22 replies to this topic

[MaxAndPaddy]

Agree with above, Paul Smiths and Monte Carlos are good sneaky buys, as are JC LE's although they are already fetching good money. I can't get my head into the RSP market, some apparent bargains but also some big prices. 

 

If you want to come out of LE's then go for the Cooper Sport, you can pick up a nice project car and value is gonna go up. 

[Black.Ghost]

Some of the RSP prices are seriously high! They are nice but I personally prefer the injection cars.

Did they ever make the Cooper 35 in Red? Surely that must have been resprayed, I thought they were all Almond Green. Five of the 35s got the S treatment. I believe there are only 2 left in the UK. That's pretty rare! There are 2 or 3 35s for sale at the moment but they are asking high money, close to the 10k mark.

The ERA Turbos are big money as well. It all depends how long you can afford/want to hold on to the car for really. If you take a really poor condition Sprite and can do all the work yourself, make it perfect and standard you could make some decent money in a couple of years.

The 500s and S Works cars will go up, but you need some very big money for those already. There is a 500 S Works for 15k on GC Minis. And there is another for around 26 or something silly. That's MK 1 Cooper S money!

Edited by Black.Ghost, 22 February 2014 - 01:12 AM.

[Steely]

The silver one looks the best but none of them except the green ERA turbo look like limited editions let alone aoriginal ones.

[kiwiminime]

Agree with above, Paul Smiths and Monte Carlos are good sneaky buys, as are JC LE's although they are already fetching good money. I can't get my head into the RSP market, some apparent bargains but also some big prices. 

 

If you want to come out of LE's then go for the Cooper Sport, you can pick up a nice project car and value is gonna go up. 

 

Thanks MaxAndPaddy - do you have any stats on the Paul Smiths?

 

I've seen quite a few later model ones (around 1998) for sale in blue, white and black but normally with an automatic transmission.

 

Do you know how many of each colour were made and did they do a manual?

[MaxAndPaddy]

300 Paul Smiths were made for the UK ....but I think 1500 were made for the overseas market. Some good information here http://www.austinmin.../paulsmith.html and the sales brochure

[millermilla]

The fuelling setup on the green ERA looks very interesting. Looks like twin point fuel injection and still turbo charged.

[MaxAndPaddy]

This is a good buy

 

http://www.ebay.co.u...=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

[xrocketengineer]

Be aware that the Japanese Limited Edition models might not be part of the of the actual "Edition".  For example my Japanese Mini Cooper Monte Carlo VIN number tenth digit is "B" meaning that it is a regular production Cooper even though it has 95% to 99% of the features advertised in the UK brochure for that model. The Limited Editions are supposed to have an "A" as the tenth digit according to the factory parts manuals. So if there were 200 Mini Cooper(s) Monte Carlo for the Limited Edition, the ones for Japan were above and beyond that. The guy I bought mine from had at least three advertised at different times and that was in Canada. So maybe there were even more than 200 just for Japan.