PROJECT MINI CLUBMAN

Do you remember when Minis were cheap to buy and incredibly cheap to run, the ideal first car for a generation of pimply faced youths? If you do, then you must have quite a memory because those days disappeared at least 30 years ago! Today, a classic Mini is still incredibly cheap to run, but in many ways it is very expensive for what you get in pure motoring terms – an engine dating back to the 1950s, a four-speed gearbox, a complete lack of gadgets and gizmos... heck, Leyland finally got around to fitting a heated rear screen in the 1970s, but the switch for this was added to the dash as an afterthought (bringing the total of dashboard switches to three!) and looks very aftermarket indeed.

However, all of that misses the point. You don’t buy a classic Mini because you want gadgets and gizmos. In fact the exact opposite is true – Minis were always incredibly basic, and that is the reason why so many