ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,194
Club RR Member Number: 170
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I'm also a serial classic Mini owner, and I really wasn't keen on the BMW Minis until I saw what Rover had planned for it's replacement. I believe Rover planned what Bini went with too. However, given how JLR are now (i.e the ashes of Land Rover/Rover/BL Legacy), it was definitely the right decision for it to become a BMW product, without a shadow of a doubt. The Mini brand may have been popular before, but there is no doubt that it helped in keeping it alive to this very day. The legacy of BL may never die TBH. The strange thing in all of this? BMW's CEO at the time was related to Alex Issigonis. IIRC, he might have been a nephew. In theory then, the Mini name did stay in the family . A shame an original Mini is now so expensive. A BINI Cooper S is still an itch I want to scratch, but it seems prices on those are increasing by the day! Oh well, I made my choice with another car from that era!
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Last Edit: Feb 13, 2021 5:33:06 GMT by ChasR
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c1jake
Part of things
Posts: 225
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This is a Mini Anything built after 2000 is a Mini in name only You need to drive a good, supercharged Cooper S..
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instagram.com/heapojunk
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Feb 13, 2021 10:14:47 GMT
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jimi I'm 1000% with you, and I'd love to have a proper mini, but no garage, slightly dodgy area and as our only car the R53 makes a better case... ...and as above, I'm happy to call it bini.
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Last Edit: Feb 13, 2021 10:16:00 GMT by mr2fc
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jimi
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,819
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Feb 13, 2021 10:41:42 GMT
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This is a Mini Anything built after 2000 is a Mini in name only You need to drive a good, supercharged Cooper S.. I don't, it's not about power or speed it's about size and the driving experience. I' m not saying the BMW's aren't good cars, just they are not Mini's IMO. They are just too big and porky. My Mini above had an 1100 engine, MG head, Cooper S diff, twin choke weber and a LCB exhaust, used to annoy the curse word out of 1275 S owners becuase they couldn't get away from me. You need to drive good Mini... Apologies to the OP for leading his thread astray
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Black is not a colour ! .... Its the absence of colour
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jimi
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,819
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Feb 13, 2021 10:54:41 GMT
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jimi I'm 1000% with you, and I'd love to have a proper mini, but no garage, slightly dodgy area and as our only car the R53 makes a better case... ...and as above, I'm happy to call it bini. Plus the price for a decent Mini, makes perfect sense, if I was buying one now it would be an R50/53 the newer ones are even porkier
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Black is not a colour ! .... Its the absence of colour
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norm75
Part of things
Posts: 658
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Feb 13, 2021 16:50:35 GMT
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Size is relative. Your picture shows a 60’s size man next to a 60’s size mini. People are bigger nowadays so cars have grown. While our Cooper s sounds more like a mini with the whine from the supercharger, my sons mini with its basic 90 horsepower engine is more in the spirit of an original mini. And for a modern car it doesn’t do to bad a job of feeling a little like the original.
I agree though I am not over keen on anything newer than an r50/52/53, and the Prince engines in the r56 are not so good.
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,194
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Feb 13, 2021 19:07:57 GMT
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Agreed!
Let's not forget that for many people, a good Mini (i.e not Oversilled to death, needing time and alot of money to get right) are now around £7k+ from what I've seen. I doubt many have that level of disposable income at the moment.
As a result, alot of 00s stuff suddenly looks very appealing, and the prices for those even look firm now.
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c1jake
Part of things
Posts: 225
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Feb 13, 2021 19:27:14 GMT
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OP attach a photo of the car and I will photoshop it
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instagram.com/heapojunk
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jimi
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,819
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Feb 13, 2021 22:35:59 GMT
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Size is relative. Your picture shows a 60’s size man next to a 60’s size mini. People are bigger nowadays so cars have grown. Well relative to me (that's me in the picture and I'm 5'8.5") the average height of a UK male in 1970 was 5'8", in 2020 it was 5'9" A Mini is 4'5" and an R53 is 4'7.9" so from my point of view its taller, also wider, longer and heavier. As I said before, I'm not saying it isn't a good car but it isn't little or to put it another way mini
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Black is not a colour ! .... Its the absence of colour
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Feb 13, 2021 22:42:31 GMT
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I don't have the car, so how about this one? Thanks in advance
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jimi
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,819
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Feb 13, 2021 22:51:30 GMT
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Looks good, red suits it
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Black is not a colour ! .... Its the absence of colour
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norm75
Part of things
Posts: 658
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Feb 13, 2021 23:01:15 GMT
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Size is relative. Your picture shows a 60’s size man next to a 60’s size mini. People are bigger nowadays so cars have grown. Well relative to me (that's me in the picture and I'm 5'8.5") the average height of a UK male in 1970 was 5'8", in 2020 it was 5'9" A Mini is 4'5" and an R53 is 4'7.9" so from my point of view its taller, also wider, longer and heavier. As I said before, I'm not saying it isn't a good car but it isn't little or to put it another way mini At 6’2 and shorter than both my sons 5’9 average does surprise me, but people aren’t just taller, they are bigger, fatter, heavier too. I agree a Mini isn’t really mini, I imagine parked next to an original one it would look huge, but all cars have grown over the years.
