When we arrived in NZ in 1997, cars were 2.5X the price they were overseas. My cars were in the country but would take months to get on the road. So I came across an auction house with this 66 Mini no one wanted. It had been sold new in NZ and was completely original, no mods that I could see, just repairs and upkeep. Coming from a G-Wagon, it was quite a spacial transition. This photo is quite a trip down memory lane. We had just planted the olive trees. I should take a photo from the same position now.
We drove the Mini for years, but increasingly, every 6 month inspection became more expensive, and when my wife picked it up after the inspection and the brakes failed 400 metres down the road, going down a hill, I garaged it.
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Several years later, I pulled it out, but the damp had taken its toll. It miserably failed its inspection, and the undercarriage was a taggers mess of fluorescent pink paint
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So I put it up for auction as-is, with full disclosure of the reasons it failed its warrant of fitness. From recollection I got a few hundred dollars.
A couple years later, it came back on the auction site for significantly higher money. It had been restored as a Goth car. Iron cross steering wheel. shag upholstery, it was off the charts.
But, it had been saved. All the rust had been repaired, a major restoration had been undertaken.
So, while it was not my taste, I was glad to see it still lived. I wonder where it is today.
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