There was never any plan to own a Mini, though I did lust after a Cooper S, or maybe an MGB when I was learning to drive in my mother’s Morris 1100. Decades later, my cousins were over for Christmas, a family function, and they saw my brother Craig’s completed 1967 Camaro restoration. Elsa, Gary’s wife said, “We’ve got a car for you. It’s annoying me, it’s under the house.” Gary added, “Come and get it, you blokes can do it UP".
Gary added that he didn’t think he’d get it restored, so he was happy to see it move on. It had been sitting under the house for 25 years. He said, “Right, give me $1000 bucks.” It was on the basis it was done up and kept in the family.
He bought the car in 1974 – it was 18 months old at the time and had come over from Western Australia. It had only done 14,000 miles when Gary bought it. By the time it was pulled out from under the house, it showed 44,812 miles – a great find.
Minis were assembled in Australia, at the Zetland plant.
Leyland Australia was struggling financially when this car was made, thanks to the P76 project. When it came to the Mini, the story goes they couldn’t afford to pay John Cooper the royalty for the enhanced versions, so they had to call it something else.
They had 600 Cooper S engines and gearboxes left, so they were used for 600 GTs. This car is body number 600 and the car is build number 1098 – the numbering started at 500. They made another 600 after this, using a different block, aka the utility block.
A number of the Clubman GTs with the Cooper driveline were later converted by owners in to round-nose cars – something to watch for if you’re in the market for one.
I knew nothing about Minis when I got it. Gary and the family reckoned I needed a classic, and with Craig’s guidance we could do it up.
Craig is the one with the shed, so that’s where we did it up. I started off with not a lot of knowledge as I’d only played around with motorbikes.
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