142 replies to this topic

[VicSkimmr]

I dunno, but mines nothing but a steel box with a few pieces of cloth on it. There's definitely no airbag in it. It's a real '69 Mk II.

[lrostoke]

Something that caught my eye in that totalmini thread linked to earlier.The one complaining about all the scrap around his stall, actually I do think a lot of the stuff on the 2nd hand stalls is bloody scrap but each to there own. Anyway this bit

The first 30 minutes saw huge crowds and although there were 2 of us, we were kept busy & by 11 am when it calmed down I noticed several items on our carbon fibre table missing some of our most expensive products
I did tell the organisers & suggested an announcement on the PA to warn other traders but never heard anything.
Now I can see why Lohen had their products in glass cases last year, but its a shame as people like to pick stuff up & play with it

eeerrr isn't it more likely a Bini owner was the thief ?? Bini parts aren't going to be much use to a classic owner, unless he stole them to sell

On the Bini / mini argument though, a Bini is a nice enough car, its just not a mini . But still bloody childish to want to vandalise one.

[taffy1967]

to be honest It's ridiculous.
The new Mini is just as much a Mini as the classic one.
The idea for a new Mini was around in Rover long before BMW took over.
It was even originally meant to have the K-Series engine.
Some people had similar comments when the MPI minis came out - there was even talk at shows of banning them as the weren't "proper" minis as they had ECUs and fuel injection.
However, it was nice to see the new Minis so welcome this year at Bingley - good turn out and the concours comp was nearly as good as the classic mini 1 next door!

Ridiculous yes, but the idea for a new Mini was around as far back as the late 1960's. It's just British Leyland had no money or interest in launching Sir Alec Issigonis's 'project 9X' Mini replacement at the time.

So after lots of speculation during the last 1970's, the so called new Mini came in 1980 and it was called the MiniMetro. But the real Mini continued because they knew it was irreplaceable and it still sold pretty well.

Rover were about as likely to reintroduce the Austin Maxi as they were to create a replacement Mini. They only cared about updating/replacing the Metro or Rover 100 as it became known and the Mini and the reintroduced Mini Cooper was being sold as one of their 'Greatest Hits'. An icon that outwardly had never really changed because it had timeless looks and appeal.

No MPi Mini owners had similar comments, if they did then surely the SPi owners would have too?

No just some members of the 'Mini Cooper Register' didn't want a newer version of the Mini Cooper being accepted in that club. It may have come off the same production line as Mini Coopers of old and in many cases got built by the same blokes. But there was some resistance at first and I know they lost quite a few members as a result.

So apart from all that, what were you actually getting at?

[Trail of Dead]

Taffy, your right about Ringers in the states having airbags. I have seen tons of those so called "25 year old or older" Classic Minis in the states. It's NOT that people are gullible enough to believe they are "real" Mk1-Mk3 Minis....its more that whomever imported them wanted to get a newer Mini imported rather than spend the money to restore a proper 25 year old or older Mini. I know alot of US Military (myself included) are going to or have imported proper 25 year old or older Minis into the US....the legal way. At our last base there was a US Airman that had a Mini Pickup....it was awesome but I never knew what the heck it was! Until I got here.....I wish I had one

[taffy1967]

I dunno, but mines nothing but a steel box with a few pieces of cloth on it. There's definitely no airbag in it. It's a real '69 Mk II.

Yours isn't a ringer then.



Any more sarcasm and just point out the fact later models did come with a drivers air-bag, side impact beams and seat belt pre-tensioners. Even though BMW did foot the bill for them before buggering off.

Edited by taffy1967, 08 February 2010 - 06:42 PM.

[the.stroker]

A bloke ( USAF ) Came up to me today ( In Al Udeid ) and noticed i was reading miniworld , turns out he was stationed at lakenheath in 2003 , and got himself a clubby,took it home with him , what are the chances on that,anyway back on topic

[taffy1967]

Taffy, your right about Ringers in the states having airbags. I have seen tons of those so called "25 year old or older" Classic Minis in the states. It's NOT that people are gullible enough to believe they are "real" Mk1-Mk3 Minis....its more that whomever imported them wanted to get a newer Mini imported rather than spend the money to restore a proper 25 year old or older Mini. I know alot of US Military (myself included) are going to or have imported proper 25 year old or older Minis into the US....the legal way. At our last base there was a US Airman that had a Mini Pickup....it was awesome but I never knew what the heck it was! Until I got here.....I wish I had one

Well good for them and hopefully they'll last a lot longer with your nicer climate than they would have here in the UK.

