Seventeen Year Itch

There can’t be many people under 30 out there who’ve been tackling a Mini restoration for seventeen years. Work out the maths and that takes the origins back to barely starting at high school. Joe Hipkins bought his 1972 Mini Estate when he was the tender age of 12, inspired by his family’s Longbridge connections and after browsing through a copy of Mini Magazine no less.

“My family has a long history of restoring and running classic cars, so it was no surprise I was likely to follow in their footsteps and a Mini seemed the perfect candidate,” Joe laughs. “I wanted an Estate as there’s more load space than in a Saloon and at 12 years old, I found myself purchasing this wreck of a Clubman Estate.”

Joe’s Mum, Fiona, thought it was a good idea for her son to learn a bit about car mechanics before he could drive in the hope that Joe would respect the vehicles he eventually drove. Little did she expect back then that this project would still be ongoing