Rob Lightbody's Home on the Web since 1995

My Minis

A wee history of me and my Minis!

I'm currently on my fifth Mini although I have even more experience of Minis than that! I think its in my blood...

The 1960s... before I was born!

My parents had this lovely 1967 Mini Cooper in Tartan Red. Photos taken in 1968. 36 years later I bought a red MINI with a black roof to commemorate this wee car! It must have been less than a year old when this photo taken. This is my sister with the car. My mum and Dad bought this to replace their MGA MkII

The 1970s... when I was a wee lad

When I was a very wee boy they replaced the Mini Cooper with the Mini 850 pictured here. I can clearly remember travelling in the back seat sitting behind my Dad "for safety".

The picture on the left was taken about 1975 and I think I'm 2 or 3 at the time. You can just see my brother and sister on the left of the photo. The picture on the right is about 3 years later.

The 1980s...

We had a short gap without any Mini but then in 1985 my Mum bought a "Mini City E" which she called "Primrose" because she was primula yellow. Primrose was the first mainstream production mini with 12" wheels but the last with the original 1959 dashboard - single central dial and loads of space! We got her from Carlaws in Paisley for the sum of Ł3200 - reduced because the new version was out (with grey plastic bits, the "new" dash, different hubcaps etc).

It was this car that my brother used to show me what a Mini could do and that got me hooked on Minis! I quite clearly remember him outrunning a much, much more powerful car on a long country drive home. My brother also got hooked on Minis at this point - suddenly Dad's 1.8GL Sierra didn't seem so exciting any more!

My Mum's 1985 Primula Yellow Mini City E - Known as "Primrose"

1989: "Carlo" (Mini Racing Green Limited Edition)

Everyone remembers their first Mini, or so the saying goes! Well I certainly remember mine.
Carlo was a special edition, a Racing Green. He had a white roof, wheels and mirrors, chrome bumpers, a special sports interior with stereo, revcounter, red piping etc. The Racing Green was introduced by Rover in early 1989 to test what the interest was in the return of a sporting Mini. The demand was incredible (of course!) so they re-introduced the Cooper the next year. Unfortunately Carlo only had a 998cc 41bhp engine so was very slow. 80mph if you were lucky and 0-60 in 20something seconds ... snore ... good economy though!

Poor wee Carlo had a traumatic childhood. In 1989 he was driven into a Police Sergeant's unmarked police car. Both he (and his owner!) never fully recovered from this.

A large number of things went wrong with Carlo but he never once failed to start at the first turn of the key. Carlo's moment of fame was when we got the speedo to go back round to 0 on a long downhill stretch of road in the Scottish highlands!

The 1990s...

1995: "Monty" (Mini Sprite 1.3 single point injection )

Now meet Monty my first new car and my first own Mini. He was born in May, 1995 and he's a Sprite model with the 1.3i engine.

Compared with some of the Minis we've owned, he was a picture of reliability! Only faults were some rattles, a paint chip when new and a pessimistic fuel gauge!

He underwent a slow facelift from the day I got him receiving a "Cooper" chrome grille, black bonnet stripes, a high-level brake light, halogen headlights, halogen spotlights, clear front indicators, RDS Stereo and 5x12 Minilite Alloy wheels.
He now lives with his new owners in Perthshire...I'm sure he enjoys the country roads better than the city ones where he spent most of his time with me!

Feb 1998 - March 2000: "Charlie Cooper" (Mini Cooper 1.3 multi-point injection )

Ever since the Rover Mini Cooper was re-introduced in 1990 I wanted to own one and 8 years later I managed it! Charlie was the very latest model with multi-point fuel-injection, airbag, side-impact beams, pre-tensioned seatbelts, walnut dashboard with chrome-rimmed cream faced dials, part leather interior, Metallic British Racing Green paint with white roof and stripes, Minilight alloys, tinted glass... the list goes on!!

He had a fairly active life including attending nearly all Mini events in Scotland and even spent a few hours on the racetrack! During his first year, he had no more problems than any other car would have, but in year 2, a whole catalogue of things went wrong and I couldn't keep up with fixing them - either time-wise or financially so I decided he had to go.