[1293sleeper]

im with the majority on here im not a fan of the bini as i've said it before and i think most of of the owners of them have them as a fashion accessory and have no interest in the mini scene at all but one thing i can say is the BINI has given a lot of people who love the cars a way to stay in the scene and have a practical car and if you can only afford to run one car or like a few people i know can't drive a old cars for medical reasons this has got to be a good thing. Plus i know a few people who bought a BINI as a every day car and now drive old minis so it works both ways

[munkey26]

to be honest It's ridiculous.
The new Mini is just as much a Mini as the classic one.
The idea for a new Mini was around in Rover long before BMW took over.
It was even originally meant to have the K-Series engine.
Some people had similar comments when the MPI minis came out - there was even talk at shows of banning them as the weren't "proper" minis as they had ECUs and fuel injection.
However, it was nice to see the new Minis so welcome this year at Bingley - good turn out and the concours comp was nearly as good as the classic mini 1 next door!

Thats not what they think on totalBINI.com, They think Bingley was a Mini Scrapyard full of classic scrap!

TOTALBINI topic.

That's just the opinion of 1 trader and he quite rightly said about the "jumble" guys.

They always rock up with old "treasure" or "scrap" - depends how you look at it!

I'm weird as I like both the new Minis and proper minis.

I think we shold stick with the everyone is welcome policy - after all we let the Wolseys and kit cars in!

munkey26 waits for the attack he is about to receive!!

Edited by munkey26, 08 February 2010 - 07:07 PM.

[munkey26]

Can someone please explain this then (and this isn't a dig or trying to stir things up) but one thing that's always got my annoyed is..



They aren't 50 years old, I don't understand why they claim they are?

Don't be silly.

Your Mini isn't 50 years old, does that mean it's not a Mini??

Mini is a brand not just a car.

You shol be happy that the brand lives on with the Binis!

[rimmer1993]

That totall Mini topic has really annoyed me But everyone views are allowed.

[analogue_radio]

Can someone please explain this then (and this isn't a dig or trying to stir things up) but one thing that's always got my annoyed is..



They aren't 50 years old, I don't understand why they claim they are?

Don't be silly.

Your Mini isn't 50 years old, does that mean it's not a Mini??

Mini is a brand not just a car.

You shol be happy that the brand lives on with the Binis!

I didn't say mine was.. the Classic mini as we know it is.. BMW minis weren't created in 1959, ours were.

[sir Jake the brit]

if you get angry about the new mini, your a *melonsing* idiot get over yourself get off your high horse and get a test drive in one,
if you claim there not english, your a berk, there built only in oxford, they were designed by english people there just funded by the germans. and to be honest what epic backing for a historically spirited class act of giant beating britishness (much better than rover who could rub two pennies together to keep the car going!)

read into it, the only reason the mini carried on to 2000 is when BMW took over they funded to keep it in the eye until the new model was ready.



my opinion is that the brits have a problem with developing things. thats why the world beating (in the 60's) cooper S had 63bhp and in 2000 the cooper had 63bhp!! if mini was a german car from day one it'd've changed shape every mk no just changed door handles! think VW an the epic series that is the golf.

if they had made the mk 1 and kept it that shape until it wasn't able to keep upto scratch with safety regs etc, then made what is now the mk6 i think you can agree theres asmuch change shape and size wise. but theres 4 models inbetween slowly changing an keeping upto date!

rant over!!

[taffy1967]

if you get angry about the new mini, your a *melonsing* idiot get over yourself get off your high horse and get a test drive in one,
if you claim there not english, your a berk, there built only in oxford, they were designed by english people there just funded by the germans. and to be honest what epic backing for a historically spirited class act of giant beating britishness (much better than rover who could rub two pennies together to keep the car going!)

read into it, the only reason the mini carried on to 2000 is when BMW took over they funded to keep it in the eye until the new model was ready.



my opinion is that the brits have a problem with developing things. thats why the world beating (in the 60's) cooper S had 63bhp and in 2000 the cooper had 63bhp!! if mini was a german car from day one it'd've changed shape every mk no just changed door handles! think VW an the epic series that is the golf.

if they had made the mk 1 and kept it that shape until it wasn't able to keep upto scratch with safety regs etc, then made what is now the mk6 i think you can agree theres asmuch change shape and size wise. but theres 4 models inbetween slowly changing an keeping upto date!

rant over!!

You can rant as much as you like, but the Germans had the VW Beetle and that didn't change a great deal in it's very long lifetime. No and the Mini was much the same and that's what makes or made it so special.

If you can't see that, then you need to do more research.

But each to their own. Just stop calling people idiots simply because they have a different view to you.

It's a free world after all. Or at least it is since we beat Hitler during WW2.

[analogue_radio]

What was the limited line of BMW minis.. they are grey with orange bits on, was a whole line of them at last years Himley Hall mini show?