let me tell you about myself and my life with mini's.
my very first car was a mini so my roots run deep, this was in 1965, since then i have had periods of time with a mini and my experiences are varied. Once i moved to Canada in 1967 i was persuaded to buy a VW beetle instead of buying a mini, this i regretted, however it didnt take long for me to buy a mini cooper and partisipated is some slaloms, fun but not enough. then i moved to Thunder Bay Ontario, where the winters are cold, **** you might think, but don't dispare, there was an active sports car club to which i joined and found the ice racing crowd, since i had taken my mini there and the favourite car to ice race was the mini, it wasn't long before i was deeply involved in the sport, taking trips to Deluth and Minniappolis as well as Fort Frances and our home race at Thunder bay as part of the IIRA ice racing circuit.
My next adventure with mini's was when i returned to the old country for 6 years, and overdosed on mini's, buying a 1967 MK1 cooper s, it was in a very sorry state because it had been in a garage that was set on fire for the insurance money while it was in for restoration. I had to start all over again, however by this time it didnt have a motor, but the company said he had all the parts restore it, but i had to do a lot of searching to find all the correct parts to suit. It did get completed and i took it back to Canada when i returned. unfortunately I sold it and have regretted ever since.
My next episode was with the BMW mini, and although i have has some fun with them, i built two race cars and used them for track days, the electronic headache they gave me finally wore me down.
So this year i had divested myself of all the mini's i had in my yard, (12 at one point i think) and i found myself a 1961 Austin Seven Countryman.
This is going to be fun because its all annalog and programming required, its been a daily driver, looks like **** but has no bodywork rust, even the bottom of the doors are solid. There is still a lot i am going to do to it however, when the winter comes, i also picked up a 1969 Mini Cooper s engine and transmission, that is complete and has never been apart, so the work begins again.
