out a couple of times. I did and enjoyed driving it so much that, about 17 years later, my father Phil asked if I would like to build him one.” This one was destined to be a Mini medium, rather than a Mini shorty, as Wayne explains: “It does drive much better than a normal shorty as we purposely only took nine inches out of the rear footwell floor area, where the pockets would be. It’s not twitchy and you get a nice pair of front seats and a bit of storage behind. With most shorties you take 12-14 inches out, then you use the back seat for front seats.”