Unlike a lot of Min-thusiasts we see, Oli Smithson had no illusions about what he was going to do with his Mini project. This wasn't going to be a bit of a restoration job or a few hours' TLC and some mild tuning that then got out of hand. This project was always going to be a show-stopping fast car. Now. four years after he started work on it, that's exactly what he's sot. The recipient for the work was to be an elderly Mini he had stored away, but after finding that it had rotted too much to be rescued, he decided to reshell it. A trawl around eBay turned up this 1979 Mini, but it was far from perfect. "It was rotten!" remembers Oli, "A basic 1000cc manual Mini which had been blown over, had drum brakes and 10in Wolfrace wheels, shirt-button steering wheel and Corbeau bucket seats.
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