Having been in production for some 40 years, it goes without saying that there were many, many special editions based upon the Mini. Here are just a few.

ERA is a name with a glorious past – and in the summer of 1988, the owners of the marque approached Rover in order to revive the name on a very special Mini. This is what happens when you put a turbocharger under the bonnet of a Mini… a little bit of magic. Turbo’d fancy… [...]

Rover offered one of the fullest ranges of cabriolets on the market – starting with the Mini, through the Metro/100 and onto the R8 (as well as the convertible MGF and RV8), there was a budget drop top for everyone. Jeffery Allen, with the help of some friends, pieces together the history of the Lamm [...]

Minis are fun – such fun that most people think they need more power. Ian Nicholls guides us through some of the tuned Minis offered for sale in the UK over the years… THE arrival of the BMC Mini in 1959, with its roller skate handling, was of great benefit to the British performance tuning [...]

During the early 1960s, a couple of Mini-based beach car designs were produced in limited numbers. Fun in the sun In his 1964 book “The Mini Story”, Laurence Pomeroy provides the following information on these fairweather variants: “For use in the balmier parts of the world, BMC have built a small number of prestige cars [...]

Once it became clear the Moke was never going to cut in in serious military use, its future seemed to be tied into sunnier climes… Park Paget tells the story of its Australian afterlife… AT the beginning of the Seventies, BLMC-Australia had started to realise the Mini-Moke could be better marketed. As a result, the [...]

South Africa produced the Mini in an interesting variety of body combinations not seen elsewhere… Wolseley 1000 The Wolseley 1000 was South Africa’s first mix-and-match Mini, mating the glitzy Wolseley front end – complete with the obligatory illuminated grille badge – to the standard Mini bodyshell. Well, almost standard – as can be seen in [...]

The Chilean BL operation was the first attempt to produce the Mini in South America, but by no means was it the last… Story told by Rodrigo Toledo. The “Brick” moves to Venezuela… AT the time that BMC and British Leyland were building cars in Chile, Venezuela was, by far, the most developed country in [...]

In 1974, Leyland’s Italian subsidiary Innocenti introduced a rebodied, 3-door hatchback Mini, sytled by Bertone. However, within a year of its launch, BLMC went bankrupt and Innocenti was sold to de Tomaso. Prior to the launch of the Metro, the Innocenti was briefly available in the UK, and it continued to be sold as part [...]

The 1970 Innocenti Mini-Minor; a name long since dropped in the UK… Thanks to Giovanni Marchisio for scanning and submitting the images on this page

The Italian-built estate version of the Mini was called the Innocenti Mini t… Thanks to Graham Arnold for scanning and submitting the images on this page

The Costa Mini… As well as ADO16s, Authi also produced their version of the Mini for local consumption. As with its larger brother, the aim was to achieve 100 per cent local content, and as a result, the Minis that rolled out of Pamplona were very interesting indeed. The easy route to component supply in [...]

A brief look at how the ground-breaking Mini made it from sketch pad to showroom in little more than two years. This page was contributed by Declan Berridge

The Triumph Stag might have started on a Michelotti-penned whim, but it was developed into a potential world-beater by the engineers and designers at Canley. Here are some images of the Stag’s development from concept car towards production – and the still-born three-door coupé version. From 2000 to Stag, via Michelotti Coupé version

The Triumph Stag officially exported to the USA in very tiny numbers – and in many ways, it was the perfect market for the divine looking grand tourer. We all know why it never caught on… RICHARD TRUETT brought one over to the USA to add to his growing collection of Triumph Dolomites – and [...]

The Triumph Stag’s cylinder heads aren’t known for their longevity or strength… And our man in Detroit has found this out to his cost. But thanks to the right specialist, he’s a happy man again with a working engine in his stag again. Words and photography: Richard Truett Total Flow saves the day LAST fall [...]

Triumph’s history was an interesting one, but following bankruptcy on the eve of World War II, it was left to The Standard Motor Company to pick up the baton and shape Triumph’s brave new world… A potted history Triumph was a relatively late entry into the arena in 1923, but the company had been a [...]

Triumph: the winner that never was THE Triumph car company, like Rover, was a genuine British success story of the 1960s. From the low-point of being declared bankrupt in 1939 – and being picked up by Standard in 1945, the Triumph name had forged ahead. So much so, that from 1959 onwards all new Standards [...]

In 1967, Joe Edwards of BMH managed to secure the services of Roy Haynes from Ford as a stylist at the new BMH/Pressed Steel styling studios at Cowley in Oxford. Haynes had previously successfully styled the Ford Cortina MkII and he applied the style of this design to his new project, ADO28 – what was [...]

The Morris Marina was conceived in a hurry, but designers consoled themselves in the fact that it was only going to last five or six years… Here we reveal pictures of the ADO77, and discuss why it never came into fruition. Missing Marina THE trouble with developing and launching a car in a hurry is [...]