Maximum Mini by Jeroen Booij
If you enjoy Mini derivatives then you will just love this book.
Jeroen Booij has a passion for Minis, but his particular quirk is for the more unusual variants. It seems the more off-beat and the less known the better. In fact, he is probably the perfect person to have written this book, because the more difficult it was to track down a particular car, the harder he tried.
Jeroen has scoured all over the world looking for odd-ball Minis, and has travelled to many places to photograph them.
In the end, he felt he had more cars than he knew what to do with, so had to cull the numbers a fair bit. It made sense then to concentrate on those cars that, even if only one was built, were at least intended to go into production. To limit the scope even more, he selected only cars that could be classified as sporty cars.
But don’t think for one minute that means a relatively boring parade of “the usual suspects”. Such is the variety of the Mini-based special, that this book is chock-a-block full of assorted creations, both famous and anonymous.
Take a quick test, and see how many Mini derivatives you could name. Five? Ten, perhaps? If you can name 20, I’ll be impressed. Jeroen’s book features some 58 cars, from around 50 manufacturers or home-builders.
I’m sure, especially if you are a regular reader of The Mini Experience, that you would be aware of the Buckle, the Australian-built Broadspeed and the De Joux from New Zealand. And no doubt you will have heard of Unipower, Marcos and probably Ogle. But what about Nimbus, Siva Buggy, ESAP, Fletcher, Gitane, the Butterfield Musketeer or TiCi? There are many more you may never have heard of that are included.
The presentation of the book is another impressive aspect. Being published by Veloce, you know it will be high quality to start with, and the book details one car for each double-page spread. This makes it a perfect coffee-table book, because you are not asked to sit for hours pouring over detailed specifications or histories. Each car is presented in a few quality photos and a few hundred words, giving the basics of its conception, development and invariable demise. This means if you’ve got five minutes spare, you can pick up the book, flick through until you find something that grabs your attention, and quickly get the facts about it.
I can see the potential for a whole series of trivia questions based on the contents. The book will also serve to settle a few pub arguments.
I have also contributed to this book, in the form of photos of eight of the Australian derivatives and the De Joux, and am pleased to say the book has exceeded my expectations.
At a time when so many people are focused on the Mini’s 50th birthday, it is refreshing to see such a departure from the norm, in a book written with such passion for the subject.
Maximum Mini is a book for any serious Mini aficionado, to the casual viewer, or anyone with a sense of the ridiculous.
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