I know this is just useless banter, but has anyone ever noticed that when driving a Mini it looks exactly like your driving the old MGB's of the sixties? All you can see are the two areas of the front end that lead to the two headlights. I loved those MG's and the way they drove and I thought those days were over. I'm in my mid-fifties and when I was young I used to drive old beat up Triumphs, MG's and ever a Sunbeam Alpine and loved them. The Mini has brought back that felling.

 

I have a friend who owned a Sunbeam Alpine - said he spent more time fixing it than driving it!!! But he still has fond memories. The MINI will be my first car with any personality - I'm switching from a GEO prism (GREAT CAR - but plain).

Motor On......
GROSS67

 

Good ole Sunbeam Alpines. Mine blew head gaskets like there was no tomorrow. It got to the point where I was fixing the head gaskets like every five thousand miles or so. But I loved that old Sunbeam.

 

I had a '67 Austin Healey Sprite that I could replace the bearing on in about 30 minutes! for a month or so it was a weekly ritual, until I replaced the 1000CC with an over-bored 1100! what a screamer

 

Yes, the Austin Healey's were great cars too. While growing up I had a neighbor who owned a Sprite and when he tried to sell it I wanted to buy it from him. He refused saying to me that there was too many things wrong with the car and in good conscious he would'nt sell it to me. Do you remember the smell all these cars had in them. Kinda smelled like a combination of oil and leather combined.

 

I know that smell...but mine was mixed with the slight scent of fuel in the morning from the choke! oh yea, and the smell of San Diego salt air, can't forget that!

 

Well, now that you mention it, gas could've been one of the smells accociated with that scent. And ya, those chokes made it all that much more fun to drive those cars.