Revell Mini Cooper 998c.c

[Guest]

Both great models superb builds I really like the mini ............... I never owned a mini, or quite frankly really never wanted to. My missus has a new BMW mini cooper S and that's awful. I had a Beetle once, that I bought as a non runner to restore. I gave up in the end and scrapped it.Peter

I owned a Mini, in 1964. It was the worst car I can imagine. Really nice to drive, but: The gearbox!!%$£&. There were gears in there, but where? The pull chords inside to open the doors broke more than once, so many people simply slid open the window and used the outside handle. But in winter weather, the sliding windows froze. It was common to see people arriving at the works car park tapping on the window and a passerby would immediately know to open the door for the trapped occupants. I decided to sell it in 1968 and during the three months before offering it, I knew that three things would go wrong, one per month being the going rate. And sure enough, in the first month the windscreen wipers, then in the second the brakes (which failed completely and suddenly on a downslope leading to a main road, then in the third the clutch started slipping. In wet weather a newspaper had to be fixed over the radiator grille, otherwise the distributor got wet, and once when we stopped for petrol, the garage owner, noting the rain, said that Minis were already limping in. And all that is only the half of it. New cars at the time that we sold ours were still showing those and other faults. A fiasco!

[ojays]

Ha Ha happy days in those days!

I had a 1965 mini countryman as seen in my photo album, but modified it considerbly to suit myself.

Although I did suffer the same problems you mentioned, until I fitted a 1100cc with webber carbs & dissy shield and remote gearchange, instead of the poker stick that wandered about in the gearbox!

Gregg