24 replies to this topic

[minimat]

I heard the same,that x411 was removed early to make sure it was perfect for the press photos etc,apparently the real last mini was a blue one!and put on general sale.wonder who has it now?

[taffy1967]

I heard the same,that x411 was removed early to make sure it was perfect for the press photos etc,apparently the real last mini was a blue one!and put on general sale.wonder who has it now?

Well according to that Mini video news report I posted, the last several Minis were destined for collectors in Japan at great expense. So it's probably now in the land of the rising sun.

[benb12]

The video you posted said that the Minis before JOP would probably be destined for Japan, not after JOP.

[taffy1967]

The video you posted said that the Minis before JOP would probably be destined for Japan, not after JOP.

But do you really think they were going to admit that there was any Minis built after JOP?

They described it as the very last Mini off the line and so if it wasn't (as many who were there state), their going to keep quiet and just class the later built cars as the ones built prior to JOP.

Unless of course their under wraps in Gaydon or somewhere which I very much doubt.

JOP was chosen to represent the final Mini that's all.

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

I dont it was either. In the same way that 621 AOK is NOT the first built Mini at all.

[xBR4DLEY]

I saw a Y reg MINI out the other day and I'm pretty sure the prototype MINI was a N reg?

[Dan]

How do you define it? The cars may have not been assembled in the order they came out of the factory but how do you decide when it is actually built? When it starts on the line, when it leaves the line? When it leaves the roll test bay or when it leaves the defect rectification bay? If this Mini left the factory last, it is the last Mini. If it happens that it was in the defect bay for longer than the others that day so that it could be shined up a bit it's irrelevant. Very few of the cars over 41 years would ever have left the factory and been driven to the multi story car park by the gate in the same order that their bodies arrived on the assembly line. I mean to say, none of them are actually finished until they leave the rolling test, nomatter what order they were screwed together in.

X411JOP is the last mini ever built at the factory. Which is where the difference lies.

No, it makes the Wood and Picket cars replicas. If it wasn't built by the owner of the design, in a Mini factory of some sort, then it's not a Mini.

[mab01uk]

I dont it was either. In the same way that 621 AOK is NOT the first built Mini at all.

Craig thought you might be interested in this recent update on the history of 621 AOK which was in December 2009 Mini Magazine:

BMC Engineer Says 621 AOK Was The First Mini
An article in December Mini Mag suggests that 621 AOK is after all the first Mini and not just the first Morris Mini. Cowley Production Engineer Peter Tothill was there on the day and reckons it was built at Cowley Oxford over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend starting on Friday March 27 and finishing on Monday 30 1959. It was then loaded onto a truck, sheeted up and delivered to Longbridge on the Tuesday, ready for the Directors to view on the Wednesday. Tuesday was a holiday in Birmingham because they always worked on Good Friday. It is likely this car was used as a reference for Albert Green and his team to build the first Austin car on the Friday. Peter says it was impossible at that time to build 10 cars on one day May 8th as the factory records show and that the other 9 cars were built up slowly throughout April and May with the production record started on May 8.

[MiniMonty]

I firmly suspect that like everything else at Rover / MG / Leyland (what ever you want to call it)
there are no proper records, the whole thing was a bit of a fudge and no one ever knew or will ever know.

[dave585]

The last mini off the production line is rumored to be a Blue cooper and not the red one that is sitting in Gaydon. It is sitting in BMW's HQ in Germany in there private collection so I'm told. Any car that ends it production always has a last one off the line, but there sitting in fields just waiting to be sold and therefore can have what year plate is at the time when sold by the dealer, ie if there was an unregistered new classic is will have the year plate example 56/57/10 etc.
I did ask about the mini 30 at the British mini club and was told that it would have to have the plate from the year it was made or a new plate, they were not sure about it and it was up to the dvla.