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ALCHEMY
In this series titled “Alchemy”, which means turning metal into gold, we will review cars and drivers who helped to make MINI a legend.
THE PELLANDINI
This month our review is on the Pellandini special produced in South Australia in the early 1970’s.
The photo above is from Sports Car World and was taken at the Adelaide Motor Show in 1970. This car was for display and had not been finished. As you can see, these were among the prettiest Mini based specials. The car featured here is a coupe, but there were also roadster versions as well. The open top look really suited the Pellandini, however not enough interest was shown and production numbers were limited.
The car takes its name from the designer, Peter Pellandini, who had an ambition to expand on the virtues of the Mini and its components. The Pellandini used the Mini drive train and components, and was made from aluminium and fiberglass around a tubular spaceframe chassis. The engine was mid-mounted, and was either an 1100 or 1275cc. The alloy wheels were 10 inch up front and 12 inch at the rear.
The one piece nose section, hinged at the front and secured by over-centre latches, covered the radiator and spare wheel. Entry through the openings provided by the gull-wing doors, needed some agility to scale the high sills, but the cockpit was amply roomy and comfortable for two.
Facia design was unusal, with glovebox on the left, angled speedo in the centre, and a group of warning lights ahead of the 300mm leather bound steering wheel. The seats were trimmed with either leather or sheep skin to order, and had four point safety harness as standard equipment.The location and length of the pendant type foot pedals were arranged to suit the buyer.
Seven of the coupe models were sold, all in kit form. Occasionally one of these cars will come up for sale in the pages of used car magazines, so they are still out there to be found.
There are still a few more “Mini Specials” to review yet, and I am now gathering material on what could possibly be the ugliest thing ever to use Mini bits, “The Bulanti”. See it next month.
Darryl Osborne.
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