Spotted this on my travels the other day. I've never seen one before. looks pretty trick. Are they a factory option?
i was only looking at them a few weeks ago it's a english kit they were big in a that there was a same car series
i think it was called a moe or something like that
Looks a lot like a Broadspeed Mini, although I'm not sure about the back.
This kind of Mini is usually called a Mini Sprint as far as I've seen. They almost look like Beetle pop-outs there on the back!
Here is a back shot of it.
It has the badges S and Monaco on the back of it.
Not a Broadspeed, as they had a small 'tail' at the back.
Looks like a Monaco conversion, Built by Bill Buckle - [famous for the Buckle sports car, and the Goggomobil Dart].
I am no X-spert but I think it's the Monaco.....more to the point, Miniman has his own, not as nice as that one but og paint, he has some wild plans
for his....
Happydaze & matty-B have both nailed it,,, yes its a Bill Buckle Monaco fastback mini
& yes i also have one,,, only 4 of them known to be left (as far as we can find atm)
this one is having a turbo, injected, 1400cc, twin cam, 16v, power unit soon
It`s purely an Australian conversion originally made in Brookvale at Bills workshop however some were known to be taken off the morris factory
production line, roof converted & then stuck back on the assembly line & the factory honoured the warrantee bcause very little mechanical mods
were made... the front screen is raked back & the new roof is then 3&3/4" lower
& funny enough, Bill Buckle was real good mates with my Grandad (Matt Speedy of speedy welding sydney) they used to muck around together & as
a young kid i was told the original story of exactly how these bodys were originally formed... comes from a mate of Bills crashing his brand new
cooper "S", towed into My grandads workshop where Bill looked at the rear part of the roof all caved in making it "look" sort of like a
fastback,,, so he went with it :-) true.
The Broadspeed is definately a totally different conversion & originally an English conversion, with a whale tail spoiler type rear (flat-bum)
rear end,,, the screen on these cars were NOT raked back & the roof only starts its fastback section from the B-pillar back... the front of the
roof is std height... there were some Broadspeeds made here in Australia under license & i now know of at least 3 different moulds floating around
for them
i have a mould for the Monaco roof tucked up under my house & i believe that Bill Buckle still has the original Monaco mould
there are sooooooooooo many mini conversions around the world, i`ll find a link to a very popular mini conversion/variant web site & post it here
in a few minis
cheers guys
Matt
Oh & the Black & gold one shown above is owned by John Centrone from Sydney, he would have been on his way to 9or from) the big mini 50th
anniversary celebrations last week,,, there is also a castrol green lightweight racing one floating around & another very very dark green one way
down st Aust i believe
edit-->
oh & sorry to waveman1500,,, i forgot to mention that the "sprint" is a "Body & roof" chopped,,, so both the body is lower & the roof
line is also lower
originally produced by one Neville Trickett,,, & yes he`s still making them
link to his site --> http://www.minisprint.eu/
many other people have made them too but Trickys really is & has always been the best
http://books.google.com/books?id=NhcreWHBAO0C&pg=PA18&lpg=PA18&dq...
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The Monaco Mini, in my opinion, looks much better than the Broadspeed.
What am I saying [slapping myself on the forehead].........I hate ALL Minis, don't I?
Matt, that Monaco is looking better than when I last saw it, how'd your weekend go ???