In honour of the mini, and to celebrate its place in history, Lloyd Rover in Carlisle put on a mini weekend on the weekend of September 23rd 2000.

Minimaster was proud to be asked to display some of its favourite minis, namely the S-Works, the Black RSP Cooper-S, the Green RSP, the Mini 40 and the Italian Job.

The exhibition lasted for three days and was a great success. Our thanks go to Lloyd Rover for holding the show and allowing us to participate.

The Black Cooper RSP

The Black RSP is one our collection of RSPs (we have a green and a red one too!), and has a sports pack and Cooper 'S' performance pack on it. Here it is sporting the new white MiniLight alloys that we purchased specially for the occasion.

This one has a modified Cooper cylinder head with twin SU carburettors, and has been S-packed with the wide 13x6" wheels. It goes really well and sticks to the road, and is popular with many.

The Mini 40

Anne's Mini 40 took pride of place at the display and remained difficult to photograph with its pearlescent paint. It took up its position in a similar spot to where it was bought from, so there was a certain amount of 'deja vu' for it.

It has been kept completely original, having resisted the temptation to put on a minimaster Performance Pack. Now with 2000 miles on the clock, it is starting to run in, and is suprisingly torquey. With it also quiet and extremely comfortable, this is a really cracking standard mini - shame it took 40 years to get there!

Below are shots of the interior with the official Mini40 brochure, together with the special presentation pack, and the Mini toolkit on the back seats.

The Green Cooper RSP

The Green RSP (called LaFemme) is our show mini (i.e. near concourse ready). It was bought and rebuilt over two years ago, and still absolutely perfect. It is original with the exception of the minimaster Performance Pack I fitted and tuned to make it a bit more pokey.

The metallic green paintwork is exceptional thanks to the skills of Ian Bainbridge of Shap. Together with the red mini RSP, we now have two of the three original RSPs allocated to Cumbria in 1990. The last we believe is in storage, but if you spot it, please email us and tell us!

It occasionally gets used for events, and appeared in the Lakes Tour in 1998 and 1999.

The S-Works

The flagship, the S-Works mini attracted considerable attention, with many commenting on the interior. Now 1 year old, and 5000 miles on the clock it is starting to loosen off nicely. The 90bhp engine through the 5-speed box creates an exhilerating experience.

It recently went down to John Coopers for its first service, and gained its John Cooper door badges, which we believe has nicely finished it off. It then had to remain in London, where I was working at the time, for a couple of weeks, victim of the fuel crisis (honest)!

It goes to all the major shows and mini events, and pulls in the crowds. Its about to have the full Minimaster wax treatment to ensure no corrosion gets hold in difficult to clean places.

The Italian Job

The Italian Job finished off the collection. Sadly we are having to sell this one, as we simply have no room left. Its been given the Minimaster gold treatment, and has a Performance Pack I fitted on it, making it pretty quick.

This is a particularly desirable limited edition with red-piped black interior, special red paint, and white alloy wheels.