Ahoy,

Long time mini fan. First time buyer.

I have my heart set on a clubman GT or a LS1275

Am noticing that these models are increasingly hard to find. And when they do come up for sale they are gone quickly so if you’re not on the ball checking the various forums and sale websites you miss out.

Is it worth holding out and waiting for one of these to become available or should I “settle” and buy a more readily available model. Eg S or SS or deluxe?

Cheers.

depends how deep your pockets are there are currently i think 2 hi ho silver 1275LS for sale

All depends on what your budget is too

Budget up to 25k

I’ve seen one LS1275 hi ho for sale on the vic mini website I think.

35k he was asking....

35 k for an LS is way too much. GTs don't even go for that and they are the top of the line clubman. id sit on it for a bit and wait for either a GT or LS to pop up they will. and a nice GT should set you back appox 20 k and an LS less than that.

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1964 smooth roof panel van
1967 Mk 1 X-Police cooper s
1970 mini k
1975 leyland

Thanks for the advice.

I have budgeted for the 20 to mid 20k mark. Guess I just have to be quicker on pulling the trigger when a GT or LS comes up!

Cheers.

Mini 1275 LS with 877km on NSW mini car club website for sale. Asking $32,000. "Museum piece"

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Cooper S Mk2
Cooper S Mk1
ex Cooper S Mk2, various Morris 1100s, 1300s, 1500s, Leyland Sherpa!

Have you considered importing from NZ?
Prices are considerably less even allowing for approx $3500 import and duty costs.
Eg https://preview.trademe.co.nz/motors/ca ... 1703141205

You’d want to be aware of the asbestos rules though you can try your luck

Hmm. Interesting prospect. And interesting vehicle. A late 70’s Morris GT?

I wasn’t even aware Morris made square nose minis.

It’s a strange looking car. Almost a bit more like a 1275GT UK spec.

Ah it may well be Uk
I heard a theory that some time ago NZ had no import duty and very few regulations. So people were easily able to bring in any car they liked affordably and a lot of English relocations took their cars with them / the English cars were imported by NZ folk.

Hence all the Mini 1000 you see on the NZ classifieds

Yes, that's a British built Clubman, note the lack of external hinges for a start. The British cars were officially imported into NZ for many years despite the nearby Australian availability. I don't think they liked us very much at the time.

"New Zealanders who leave for Australia raise the IQ of both countries" - Robert Muldoon (NZ PM 1975 to 1984)

You would have problems registering the car in Australia unfortunately. New Zealand openly allows grey imports because they never had a motor industry of their own to protect. Despite the destruction of our own, we still protect our market by preventing open imports without restrictive layers of governance.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

Importing from NZ is expensive a car like that clubman will cost you 7k to import.

I imported a car of similar age and cost for $4000 all up
It’s still a lot of money and hassle and not a process I’d be that keen to do again

After my road trip Melbourne to Bali it cost $5000 to ship it back to Melbourne. The car was on a passport (carnet de passage) so all the costs were transport and import costs only. I was charged $500 to have it pushed out the container. Customs mucked up the paperwork and tried to hit me with storage fees. They wire wheeled the firewall to read the car number yet the number on the paperwork was the number on the radiator shroud. The whole process was a bit of a nightmare too be honest. (Bali end no problems at all, just this end...). I should have driven it back...

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67 Deluxe
Dry suspension
1293cc, 11:1 comp, RE 282 camshaft, 45 Weber, extractors etc
4 synchro close ratio gbox
Cooper S brakes, no booster
Stealth box, as Doc says "goes harder and idles!"
RH tank cos I needed it crossing the Nullarbor etc..

I don't know how you can do it for $4k, I'm importing a mini right now and it's costing at least $7k from NZ.