Anyone who’s been into the Mini scene for the last three and a half decades will remember the major event at Silverstone in 1989, held to celebrate the British bestseller’s 30th anniversary. Brian Lidgard drove his mum’s Mini to the show, taking along his younger brother, Mark. “I was about 15 at the time,” explains Mark, who was soon hooked on Minis and ended up buying one himself. “I had a MkI and put a 1380 in it, using it as my everyday car to go to uni in. Back in the ’90s, there was a guy called Rob who had a 2.0-litre Vauxhall Clubman that he rallied. I saw it and thought it was a brilliant idea, so I decided to build a Mini with a Vauxhall engine as it would be a modern powerplant with easy performance.”
By 1996, Mark had found what he thought was a suitable car. “It was a 1973 Mini 1000. I bought it because it had a few nice Cooper
