Young Blood

- Jim Jupp.

Often our passion for the Mini can be traced back to a fond memory or an enthusiastic friend or relative: the kindling for our roaring fire. Tom Clarke had the same experience but in quite a different way. “When I was young, when my godfather retired, he gave me a 1275 GT Scalextric car, in yellow with the black stripes. From that moment on that was the car I had to have. When we bought the car I wanted to paint it yellow, with black stripes, exactly like the model.”

Tom and his father, Ian, decided they would look for a GT as a joint project. In April 2012 when Tom was just 12 years old, they found what they were looking for. “The car came up on Piston Heads as being on sale at the Coy’s auction at Ascot. It had 29,000 miles from new and one owner.” Tom and Ian were not the only ones interested in what looked like a tidy car. Thankfully the hammer went down in their favour. “We bought it, with commission, at £5,310.” Interestingly the bid price was £4,500. “Not a bad buy, until we tried getting it home.”

Ian drove the Mini back as, at this point, Tom was still too young to drive. Things didn’t get off to a good start. “It broke down three times on the way back from Ascot and was only running on three cylinders. We nursed it home and thought, as these things go, we’d just get it running properly as you do and, about £28,000 later, it stands where it is now.” Quite a lot but it does include the purchase price.