DRINK IN THE BRINK
THIS MUSEUM PIECE IS NOT ONLY DRIVEN BUT ALSO RACED
Some older readers may recall the late ’60s advertisement for a breakfast drink that world champion racing driver Graham Hill made while he was here competing in the Tasman Series.
“Drink Brink” was the phrase, which came out in Graham’s characteristic lisp as “Dwink Bwink!”, which drew a grin or two.
Southland Mini racing enthusiast Howard Kingsford-smith has preserved a little bit of Mini racing history, recreating the Brink Mini.
“I bought what remained of the original car from Cathy Henderson about 25 years ago and made a replica, I suppose, or lookalike of the original Brink Mini,” he explains.
Howard is responsible for the upkeep of many of the vehicles in the Bill Richardson collection behind the doors of the Transport World museum in Invercargill, and his skills as a car painter meant the little car, which is on display there, still looks as good as the day it was built. The burnt orange car, along with Doug Erskine’s white Coppertone Mini from Tuatapere in Southland, are regulars at classic race meetings around the South Island.
“I’ve raced the Mini at six Queenstown Street Races too. Doug and I have also joined in Mini 7 races as fill-ins,” he says.
Howard’s car has an engine built by Angus Fogg, who made a name for himself tuning and racing the little cars.
“It’s an Austin Metro block bored out to 1380cc, with quite a few special internal bits which Angus has added,” Howards explains with a grin.
He has also raced the little car at Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell, where it performed quite well against more modern machinery: “That’s a great circuit. It doesn’t have too many long straights, and it’s pretty quick through those tight corners. It went well up there.”
At the Evolution Motorsport Classic Speedfest meeting at Teretonga in February this year, Howard and I caught up with Murray Cockburn, one of the original builders and drivers of the Brink Mini. Murray and
Bill formed Extraordinary Automobile Racers (EAR) and bought the 1299cc works Mini, which had won the 1000–1300cc class in the New Zealand Saloon Car Championship, from Doc Langley and Angus Hyslop.
With the 1970 season looming, Langley and Hyslop chased some sponsorship. TJ Edmonds agreed to sponsor the car in the burnt orange of its new breakfast drink: Brink.
Murray says Doc and Angus were “absolutely horrified” by the new colours.
Sadly, the championship rules changed the following season, putting them in a new class for 1000cc–2000cc, making the fastest car in the old class the slowest in the new.
“However, we had a great season competing at Pukekohe, Bay Park, the last meeting held at Levin, Lady Wigram — where we broke Bryan Foley’s lap record from the previous year — Ruapuna, Levels, and Teretonga. Never won a race but usually came seventh or eighth in the dry and fourth or fifth if it was wet,” says Murray.
Handicap races were the most exciting and, amazingly, the pair broke even over the season.
At the end of the season, the engine was sold separately from the chassis and body and, over the years, many have claimed that they bought the original Langley/hyslop Brink car but that is certainly stretching the truth.