GOING FOR GOLD

Minis and Jaguars enjoy an 11-day celebration of The Italian Job movie’s 50th anniversary.

- Jeff Ruggles

You’d be forgiven for thinking us Mini fans have the monopoly when it comes to celebrating The Italian Job, but as Jaguar E-Type owners will testify, the famous red, white and blue Coopers weren’t the only cars to star in the cult 1969 Michael Caine caper. So, in order to commemorate the film’s golden anniversary and the big cat’s short but memorable cameo, the Jaguar E-Type Club joined forces with Spanish tour operator Classics on the Road to create the Ultimate Italian Job Tour – an 11-day driving event centred on the film’s host city of Turin.

So why are we telling you this? Well, you can’t run an ultimate tour without Minis getting involved somewhere along the line, and so it proved. Keen to provide a memorable experience for participants, the club invited three Minis along to join the ride. And thankfully, I got to be one the lucky drivers.

The story began innocuously enough with a Facebook post. Minimag contributor Neil Burgess had already become good friends with the E-Type Club’s co-founders Philip and Julie Porter, having used his 1969 Cooper S as showpiece for one of their previous events. Neil was subsequently invited on the tour to represent the red Mini, and was tasked with finding white and blue cars to complete the trio. Cliff Porter responded to a social media post by offering his MkIII Cooper S, while I offered up my long-suffering Sprite to complete the trio. This was despite me never having met Neil in person, or legally driven the Sprite since 2016 (see page 96). Still, there’s nothing like a deadline to get you motivated…