This little gem is probably the closest you could ever get to buying a brand-new original 1977 Mini Van, but it is not at all a standard Mini Van, it is special, it is unique. it was found in a scrapyard in 2019 by a guy who builds Mini Coopers for historic racing and having restored several minis and specialising as a builder of Mini Coopers for racing he thought it would be interesting to keep the mini looking as original with a standard looking appearance whilst giving it all the best Cooper go faster goodies he could. First of all, the body was disassembled and all the rotten areas cut out and replaced and treated, the body shell was prepared and made ready to be sprayed in the Cooper colours of tweed grey with an old English white roof, the signature of a Cooper Mini. The front and rear subframe were repaired shot blasted and powder coated to a very high standard, they were then assembled using mostly new suspension parts. The interior is fantastically basic but so good looking with a MK1 centre binnacle dash and the MK1 Smiths heater along with the comfort of the grey Cobra classic race style seats its very comfortable to drive. The steering wheel is a lovely Moto Lita retro style, even the sliding windows are the early Mk 1 sort with catches just like the Coopers, this is all set off with the black carpets, the attention to detail is fantastic. This lovely little van sits on 10-inch Minilite wheels that have the 60th anniversary centre caps and the tyres are racing Dunlop SP sport period style and are of course new. Now we come to the business bit of this little gem, the engine, and as you would expect it has again been built to a very high standard. The engine is an original Cooper block enlarged to 1028cc with a 12g 295-cylinder head, it has a fast road camshaft, lightened and balanced. The head has been gently ported and is fed by twin 1 " SU carburettors. The engine is mated to a close ratio straight cut gearbox with standard differential. Once the engine build was completed it was handed to swiftune, and dyno tune tuned to produce 71hp. You can now understand why the stopping power needed to be addressed with the 7 " Mini Cooper S disc brakes. The engine bay is also a real work of art nothing out of place or period. A fabric wrapped wiring loom has been used rather than the nasty plastic ones of today. The builders experience and know how came from many years of building and racing minis it is Special it is unique.