I live in the USA and need some references on good mini specialists in England preferably fairly close to London although this is not a requirement. I want to have a specialist that can take and older car and paint it for me and add the sports pack options. i then plan on importing it back to the USA. Any ideas on specialists that do this would be greatly appreciated
You are getting into murky waters here. What these so-called 'specialists' do is to take late-model Rover Minis and give them the fake identities of cars which were more than 25 years old to fool US customs. These cars may get in to the US, but they will always be illegal.
Nobody here is putting sportspack options on Minis which are more than
25 years old. The sportspack cars are amongst the least desirable Minis because the oversize wheel wreck the performance and handling.
A mini with 10" wheels will give you more fun than anything else, add 7.5 " servo assisted disks, height adjustable suspension, performance dampers & a good 1275cc motor & your away,
Steve.
As someone who's done all three - bought a Mini already here, bought one already on the road in the UK, and had (or more like tried to have) one built, I've got to tell you to BEWARE! There are LOTS of cowboys out there who will take your money and leave you hanging!
If one UK based specialist stands out as being one you seems to be reliable, it would have to be Michael Waterjohn at M-Tech
I certainly wouldn't recommend using anyone you don't meet, talk to and live close enough to to pay regular visits. Not the sort of thing to be done by remote control from the other side of the Atlantic. Better to import a genuine pre-'71 car and then have the work you need done in your own locality.
Plenty of good guys out there in the UK. It's the 'US export specialists' you need to be particularly careful of because the basic premise of their business is dishonest. I would recommend guru Russell Downton of Pingewick near Reading (Berkshire, UK) for spec-building a Mini. He hasn't done it for me, but I have seen lots of examples of cars he has built for others.
I really shouldn't post before the first coffee of the mornng. I mean pre-'81, obviously.....
.... and I mean Pingewood. Don't know where I got 'Pingewick' from.
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