最近情報は凄いと痛感した事柄が起こりました。⤴️⤴️
なっなんと、なんとなくFBを覗いていたら、見覚えのある画像が！Σ（￣□￣;）
この写真28年前(1996年)に撮られた物で自分しか持って無い代物だと思ってました。
購入時にShopから手渡されました。
それが掲載されてたので2度見して声をあげてしまいました。？なぜ？で頭の中がいっぱいになりGoogle翻訳を使って訳しましたが伝わらないところがいっぱい有りましたがそこは自分なりに解釈して(笑)
自分の車が60年目にしてHistoryが
また少し紐解けたような嬉しい楽しい気持ちになったのは事実です(^^)
それが⬇️
Here's a little rarity, a Tweed Grey 970S, freshly restored back in 1996.
I had spent most of 1977 looking for a decent Cooper S with a budget of up to £1000. Not as easy as I thought, and I had many wasted journeys looking at cars with dubious histories and fake identities.
As luck would have it, a contact put me in touch with a trader in Eastbourne who had just taken this 970 in part exchange and was happy to take £200 for it.
I hadn't considered a 970 as an option but when I drove it, I was amazed. My every day transport was a new Vauxhall Chevette, but this Mini was in a different league for performance and smoothness. Even the hydrolastic suspension impressed.
The car had had two owners, both local, and it had done about 50k miles. It was in good condition and standard apart from a rev counter, alloy wheel spats and reverse rims. I drove it until the tax and MOT expired and thought about what to do with it.
The plan of choice was to restore it to concours condition, having seen some fantastic show cars at Mini 20 and to that end, I starting stripping it down and cleaning and painting everything in the spare bedroom. No children at that point!
But then, with additions to the family and other distractions, work slowed down and, worst of all, the ill famed hurricane of 1987 caused a major setback.
The immaculate shell was being kept in the back of my parents garage and while they were on holiday, the garage door blew in causing the front half of the long garage roof to lift up and flip right over onto the back half. The side walls couldn't take the weight and crumbled to the ground.
A neighbour alerted me and when I drove round the corner to see the damage, it looked like a bomb had exploded. The shell had had garden implements and a bucket dumped on top and the body was completely crushed by the weight of two roofs, beyond recognition. It was past repairing and not insured, so that was that.
Luckily, a few weeks later, there was an ad in Motoring News for a brand new BMC Mk1 shell, in primer. I have never seen one offered before or since and I knew this was a rare opportunity. The seller had intended to build a race car but had just got a new job on an oil rig and was abandoning his project. The only modification he'd done was to fit a battery box in the dash for fitment of a Weber.
There was a catch though, I lived on the South Coast and the shell was in Edinburgh. Also, working six days a week, I could only collect on the Sunday and he was leaving at 2.00pm that day to travel to the rig.
So, borrowing a trailer and a car with a tow bar, my wife and I set off at 3.00am in the morning. We only just made it in time and my wife and I had to load it ourselves. We set off for home but only made it as far as Preston before becoming unable to stay awake and having to stop at a motel for sleep. The things we do for the love of Minis!
Soon after, I left my job and set up a company, Heritage Garage to restore and sell classic Minis.
The 970 remained unfinished, when I actually had an enquiry for one, which meant that it got finished in company time!
Frustratingly, after owning it for nearly 20 years and overcoming all the setbacks, I barely got to drive it again. I hope the new owner appreciated it though and enjoyed it as much as I did. At least I had other Minis to keep me occupied.
と言う。
現在所有の970sを製造して60年間で4owner目が自分で自分が一番長い所有者だと言うのも理解できました。
SNS恐るべし。⤴️⤴️
Mr.John Adair Thank You。
現在の970sです。
