This Mini isn’t here because it’s perfect. It’s not your archetypal feature car, honed to unimpeachability with every detail minutely scrutinised. The doors could do with repainting to match the body, there’s some creeping surface rust about the nose, by its owner’s admission it’s a little rough around the edges – but that nittygritty stuff isn’t the true essence of this build. This is about ideas, about broader concepts. How many times have you seen turbofans on a Mini, for instance? Have you ever seen such blueness filled with such brownness? This car is an enigma, a counterculturalist, an upsetter. And for Josh Brookes, this has all been a pretty steep learning curve.
“Every car I’ve ever had, I have modified in some kind of way – and naturally I’ve ended up slamming them all,” he grins. “It all started with my Mk2 Clio on -50mm springs and standard shocks, that ended up becoming a track car; then my two R50 MINI Coopers that were clean OEM+ vibe builds slammed with Cooper S kits, and now a slammed Volvo V50 daily weapon. Basically, any car I can get my hands on I’ll get stuck in with modifying or fixing; a