'The original Mini reborn as a beach car' - (Simon Hucknall - The Telegraph 02-08-2026).
"Just the thing for your summer break – although the £35,000 asking price might limit its appeal.
Earlier this year, if you had told me that an open-sided, open-topped original-Mini-based “beach car” was remotely practical for British climes, I would have laughed you out of my rain-spattered front door. But now that we’re all smouldering like it’s 1976 once again, I’m beginning to wonder whether the Crayford Mojito Mk2 you see here might well be as perfect for the English Riviera as it is for the Côte d’Azur.
If you’re of a certain age, you may well recognise the name Crayford – a doyen of converted Cortinas, Capris and Marinas in the 1960s and 1970s. But one of the original company’s successes was its Mini Convertible, of which about 800 were sold, Crayford then charging £150 to slice off the little car’s roof and replace it with one made of fabric. Today’s version approaches the open-air theme in a very different way, but as we’ll discover, one that also manages to retain the original Mini’s kart-like driveability.
Paul Osborn, the brains behind the Mojito, bought the Crayford name in 2023 with a view to developing a beach car that could compete with others in the market, such as Moke International’s fully electric MOKE (£36,200) and Garage Italia’s similarly powered 500 Spiaggina (€85,000/£73,000), based respectively on the original Mini Moke and Ghia-built Fiat 500 Jolly.
The 100 per cent British-based project was an about-turn for Osborn, who had, for the last four decades, been more used to dealing in high-end exotica and ex-Formula 1 cars through his Chequered Flag International business in Los Angeles. Now back in Southend-on-Sea, his newly formed Crayford has so far built five of these Mojito Mk2s (the Mk1 had a different roof arrangement), with the one I’m about to sample being readied for customers to assess on the aforementioned French Riviera – unsurprisingly, a target market, along with California and the Caribbean islands.
They are likely to be impressed. About 1,000 man-hours goes into each Mojito, and starts with Crayford sourcing a solid, pre-2000 “classic” Mini. While the car retains its original VIN (chassis number) and registration – hence why our test car has an R suffix, denoting a 1977 build – everything is rebuilt to an as-new standard. Crayford preserves and rebuilds the donor car’s A-series engine."
The Full Review here:-
https://archive.ph/2kcz3
Edited by mab01uk, Today, 07:31 PM.
