The story of a Austin 8, CBL107 first registered on the 31st July 1939 and purchased by me in 1996 from Stourbridge, and following over a year of restoration/repaint it has run like a dream. Sadly I have no previous history, so if any one out there can help I would be obliged. (contact info@austinmemories.com). We are soon to move to France taking the Austin with us.

Well the move has started with the Austin already in residence so here I am in my new surroundings.

The original plan was to drive it down to France, but in the end it was trailer down. So when we came off the motorway at St Mair Eglise for fuel, & got caught up in the local carnival procession much to the delight of the locals. The Austin has been used for local trips around the Loire Valley. On Sunday we took it to the local town, Bauge to get some bread and in the main car park, the local classic car club were displaying their vehicles. When they spotted us they insisted we park with them, & looked after the car whilst we walked into town, I don't speak French that well, and they spoke no English, but old cars seem a great way of making friends, lovely people. Will update on the Austin in a few months time.

Richard Hall 

Jeremy driving a 2004 MINI Cooper “S”…lad chasing dad – both Liquid Yellow!  Mini and trailer came out of garage for photos taken for MiniWorld magazine.

My grandfather, George A. Beech born in England in 1881, an immigrant with his parents and siblings to Canada, owned several Austin cars, including a Cambridge at the time of his death in 1961 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Austin's were commonplace in British Columbia after the second world war. My uncle Hedley Reeder owned an Austin A40, which carried my aunt, two infant cousins, their older brother Douglas (11) and me (12) from Kamloops through the Okanagan and to Vancouver on a camping holiday in 1956.  The “gear” included a 5 gallon container of used oil which replenished that burned up along the way.  Douglas and I drove uncle Hedley nuts when we realized that we could keep the Austin “bouncing” by synchronized pressing on the toeboard after the car hit a bump.  Clearly the dampers were shot too!
 
 
I also owned an ’57 MGA with 1500cc engine in the mid-1960’s and later an MGB (which I still have) and I repowered it with a Buick V6 and gave it a 5-speed transmission, with MGB-GT V8 FD.  There was nothing like the MGA, TRs etc. on offer from the North American auto industry.
 
Minis have always been a favourite and we have owned several.  We restored/modified and re-powered a 1976 Mini 1000, which my younger son Jeremy drove for 10 years (1993/2003), when he sold it to an older chap who had owned a new “S” more than 30 years before and “who wanted to go there again”.  This is the Mini…
 

 
Jeremy’s older brother Tyler bought one of the last (1980) Mini 1000s sold in Canada from its original owner in 1995.  I took it off his hands in 1999 and made a complete restoration/modification of the Mini and built a “Mini trailer” too.  Here are photos after initial mods to the Russet Brown Mini 1000 – NOTE  it was painted twice at the factory (Russet Brown over primer over Russet Brown over primer) – and after full rebuild.
 
We also have a 1969 Mini MkII hydrolastic rolling shell and a 1961 MkI Austin Mini Countryman shell for restoration.
 
The love affair with the little cars from GB goes on!
 
I’m 64 and on the 28th of June off to Mini Meet West in Hood River, Oregon in July.  In 2009, we will drive the Mini to Winona, Minnesota for Mini Meet East Meets West to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Austin Seven and Morris Mini Minor – soon to be known as Mini!

Rick Higgs
B.C. Canada

My wife and I own a 1969 Austin Mini Mk.II Countryman (steel version) It became part of the family in 1997 and we are the 5th owners from new. According to the BMH certificate we got for her from Gaydon, she was built June 20th, 1969 (almost birthday time), & was dispatched on the July 2nd, 1969 to British Leyland Motors Canada Ltd., Hamilton, Ontario.

To the best of my knowledge, (and I apologize for the odd boast) she is quite possibly the "youngest" legitimate Austin Mini Mk.II Countryman left in Canada or possibly the world.

In Ontario along with the MOT, all vehicles purchased through "private sale" to new owners must have a "Used vehicle information package". This gives new owners of used vehicles the dates, names & cities/municipalities where a vehicle has been registered. According to the one I acquired for our Countryman, she has lived in southern Ontario all her time in Canada - living in Hamilton, Waterloo, Cambridge & Mindon. Now with us she's in Etobicoke, a suburb of Toronto.
 
Since we bought her, she has always been on the road except winters, Ontario winter road salt is deadly on U.K. cars. So when she is stored for the winter the "deep" work is done; rear subframe & hard points replaced, wheel hub & bearings, radiator, heater matrix & assembly replaced etc.
 
Over the years I've acquired many original BMC workshop & service publications & from these references I've been fortunate, in finding out that all numbered components; engine, VIN, distributor, speedometer, transmission case, carburetor are all appropriate factory numbers matching. Though, as you can see from the picture her colour is far from correct, as time & of course money allow, my wife & I consider her a "working-work in progress".
 
We have always had great fun with her & because of her "uniqueness" in Canada, she always gets attention.

Aden & Bonnie Staring
Ontario Canada