Mad Minis - The Crazy World Of Modified Minis

There are people who regard the original Mini as a masterpiece of automotive design, a perfectly proportioned little machine that should be preserved exactly as its creator intended. And then there are people who look at the same car and immediately wonder what would happen if they fitted an enormous engine, removed the roof, widened the wheels and painted the whole thing a colour normally associated with industrial accidents. This second group is responsible for some of Britain’s most gloriously deranged motoring creations.

In Mad Minis – The Crazy World of Modified Minis (2010), Iain Ayre explores the wonderfully eccentric world of Mini customisation, where imagination, engineering ingenuity and a magnificent disregard for conventional good taste combine to produce vehicles that Sir Alec Issigonis might have regarded with either admiration or a sudden need to lie down.

Published by Haynes, this entertaining illustrated volume celebrates the extraordinary variety of modified Minis, demonstrating that Britain’s favourite small car has inspired some of the most imaginative automotive transformations ever attempted in a domestic garage.

The original Mini was, of course, a triumph of practical engineering. Compact, economical and remarkably spacious for its dimensions, it became an international motoring icon. Unfortunately, its clever design also made it irresistible to generations of enthusiasts who felt that the best way to honour this achievement was to dismantle practically everything and rebuild it into something completely outrageous.

From heavily modified performance machines and dramatic bodywork conversions to customised creations that seem to have escaped from a particularly enthusiastic motor show, the world of Mad Minis is one where normal automotive limitations are regarded as challenges rather than sensible warnings.

Why settle for ordinary wheels when enormous ones are available? Why retain modest horsepower when considerably more can be squeezed beneath the bonnet, or indeed somewhere else entirely? And why preserve a perfectly respectable factory appearance when a collection of spoilers, flared arches and spectacular paintwork can transform a humble shopping car into something resembling an escaped racing experiment?

Ayre’s book celebrates the creativity, craftsmanship and sheer mechanical determination behind these extraordinary vehicles. It is a tribute to the peculiar British talent for taking a brilliantly simple invention and spending enormous amounts of time and money making it almost unrecognisably complicated.

Naturally, many of these creations represent financial investments that would be difficult to explain to a professional accountant, particularly when the finished vehicle remains approximately the size of a garden wheelbarrow.

Condition: Good. This previously owned 2010 copy displays ordinary signs of age and handling. Unlike the modified Minis featured within, it requires no specialist fabrication, expensive engine conversion or emergency consultation with an MOT tester.

Published by Haynes in 2010. ISBN: 9781844255207.

Offered by Crappy Old Books, where we admire automotive individuality, especially when the associated madness can be enjoyed without filling the garage with fibreglass dust.

A splendid addition to any collection of Mini literature, custom car history or eccentric British engineering. Particularly recommended for enthusiasts who believe that the original Mini was a wonderful achievement, but might have been even better with twice the horsepower and absolutely no regard for restraint.

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