DENIS MOORE: THE MINI MAN
The humble Mini has very often played a part in the lives of many classic car enthusiasts at one time or another, either as an owner or perhaps mucking around with a friend who owns one.
Denis Moore perfectly fits this mould and even after 57 years he still focuses much of his spare time on his Minis – beginning during his time at high school when he managed to get his parents to buy him a Mini. Today Denis has a stable with many more examples.
His father was in the motor trade with a caryard in central Christchurch, and around him were many people also involved in other aspects of the car business. Denis sadly, was not allowed to take his first Mini car to school, in line with St Bede’s College rules. This was unlike many other secondary schools around Christchurch and I remember the first pupil’s car coming to my high school at Mairehau – that was Colin Bower and his Morris Minor convertible. Oh, so many of us were jealous!
But back to Denis, who tells us that his longest-serving Mini is a 1275 Cooper, a car he has now owned for some thirty years and continues to race at classic meetings.
EARLY MINIS
Back in his high school days, after getting his licence Denis drove that first Mini - a green and white 850cc 1960 model – to the Kerr’s Reach rowing facility on the Avon River for coxswain duties. With a friend in tow, he would also take the car on the three-hour trip south to Waimate to visit relations. Of course, like many young and enthusiastic drivers, Denis wanted his Mini to look and sound the part and he was quickly onto it.
“A bigger exhaust and a Weber carb made it sound great, which was cool, but it didn’t go much quicker,” he recalls.
His father then picked up a damaged 1275 Cooper S, which was quickly repaired and sold. That fired up Denis’ interest even more and he eventually sold his faithful green Mini and bought a 1963 997cc Cooper.
“This was a gorgeous wee car that had been raced,” he said. “I had started my autoelectrical apprenticeship by then, so I could afford a bit and joined the Canterbury Car Club. I did hill climbs and sprints and also did some karting and bought an Anglia van to carry my kart around.”
A nearby business to his father was Mullins & Wilson, who ran a specialist performancetuning workshop. Jim Mullins at that time was racing a Mini. This was no ordinary Mini, and Mullins was no ordinary driver. Denis spent many an hour snooping around the workshop, asking Mullins a million questions and admiring the racing car. Austin Prattley was also part of the Mullins & Wilson workshop and he too went on to make a good fist of racing Minis.
Mullins was the national Group 2, 0-1300cc champion for the 1965/1966 season, heading off Bryan Innes for the overall victory. Peter Crisp, a BMC representative who was in New Zealand at the time, believed the Mullins car was quicker than the works cars in Europe. The Mini’s engine had been pushed to its limit, bored out to 1293cc and with a modified cylinder head it was pushing out 82kW.
Sadly Minis (apart from the purpose-built Mini 7s) have all but disappeared from New
Zealand tracks. However, during the 1960s in particular there were many examples on the start grids while just as many top-notch drivers at one time or another showed their skills at the wheel of a Mini. These included Bruce McLaren, who raced a Mini Cooper at the 1963 NZIGP meeting, Angus Hyslop, Rod Collingwood, Roger Anderson, Bryan Foley, Alan Boyle, Rex Hart and Doc Langley. Who could forget the Doc’s Mini spinning acts during lunch breaks? Dunedin’s Lin Neilson
was also around at the time and with Mullins they won the 1963 3-hour challenge at Pukekohe in the Mullins Mini.
At many of the South Island meetings, incredibly Mullins drove the car to the track. I am not sure the ‘fun police’ would be happy with that today!
Mullins eventually bought the Kerry Grant A40 Farina and was responsible for chopping it. He left the country in 1969 and spent the rest of his days in Perth before passing away in 1992.
WORKSHOP OWNER
Rolling ahead a few years, Denis left school and, after selling his beloved high school days Mini, picked up an Australian 1275 Mini Cooper S. He tackled a few club events before the car was sold back to an Australian connection.
After serving his auto-electrical apprenticeship, he started his own business, Denis Moore Auto Electrics along with Mini Sport NZ Ltd. His workshop was not far from the Mullins & Wilson workshop and his father’s caryard.
Even today, Denis’ attraction for the Mini has never gone away and apart from the competition cars he has bought and sold quite a few Minis over the years. Sadly his workshop was destroyed in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, but Denis still continues business from his home garage on a rural block in North Canterbury.
His current competition car (number 109) remains his favourite and is housed amongst quite a collection of Minis in his own workshop. There is also another storage facility elsewhere.
#109 was purchased in the late 1980s. After building it into a semi-racing car, Denis competed at most of the South Island street circuits, all of which are now confined to history – Lyttelton, Dunedin, Queenstown,
Nelson and Waimate. He also raced in the first classic meeting at Ruapuna in 1990 – the BP Alfa, later renamed as the PDL and then the SKOPE – and has also competed in street events at Blenheim, Greymouth and Waimate.
Waimate was Denis’ favourite street circuit. “It’s a very special place probably because of my family heritage,” he said. “Sadly, it seems those days might finally be over. I liked Lyttelton too, but that was so short lived.”
MINI RACING
There are limited opportunities to race now with few organisers willing to cater or encourage smaller cars, which is disappointing when clearly there must be sheds all around the country with sad little cars just waiting for an opportunity to get onto the track.
A classic register was formed recently in the South Island for Pre ‘78 saloons and has attracted a good number of fairly mild MkI Escorts. These would be the closest to the competition Minis, and Denis does believe that this class could be the answer, but tracks like Ruapuna are just too hard on smaller engined cars.
“The size of the track now just stresses the wee cars greatly,” says Denis. “Drivers will find it hard to compete with the quick Japanese cars too. I do intend though to have a start with the Pre ‘78s, probably at Timaru, and just see how it all matches up. I do admire those who have gone the Mini 7 way, these cars are cleverly put together and don’t seem to overheat.”
Also largely missing from classic car meetings these days are the Jaguars. Twenty years ago there were, along with the classic Group 2-style Minis, a good number of Jaguars racing around the country. Today in the south they have all but gone. Two of note, have slugged it out for years, Bert Govan with his Mk2 Jaguar and Jeremy Stace in the E-Type (both of whom have featured in NZ Classic Driver). Sadly, at the start of the current season Jeremy called it time.
PRIME FOCUS
Another competition car in Denis’ collection is an ex-Gary Mortimer lightweight Mini 7, which Denis has owned for 14 years and is now fitted with a 1275cc engine.
Along with the Minis and a few other cars, Denis also owns a Mallock production sports car powered by a 1.9-litre Humber 80 engine. It was Neville McKay who often came out from Hong Kong for the SKOPE meeting that grabbed Denis’ interest in sports cars. Neville became a regular at Denis’ Colombo Street workshop at SKOPE time and worked on his Mallock.
Denis’ interest in the Mallock was later fuelled during a visit to England visiting his daughter Vicki. On a day when looking for the Brands Hatch circuit he fell upon a “Mini and club sports car” championship meeting at the venue. There were many cars competing, including a good number of Mallocks. It was here that Denis met Arthur Mallock’s son and daughter in the pits. “A very friendly bunch of people and I learned a lot especially about the Mallock,” he says.
Neville subsequently raced Denis’ car at the SKOPE meeting and with fresh tyres, his lap times were impressive. Denis believes he could never match them.
While the Mallock is still very much a part of Denis’ stable and he still intends to use it for competition, his Minis remain the prime focus, and #109 in particular. The little red and white car was last used at what is believed will be the final Waimate reunion. Denis was not happy with the car’s performance and has subsequently replaced the split Webers with 1¾-inch SU carburettors. A much happier result he believes.