The classics you love, drive and restore
‘We’re a meeting of mint Minis’
1999 Mini Cooper Works S Sport 5, 1971 Mini S MkIII, 1995 1275cc Balmoral Edition, Francis, 1971 Mini Cooper S Hanika Farrant, Adrian Kermode, Roy Hall, Francis & Carolyn Lob, Douglas
1999 Mini Cooper Works S Sport 5: When they stopped producing the Mini, John Cooper turned about 50 into the Cooper Works S, and a mere handful of those cars had a five-speed gearbox. This is one of them. It has had one lady owner from the south coast, and it’s spot on – an absolutely lovely thing to drive.
1971 Mini S MkIII: This one is un-messed with and totally original, with Hydrolastic suspension and shock absorbers on the front. It’s a beautiful car, with no issues whatsoever, and no new panels. Everybody used to see the MkIII S as the poor relation to the MkI and MkII, but all of a sudden the values went up. Now I’ve only got five Minis – I used to have quite a few more – but I still enjoy doing a bit of rallying. I’ve got an eight-port Clubman that's based on the last of the Works Minis from when they closed Abingdon. And I’ve got a Cooper S MkI that I took rallying all through the Nineties and the early Noughties – it’s in the museum here at Jurby.
1995 1275cc Balmoral Edition: This was originally left-hand drive, built for the German market. Somebody converted it back to right-hand drive, and it was in a state when I found it, so I’ve restored it. It had the single-point fuel injection, but I’ve but it back to a carburettor so it’s more tuneable, and done a lot more besides.
1971 Mini Cooper S: This was my rally car, until I unfortunately barrel-rolled it back in 2003 and completely wrecked it. Since then it’s been re-shelled, and today it’s pretty much rally-spec, with rally suspension and a tuned 1380cc engine.
It’s actually our daughter Helen’s car so we’ve just borrowed it for the day. She was driving it school when she was 16 – you can do that on the Isle of Man. She’ll be mad as a wasp to miss out on being featured in Practical Classics!
‘It’s definitely a talking point’
Japanese cars are really popular at the moment, probably because guys like me grew up wanting one and now that we’re earning enough to own one, they’re becoming sought after. I didn’t really expect to buy a Viewt, however. I happened to be looking on Facebook Marketplace one day and saw a local chap had it for sale. He was an enthusiast and only selling because he had another one.
He’d bought and fitted some original Jaguar chrome, such as the bonnet mascot, which must have cost as much as the car.
The Viewt is made by the Japanese company Mitsuoka and is based on the Nissa
