Carolynn and Dave’s Mini Challenges.

This is my second mini, having my first mini when I passed my driving test back in 1993. I purchased “pooh” in June 1999 after spotting her sitting proudly on the front forecourt of Marshalls, St.Neots. After having already had my first taste of the mini bug before it didn’t take much persuading by the salesman to trade in my metro and go back to a mini again !! Marshalls had taken her in part exchange and decided that although the car looked fine as it was it didn’t quite have the wow factor so set about making some changes. It turned out that it was their first attempt at styling a mini and pooh was the guinea pig. They put the mini light alloys on and the chrome arches. To finish off they put the white bonnet stripes and white squares on the roof. I remember well the salesman telling me the tale of how they did all the work !

I was now the proud owner of a mini again and quickly found out how popular these classic cars were. I was getting waves and flashes from other mini owners and reguarly saw a little black mini on my way into work often wondering who it was. Having never been to a “mini show” before, I decided to attend my first show not long after getting the car and set about the trip up the A1 to Doncaster. I was staggered to see how many mini owners there were in one place ! The rest as they say, is history.  I got given a leaflet from Marshalls of a local mini club “Hamoc” but didn’t think much about it for a few weeks, after all I was still getting used to the mini thing. Once joining the mini club I was attending all the shows that we all know and love and then set about customising the car a bit further. I decided to remove the squares on the roof with the help of some willing volunteers and put some wavey silver ones in their place.  The bonnet stripes were replaced with silver ones to match the roof. I put a centre console in which matched the red of the car. I also put chrome wing mirrors on and put numbers on the side after having a trip to see Peter Baldwin and taking inspiration from his racing car. 2006 saw Pooh starting to show her age with the rust starting to show. On closer inspection found some rather large holes in the floor, so what started out as a relatively quick job ended up being a near full on restoration ! Having repaired all the holes etc I was more than happy to have her re-painted red but after looking in the cupboard at home Dave found some colour change paint ! I came home from work to find her sitting on the drive having changed from red to colour change blue/green ! I think she looks fab and makes all the chrome stand out even more than before. The old mayfair seats were replaced by black bucket seats and harnesses. She also boasts a silver steering wheel and gear knob. Her new look was finished the day before London to Brighton 2006 which was to be my first ever L2B.