Mini Cooper S jumping out of first gear

e.

There was a wrecked and rusted one sold on a TV programme recently, and it went for several thousand quid. Look for "Bangers and Cash", on Yesterday. You might even get it on catch-up.

That was an ?old model? I guess. Mine is only 4/5 years old. An F56 in modern parlance I believe.

Tim

sive.

ld. An F56

Ah, you mean a fake Mini?

Yes, I saw that too. Sold a 'Mini Cooper S' shaped heap of rotten rust full of empty plastic barley water bottles for £20,000. Had the right engine. They had to put it on a pallet to stop it falling apart. They were talking about "re-shelling" it, £11,000 for shell.

Then I watched "For the love of cars", they restored a 1958 Lotus Elite no 1009 that had been the Earls Court show car, owned and raced by jazz musician Chris Barber. It had won it's class at 1963 Tourist Trophy, Goodwood. There was some concern that it had been owned by some one that had "re-shelled" it. If it had been re-shelled it would be worth less than the £40,000 they paid for it and £45,000 they had spent on it. As they were able show it wasn't the car that had been re-shelled and was the genuine item, it made a world record (for Elite) £121,500. 120 bhp in 503.5 Kg plastic car, 242 bhp/ton, that would shift.

What iconic Jags will they make next? Must be running out of unfilled serial numbers on the book as they have done the lightweight E-types.

Might be the link mechanism. Have a look on the forums - very lively, including a line of arguments to get the dealer to take on at least some of the cost.

I got the rattling cam chain on my R56 fixed FOC, out of warranty. Managed to deflect the 'they all do that, sir' with their help. Mind, BMW had it for 3 weeks, sounded exactly the same, and returned it with the intake hose hanging loose.

That's pushing it for anything approaching a return. The experience (if not the cachet) could be achieved for much less using a stock car.

That was indeed an impressive exercise.

Looking at the restored E types etc in the classifieds (to dream etc!) it is good to see there's what seems to be a thriving engineering and body/interior industry left - with a decent presence in the Black Country.