Rover Mini British Open 1.3i
There are cars you always assumed you would buy one day. Someday. When you were grown up. When you had the money. When you finally had a driveway of your own. The original Mini was one of those cars. Not because it was fast, not because it was luxurious, and certainly not because it was practical. But because it was simply irresistible. A sort of dachshund on wheels: too small, too low, too stubborn, and precisely for that reason impossible not to love.
My stepmother used to have one, almost exactly like the one standing here now. A green Kensington version, also with an open roof and those wonderful Minilite sausage wheels. Whenever we went somewhere, I always wanted to take the Mini, and my father would groan because at 1.95m and 130kg he really had to squeeze himself in. And if a shoehorn is needed to get him out again, those are still the loveliest memories. And memories of a classic Mini are something nearly everyone has.
The Mini is, of course, a British icon. Alec Issigonis designed it in the late 1950s as an answer to the Suez Crisis and the petrol shortage that came with it. The result was a masterpiece of packaging: a transversely mounted engine, front-wheel drive, wheels pushed into the corners, and an interior that could hold four adults while the car itself was shorter than most sofas. The Queen drove one. Mr. Bean drove one. Michael Caine chased through the sewers of Turin in one in The Italian Job. And my father just about fitted in one.
The British Open was a special edition that Rover released in the 1990s. A Mini with just that little bit more. Wooden dashboard accents, chrome trim strips. It was like putting on a dinner jacket for a picnic: over the top, but somehow exactly right. The name referred to the British golf championship, which tells you something about the target audience. This was not a car for couriers or students. This was a Mini for people who knew what they wanted and could afford to go and get it.
Right, back to the British Open on offer here. A 1994 example, delivered by Broek Brittcar in Waalwijk to its first lady owner. That same owner kept it for more than twenty years. We bought it from the second owner, who has by now also had it for 10 years. The service book reads like the medical file of someone who dutifully went to the GP every year: first service at 1,610 kilometres, major service at 12,882, and after that an unbroken run of service visits at specialist garages such as The Little Car Company in Den Bosch and Brittcar in Waalwijk.
This is not a restored car. This is a time capsule. A car that has spent its entire life in the Netherlands. The Carfax report is so clean it makes you jealous. No accident reports, no odometer tampering, no hidden surprises. Just a car that did exactly what it was made for: to drive and to raise a smile.
The green paintwork suits the British character perfectly. British Racing Green, but just a touch lighter, a touch friendlier. The cloth interior is original and still shows beautifully, clearly well looked after. The 1275cc engine delivers its modest 53 bhp to the front wheels through a delightfully mechanical manual gearbox. It is no rocket, but that is not the point. The point is the feeling. The directness of the steering, the short throws of the gear lever, the sound of that little four-cylinder giving it everything it has.
Jeremy Clarkson once said the Mini is the best small car ever made. I disagree with the man on plenty of things, but on this he is right. The Mini is not simply a car. It is a lifestyle. A choice not to join the race for who has the biggest, the fastest, the most expensive. A choice simply to enjoy yourself.
This British Open is ready for the next thirty years. Or at least for the next owner who understands that some cars are not bought to get somewhere, but to be somewhere.
Sometimes small is simply big enough.
Special features
- Original 1275cc petrol engine with 53 bhp
- British Open trim
- Only two owners
- Fully documented service history
- Original Dutch-market car
- Carfax report with no accident reports
- Service book present with all stamps
- Recently serviced by a Mini specialist
Full insight into the papers our assessment is built on. Carfax vehicle history, service documentation and paint thickness report — page by page.
