My 1971 Austin Mini ute

This is the second Mini ute I have owned. The first I purchased new in 1971 when I started in business in Blenheim.

There were only 100 of these brought into New Zealand. I know there were four sold in Blenheim and five in Nelson and at the moment I believe there are about four on the road. They did get very rusty.

I restored this one and got it on the road 12 years ago. I found it down south. After searching for a number of years this one had the least rust of any I had seen. It took around two years to restore it and, being a classic car person, I use the Mini most days.

My first classic restoration was an Austin-healey 3000 which I still have. This got me interested in forming the Nelson Classic Motoring Society Inc. in 1998. It has grown in the top of the South [Island] and now incorporates the full Marlborough region. We have about 140 members and we do a couple of runs each month.

Minis have always been popular resto vehicles, with plenty of new and used parts available. I also have a 1959 model which is also very rare as they had a different body shell to 1960. At the moment I have a 1976 English Countryman under restoration.

My other restorations include a 1964 Jaguar 3.8, a 1962 Austin A40 Farina with Healey Sprite running gear, a 1966 Healey Sprite, and the ex–kerry Grant / Jim Mullins A40 race car. I bought that in 1967 and it is now in a display at Omaka Classic Cars in Blenheim where we have a Renwick 50 street race display which includes Sam Mills’ Humber 80 and lots of memorabilia to check out.

The Mini ute is such a handy vehicle that I use it on a semi-daily basis — although it does seem to be getting lower and harder to get into.