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Alchemy.
Mini Monaco.
 Our final review of the year is the Mini Monaco, a well-respected member of the modified Mini family. These cars were built by Bill Buckle who had previously made a range of sports cars based on MG or components of common cars available in the 1960s.As a result of having a successful background manufacturing cars, people were prepared to take notice of Buckles new project.
The Monaco was an inexpensive conversion carried out on Mini sedans that transformed them into quite good looking coupes. The modifications involved a more steeply raked windscreen along with a fastback roofline, this gave a reduced waist to roof height and added to the squat look. To accommodate the new shape the door frames and side and rear glass were modified to suit.
The interior had also undergone a few mods as well, the steering column was lowered and the front seats were inclined to allow more headroom. New roof lining was installed and the new bits sprayed and the car was ready.
Also available was a range of extras comprising of custom dashes with a simulated wood finish and a revised exterior package. The price of the base modification was \$450 and that gave the owners a neat looking Mini.
There are not too many of these left now and so a good one is worth around the price of a mint Cooper S. A similar style conversion was done in South Australia and that also gained a good review at the time , the Eucrie De Des 2+2 faded away with only one or two examples remaining.
I hope that these articles are interesting, the following issues will contain local racing Minis and kit cars from the UK that we are unable to obtain locally.
I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and we shall have a great party with our cars on the 12th of December. Bye for now,
Darryl Osborne.
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