IT’S A SMALL WORLD Readers recount their Mini memories

To mark the icon’s 60th birthday, we asked members of the C&SC community to share their recollections of owning and enjoying Issigonis’ marvel

“My parents met via the Mini Car Club of NSW and I was brought up around Minis, buying my first – this Moke – when I was 14 to compete in motorkhanas. I met my wife Julie through the Club and we have brought up Hayden (20) and Joel (18) doing the same thing. It’s always been a family affair, and we now run Mini Works Australia, a business specialising in Minis.” WAYNE WITCOMBE

“My introduction to the marvellous Mini was just before my 20th birthday. Mine [left] was purchased in 1972 as a factory standard and low-mileage ’65 Morris Mini 998 Deluxe for the princely sum of AUS$800 (£447). I drove it at an insane pace for a year until the engine decided to die miserably. This photograph was taken during the Easter 1973 running-in trip for the brand-new 1098cc Australian Mini K engine. I may be wrong, but I’m fairly certain that the ‘K’ was supposed to stand for kangaroo! I used my little grey brick as regular transport during my stint in the Army, making the 1500km return trip home to Adelaide and back to Melbourne. It was so much fun to drive, especially in the mad rush of Melbourne’s horrendous traffic. I am quite confident in saying that of all of the vehicles that I have had in the past 47 years, my Mini is the one I miss the most.” DAVID TODD

“My first ‘fast car’ was a 1275 Mini Cooper ‘S.’ It was a 1967 model and I bought it in 1971 when I was 18. I had it fitted with a 731 road cam and a Weber carb, and it was bored out to 1293cc – and it handled like a go-kart. This is the only photo I still have of it, taken when I was 20, including the five horns on the front grille that played La Marseillaise.” DAVID MIDDLETON

“I dated a young lady who got into my filing-cabinet-grey 1966 Mini and before I could say ‘don’t slam the door’ she did, and the window fell out into her lap. Obviously this did not put her off, because we eventually got married – and 37 years later we still are.”

ADRIAN SMITH

“A Mini was my first car [above]. I bought it for £25 from someone at my first job in 1974/’75 and paid for it weekly because I was on £20 a week. Within days it was outside a friend’s house when the bell rang and the smart man standing there said, ‘Whose is the Mini?’ I thought, ‘Uh-oh, what have I done?’ but he just wanted to buy the numberplate. He paid for my new plates and gave me £50 for BLC 203; I kept the car for a few years then got £50 for that, too!” DAVE STEVENSON

“My sister and I had the ultimate game of ‘corners’ when we were kids in the back of my dad’s Mini. He would throw the car into bends and we would slide violently into one another on the vinyl back seat, having the time of our lives. We later got Dad into trouble with Mum by asking him to do it, because she was never in the car when the fast corners took place.” DARYL GORDON

“A friend couldn’t shake off my 998cc Cooper through the twisty bits in his Elan. The very next day, pulling into the car park at work – at Ford’s Aveley plant, no less – the clamp connecting the steering column to the pinion shaft rounded off, leaving me with no steering. A quick visit to a breaker got it sorted at lunchtime, but… phew!” CHRIS HAK

“My love of Minis is best illustrated by this picture [above] of my grandfather and his pocket rocket.”

KATHARINA CHALUPA

“I remember touring Spain in my Mini Innocenti in the late ’60s. We started from the bull run in Pamplona and drove down to the Mediterranean, with one of the first Aircamping tents mounted on the roof [below]. Good times.”

ARTURO ALETTI

“My best memories are of New South Wales club sprints with my dad in twin 1275GTS [above]. They were the best days, and can never be repeated.”

MEAGHAN LUCAS