DOUBLE JEOPARDY

t takes a special kind of car to earn itself a magazine feature. There’s no specific formula for what makes a build feature-worthy – it might be a commitment to originality, or an offbeat approach to finding innovative new ways to modify, or an endearing ownership story… the over-arching element is that near-intangible quality of specialness. This is all the more true for the cars that earn the coveted cover spot. So what does it take for a Mini to find itself on the cover of this magazine more than once? Well, it really doesn’t happen very often, but when we’re talking about something as fundamentally intriguing as Chris Denn’s ever-evolving ‘Purist’ Mini, we just had to give it another airing. Regular readers may recall this car gracing the cover of the April 2018 issue (if you missed it, back issues are available online in the Kelsey Store), and if you’re a regular showgoer you’ve most likely seen Chris with his Auto Finesse kit bag, primping and preening his pride and joy. But this car has changed a whole heck of a lot since its last feature; indeed, there isn’t much that he hasn’t changed over the last four years