This is a bit of a rarity, although a few of you who are local to Norfolk may have seen it at various events over the 9 or so years I've had it. It is one of the very last of the Innocenti Minis, which were originally a Bertone-styled rebody of the Austin Mini. They later evolved to use Daihatsu mechanicals and more conventional suspension. This one is a Small 500SE, which as far as I can ascertain was a run-out limited edition - I'm not entirely sure how many were made, there is a plaque on the dashboard saying this car is No. 1396, but it doesn't give the total production run.
The car is powered by a 659cc 3-cylinder Daihatsu engine and a 5-speed gearbox. The engine is naturally aspirated and makes 30bhp, so the car is not a speed machine, but it's quite torquey and well geared and will sit at 70 happily enough. It's also very good on fuel - I was getting 50+ mpg when I was using it for commuting. Being Daihatsu it is also of course pretty much unburstable.
The body is structurally very solid - surprisingly so for a 24-year-old series production Italian car. There is some rust on non-structural areas though, such as the bottoms of the doors, the trailing edge of the bonnet and the headlight frames. In the last few months the lacquer on the roof has started to go milky - I have no idea why it's suddenly started to go after 24 years. Also the offside headlight lens got smashed and has been glued back together - it's been like this for a while now and hasn't affected the MOT (it has beam deflectors fitted anyway) but would ideally need replacing at some point - new headlights are available on Italian eBay, as are replacement frames.
The interior is upholstered in a rather wonderful brown striped velour fabric, and has a strip of walnut veneer on the dashboard. It's fairly basic other than that, with no electric windows or central locking, and it's never had a radio fitted as far as I can tell. It's quite comfortable for such a small car, and as it is the long wheelbase version (seriously - it's based on the Mini Estate floorpan) it can seat four normal-sized adults.
The electrics can be a little Italian at times. The original horn switch gave up so I fitted an air horn wired to a separate switch on the dash, and it's had replacement electronic indicator and hazard light relays. For the MOT this year I also had to wire in a secondary earth to the nearside headlight as the original was intermittent. The wipers, heater fan and heated rear window have never given any trouble. I should also add that I've lost the bottom half of the steering column shroud - I took it off years ago to sort the indicator wiring, put it somewhere safe and haven't seen it since, although I've never conducted a full search as it's never really bothered me.
Mechanically the only things I can fault it on are that at least one of the engine mounts is getting a little soft, there is an occasional slight rattle from the nearside front over bumps (this has been there for years and never affected the MOT) and the auto choke was disconnected years ago so it takes a bit more cranking than usual to start in cold weather (although I don't use it when there's salt on the roads anyway).
I'm selling it after nearly nine years of ownership as it really now needs to be with an owner who can keep it garaged and spend a bit more time on it than I've been able to. It does need a bit of TLC to get it back to its best but having said that it has a current MOT until December 2017, a recent new battery and is ready to drive away - it should get you pretty much anywhere as long as you're not in too much of a hurry.
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The car is powered by a 659cc 3-cylinder Daihatsu engine and a 5-speed gearbox. The engine is naturally aspirated and makes 30bhp, so the car is not a speed machine, but it's quite torquey and well geared and will sit at 70 happily enough. It's also very good on fuel - I was getting 50+ mpg when I was using it for commuting. Being Daihatsu it is also of course pretty much unburstable.
The body is structurally very solid - surprisingly so for a 24-year-old series production Italian car. There is some rust on non-structural areas though, such as the bottoms of the doors, the trailing edge of the bonnet and the headlight frames. In the last few months the lacquer on the roof has started to go milky - I have no idea why it's suddenly started to go after 24 years. Also the offside headlight lens got smashed and has been glued back together - it's been like this for a while now and hasn't affected the MOT (it has beam deflectors fitted anyway) but would ideally need replacing at some point - new headlights are available on Italian eBay, as are replacement frames.
The interior is upholstered in a rather wonderful brown striped velour fabric, and has a strip of walnut veneer on the dashboard. It's fairly basic other than that, with no electric windows or central locking, and it's never had a radio fitted as far as I can tell. It's quite comfortable for such a small car, and as it is the long wheelbase version (seriously - it's based on the Mini Estate floorpan) it can seat four normal-sized adults.
The electrics can be a little Italian at times. The original horn switch gave up so I fitted an air horn wired to a separate switch on the dash, and it's had replacement electronic indicator and hazard light relays. For the MOT this year I also had to wire in a secondary earth to the nearside headlight as the original was intermittent. The wipers, heater fan and heated rear window have never given any trouble. I should also add that I've lost the bottom half of the steering column shroud - I took it off years ago to sort the indicator wiring, put it somewhere safe and haven't seen it since, although I've never conducted a full search as it's never really bothered me.
Mechanically the only things I can fault it on are that at least one of the engine mounts is getting a little soft, there is an occasional slight rattle from the nearside front over bumps (this has been there for years and never affected the MOT) and the auto choke was disconnected years ago so it takes a bit more cranking than usual to start in cold weather (although I don't use it when there's salt on the roads anyway).
I'm selling it after nearly nine years of ownership as it really now needs to be with an owner who can keep it garaged and spend a bit more time on it than I've been able to. It does need a bit of TLC to get it back to its best but having said that it has a current MOT until December 2017, a recent new battery and is ready to drive away - it should get you pretty much anywhere as long as you're not in too much of a hurry.
Pics:
