Advice On Very Rare Mini 1000 Le

Hello,
I'm not sure if anyone can help with this but I own a 1976 British leyland Mini 1000 LE (Special) which I am led to believe is a very rare mini. I have tried doing research on the internet and it seems that there is barely any infomation on the car, but what I have found suggests that it's really rare. It was the first ever limited edition car, not just limited edition mini but CAR and as far as I know there's only a few left in the world. It was launched in 1976 as a change over from a mk I - MK II and simply to do something different and came in Brooklands Green or White with gold coach lines and had Orange deck chair style seat trim. I picked the car up on ebay for £400 and it was in very bad condition, I have been restoring it over the last few months to its original condition, trying to use as many original parts as possible. I'm restoring minis to a high standard so that I can sell them on, obviously with most minis you would be able to gage how much you might get for it but since this is so rare I can't so if anyone has any information about the car or knows how much something like this might go for then it would be very helpful! I'm going to get a heritage certificate from gaydon just to make sure it is a mini 1000 LE but am pretty sure it is. Mini world have said they will feature it if it is a mini 1000 LE so it must be pretty special?! Any information would be helpful though........

1976 was the change from Mk3 to Mk4, not 1 to 2. The car included lots of the features that would later become standard on the Mk4 cars and was a bit of a prototyping excercise. They are rare and unusual as you say and not a lot of people know they exist. They are commonly confused with the 1978 1100 Special.

Oh yeh my mistake about the mk change over. Yeah everyone I've spoken to just say's they either haven't heard of it or that they know it's rare but that's about it. So restoring this one was a bit of a risk since I will have spent about £4500 doing it, so hopefully it would get more than that?!

there was one featured in minimag last year sometime i believe.

If it's an original "Stripey" then yes, VERY RARE..... the known number of survivors can be counted on one hand... ( and you only need a few of those digits )

Edited by Guess-Works.com, 13 April 2010 - 08:50 AM.

Yeah thats right there was one featured febuary last year in mini world. Yep thats the one with the stripey interior, so I was right to believe it was very rare then? Am I on to a good thing with this one do you think with it being so rare? Its being restored to a very high standard so I hoping it will spark some interest at selling time. Does anyone know what it might go for? Any info or comments are welcome.

It will only realise it's value if it's done exactly to original specification...

And then it will be a collectors item which limits your market...

Edited by Guess-Works.com, 13 April 2010 - 09:00 AM.

Yeah I thought it would be more of a collectors item purely on the basis that know one really knows its exists! Its pretty much as it would be as most of the standard parts were ok and just needed a bit of tlc and a tidy up, the interior was like trying to find rocking horse poo as it was only produced in that period, but I evenually found some so the interior is new but in original form. So it is pretty much as it should be. I asume were not looking at Mk1 cooper s money though?!

You can't really tell how much it'll fetch. As the BL 'Stripey' is so rare, you can't compare it to others for sale. Will be a very limited number of people interested at a 'high'' price, but then you only need 1 person to buy it.
There was a shell in need of restoration for sale late-ish last year, I think it just about fetched 4 figures, but it wasn't all that tidy.

Oh, and looking on THIS website, looks like they came out of factory painted white inside and green on the outside. Would be nice to keep that 'original' finishing touch.

Edited by mini-man-dan, 13 April 2010 - 09:40 AM.

Yeah I read that they were painted in that way, but i'm unsure what type of white is was. Does anyone have any idea of what shade of white it is?? And yeah your right thats the sort of detail I need to show for it to get its full value. When you say there was a shell for sale that only just got 4 figures, was that once it was completed as a driveable car or was that how much the shell itself sold for?

You can't really tell how much it'll fetch. As the BL 'Stripey' is so rare, you can't compare it to others for sale. Will be a very limited number of people interested at a 'high'' price, but then you only need 1 person to buy it.
There was a shell in need of restoration for sale late-ish last year, I think it just about fetched 4 figures, but it wasn't all that tidy.

Oh, and looking on THIS website, looks like they came out of factory painted white inside and green on the outside. Would be nice to keep that 'original' finishing touch.

I wouldn't take that as fact though, because I'm sure I've read that one owner has disproved that.

This one was on eBay a couple of times last year -



I saved all of the photos of it as I've only ever seen a few and can post any of them if you wish. Is this one yours?!

The above car needed/needs a full restoration but still had most of it's correct parts such as the 'stripey' interior complete with matching door seals etc etc. I quite liked it but couldn't justify another resto job.

Haha that is the exact one I purchased from ebay!! As you can see its in a pretty bad way and it was even worse in the flesh. It did have pretty much all its original parts on it which was good and they are being used for the restoration. The whole interior needed re-doing and the fabric was almost impossible to get hold of. But its being kept very very original. I've just regestered it on the limited editions mini register and there are only 2 more in the country according to that!

Nice one, I think it's a very worthy project, different to the normal Coopers etc, if perhaps not quite so technically interesting!

Good luck with the restoration

I've just regestered it on the limited editions mini register and there are only 2 more in the country according to that!

I believe this model was only sold in the UK market too so private exports aside, that makes 3 in the world. Your best chance for selling it might prove to be Japan or Thailand.

I'm moving this to chat.