Auto Betsy

[betsycooper]

Greetings to all.

I would like to introduce you to Betsy.
She is a '67 Mk1 Austin mini 998 that was in the process of becoming a Cooper replica along with the other twenty million replicas out there....
Until recently....
I managed, after years of fruitless searching to find an 1100 Auto engine and box from a Wolseley 1100. This changed the game completely.
She will now become the world's only Austin Cooper Automatic!
This is a very tongue in cheek. But having the only auto mini in south Africa gives me glorious artistic license.

I'll start a thread to document my progress.

Regards,

Andrew Shadwell, Cape Town.

[(minisniper)]

Welcome to AMR Andrew look forward to you stating your thread

[Stu]

Welcome Andrew. Looking forward to seeing photos of Betsy, and reading your progress.

Love the auto cooper idea

Stu.

[hbroodryk]

"...only auto mini in South Africa"? Very amusing...

Regards
Hannes

[betsycooper]

Hey Hannes!

Glad you replied!
The only reference I have it Rhyno's book. No mention of any auto's ever built here.
How about some nice pics of your baby?

Cheers.

[hbroodryk]

Hi Andrew

I emigrated to the UK many years ago, but I owned two auto's myself and knew of at least wo more in Jo'burg at the time. I'll see if I can find some old happy-snappies...

You may be right though, I do not recall them actually being built in SA, but there were certainly some around. A good friend of my dad's sold Mini's (and other Leyland cars I would imagine) in the late seventies when we lived in Port Elizabeth and I distinctly remember him coming around one day in a Demo that was automatic. Many years later he visited us in Pretoria in what was, if memory serves, an automatic Clubman. 

Hunt around, I'm sure you'll find some more out there, and good luck with the build.

Regards
Hannes

[hbroodryk]

...PS: I wasn't really into cars back then, so the Mini's were just transportation to me. As I bet everybody on here has said at least once in their lives, I wish I had never sold them!