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In 1967 Mike Nesmith of the Monkees fame commissioned a very special Radford Mini de Ville. It was presented to him at one of the airport hotels near Heathrow. My Father was present. I have 4 original B & W photos of the car along with a 4 page write up detailing the car. I have seen 1 or 2 of the pictures for sale from various sites (not flea bay). As these are original and given to my Father on the day of the presentation do the team think they and the write up have any value at all?
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Depends, the right collector might give you a monkey for them...
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Is that all? Now I've got the Humph!
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>> of the pictures for sale from various sites (not flea bay). As these are original
>> and given to my Father on the day of the presentation do the team think
>> they and the write up have any value at all?
If there are no autographs on them, they are only of value to anyone with a close association of the car/people/event.
Where is the motor now?
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>> Where is the motor now?
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Unknown.
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>> >> Where is the motor now?
>> >>
>> Unknown.
I see it was a 1967 Cooper S.
Anyone with similar interests or who has any stories / information / memorabilia which may be of interest is invited to contact Mike Elwell at the ‘Mini de Ville Register’ by e-mail :
minirad@aol.com
mick@radfordmini.free-online.co.uk
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Thank you young Man. I'll try that later.
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My 970 Cooper S was the opposite of blinged up!
No internal trim, a bucket seat, with full harness, a front passenger seat, plastic front windows, and a fibreglass bonnet.
OTH it had an AEA649 formula junior cam, a gas flowed head, bunch of bananas straight through exhaust, a Weber 45 DCOE carburettor, an oil cooler, Koni shockers, lowered at the front only (gave increased oversteer on lifting the loud pedal) and a 4.1/1 diff.
Quick of the mark with that diff, good for Brand's, but a bit outclassed on the long straight at Snetterton.
Still, I met SWMBO at Snetters :-)
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I knew someone who had a very heavily tweaked Mini van. Very cool thing, if somewhat illegal.
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I had a '65 970S....Nippy little thing. Went on honeymoon in it. Took SWM with me for a treat !
Still got her, wish I had the Mini as well...very limited edition. Worth a bit now. Chipped it in for a Super Minx Convertible......wish I had that as well !
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An even closer friend had a 1071 cc Cooper, quicker and smoother than a 1275. That was the best Mini-Cooper I think. 1275 was a bit of a brute.
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Mine was built as a 1071cc, but I blew up the head, so while that was being done and before I ever raced it. I altered the stroke with new con rods to make it a 970cc (The bore size was the same for the 970 and the 1071). This brought it into the under 1000cc class for club racing. If I'd left it as a 1071cc it would have been competing against 1275cc engines (most of those were bored out to 1293cc). The 970 engine was capable, properly balanced, including the clutch, of revving more highly than the 1071, due I believe to a better ratio of stroke to bore.
My first Mini was a red, group1 (not heavily modified) 848cc, supposedly once owned by Christabel Carlisle and with traces of her number CMC77 left after the plastic numerals had been removed. I think that her expensively tuned lump had been taken out before I laid my hands on it, as while it was quite quick, it never had race winning power.
(She eventually gave up motor sport when she, driving an Austin Healey Sprite, crashed into a marshal's post at Silverstone, killing a marshal)
Last edited by: Roger. on Sun 6 Mar 16 at 21:08
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>> An even closer friend had a 1071 cc Cooper, quicker and smoother than a 1275. That was the best Mini-Cooper I think. 1275 was a bit of a brute.
Downton tuned ISTR. Do they still exist? They were cool.
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Funny isn't it or even a wee bit sad maybe, how cars which were once a common sight so apparently quickly become a rare thing to see.
I saw a 1960s Mini yesterday and I feel it was probably quite a while since last I had.
Of course they always were small, but it seemed even smaller than I had remembered.
Can't remember the last time I saw a Cortina, must be months at least. I did see a Capri on the motorway last week ( in the snow actually ) It was doing ok.
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Locally there is a somewhat battered Allegro estate in regular use - it replaced a pink Morris Minor. What struck me when I saw it on Friday was how poor the wipers seemed to be. That alone would put me off owning an older car for day to day use.
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And I guess those of us over a certain age will well remember the hacking coughs of cars being coaxed, not always successfully, into life on winters mornings.
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Not so bad if it was garaged. I had a concrete sectional garage with my first house, and I remember having an oil filled radiator which I plugged in and left under the sump of my Mini Clubman during the winter months. And the Marina ( shudder)
Quite why I , as a feckless youth, ever bought a Marina is one of life's unanswered questions.
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We've all done things in haste I guess, or in drink anyway...
;-)
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If in drink there are mitigating circumstances. Stone cold sober. And the Marina was purple with reddish vinyl seats. Ye gods.
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I sold Austin Minis, Austin 1100/1300s, and Austin A60 Cambridges, brand new, in sunny sarf-east 6.
Ages me :-)
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>> And I guess those of us over a certain age will well remember the hacking
>> coughs of cars being coaxed, not always successfully, into life on winters mornings.
>>
My mini used to break down every time it rained. It took me ages to work out what was wrong - it turned out that the springs holding the distributor cap down were worn, and letting damp into the distributor.
Saw a very nice mk2 escort done up as a rally car yesterday when I was in for my MOT.
My father had an Austin Healey 3000 when I was born, but it was written off when someone drove into the side of him. He sometimes wishes he had kept it, but I remind him of the storage, restoration and repair bills he'd have built up over the last 50 years - we like to think that cars appreciate with no financial input, but it simply isn't so. He'd have enjoyed driving it though.
It's incredibly hard to work out which of today's cars will become valuable classics in due course, and which will be 'also-rans'. My father loved his austin westminster, probably as much as he loved the austin healey. But that would be worth very little in comparison.
Last edited by: Tigger on Tue 8 Mar 16 at 08:18
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>> Downton tuned ISTR. Do they still exist? They were cool.
>>
Yes. I see a Downton liveried proper Mini around here every now and again.
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MINI - Radford Mini Cooper - Runfer D'Hills