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jimi
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,819
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Feb 13, 2021 23:19:01 GMT
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My son is 6'1" and built like I was in that pic. On the other hand my daughter is 5'6' 5'9" surprised me as well I'd have guessed 5'10" or 11.
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Last Edit: Feb 13, 2021 23:21:47 GMT by jimi
Black is not a colour ! .... Its the absence of colour
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Feb 13, 2021 23:47:14 GMT
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ALL cars are larger, ridiculously so, but I’m pretty sure we’ve been through this on another thread at some point.
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,194
Club RR Member Number: 170
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The roads were much busier too prior to the lockdown. As an example of how busy, it takes me 50 mins to get to Wolverhampton with zero traffic. If I left after work after 4pm when at Wolves, I'd be lucky if I was back within 1.5-2 hours! More cars = more traffic. After all, if we are on the road, we are the traffic . Warwick where I am always has been a busy place in the morning, but not like the last 5 years. From moving to taking 20 mins to get through a town that would barely take a few minutes with no traffic. Naturally, this has had people on about having to change the town etc. but no reasons have ever been asked for why it's busy, i.e understanding why the issue has come about.
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Last Edit: Feb 14, 2021 9:37:53 GMT by ChasR
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Feb 14, 2021 14:01:31 GMT
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ALL cars are larger, ridiculously so, but I’m pretty sure we’ve been through this on another thread at some point. Size is relative, but what no one has picked up on the increasing disparity between external dimensions, which are increasing inexorably, and internal space available, which isn’t. At 6’3” I’m on the long side and years ago I was surprised how well I fitted into a real Mini. More recently I’ve been surprised how poorly I fitted in a Bini. As well as knees, elbows shoulders rubbing up against bits of car and other occupants being worse in the bigger car, the original feels lighter and more spacious. True in more recent stuff too. My C4 A6 designed in the late 80s is much roomier inside that my sons B6 A4 even though their external dimensions are similar. Nick
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1967 Triumph Vitesse convertible (old friend) 1996 Audi A6 2.5 TDI Avant (still durability testing) 1972 GT6 Mk3 (Restored after loong rest & getting the hang of being a car again)
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vitessetony
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,055
Club RR Member Number: 114
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Feb 14, 2021 14:27:03 GMT
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ALL cars are larger, ridiculously so, but I’m pretty sure we’ve been through this on another thread at some point. Size is relative, but what no one has picked up on the increasing disparity between external dimensions, which are increasing inexorably, and internal space available, which isn’t. At 6’3” I’m on the long side and years ago I was surprised how well I fitted into a real Mini. More recently I’ve been surprised how poorly I fitted in a Bini. As well as knees, elbows shoulders rubbing up against bits of car and other occupants being worse in the bigger car, the original feels lighter and more spacious. True in more recent stuff too. My C4 A6 designed in the late 80s is much roomier inside that my sons B6 A4 even though their external dimensions are similar. Nick True but then again the chances of surviving a crash in modern cars is significantly higher because of it. It's not a fair comparison because in the olden days they didn't have the same level of legislation to conform to. Undoubtedly older cars are for the most part more beautiful as they were straight from the designers pen to metal without as much constraint.
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Feb 14, 2021 15:54:02 GMT
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ALL cars are larger, ridiculously so, but I’m pretty sure we’ve been through this on another thread at some point. Size is relative, but what no one has picked up on the increasing disparity between external dimensions, which are increasing inexorably, and internal space available, which isn’t. At 6’3” I’m on the long side and years ago I was surprised how well I fitted into a real Mini. More recently I’ve been surprised how poorly I fitted in a Bini. As well as knees, elbows shoulders rubbing up against bits of car and other occupants being worse in the bigger car, the original feels lighter and more spacious. True in more recent stuff too. My C4 A6 designed in the late 80s is much roomier inside that my sons B6 A4 even though their external dimensions are similar. Nick My point I was making was let’s NOT go down the whole cars getting bigger rabbit hole coz tbh it’s a bit boring. It failed 😉
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Feb 14, 2021 15:55:01 GMT
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So have some less boring Mini’s
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c1jake
Part of things
Posts: 225
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Feb 14, 2021 19:06:28 GMT
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I don't have the car, so how about this one? Thanks in advance
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instagram.com/heapojunk
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