In the summer of 1998 my parents gave me £2,000 which had been saved for me since I was wee. I went out the same day and picked out my first car. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but decided to see what my dad's mechanic John had in stock at the time. John services most types of cars, but sells mostly Mini's through his garage The South Side Mini Centre, in Glasgow.

I had ideas about buying an old rusty Mini, doing some resoration work and then sticking on a Zeemax body kit. John wisely talked me out of this since I had neither the time, space nor knowledge to start a project like that. Instead, I picked out a nice red 1990 Mini Mayfair (G816 ORN) which was in very good condition, but very ordinary to look at. It had a black plastic grille, black plastic everything else and dodgy wheeltrims over very skinny tyres.

I was quite pleased with what I achievd in the year and a half that I owned it -- all the black plastic was replaced by chrome, the wheels were ditched in favour of wider 6x12" black Minilite replicas with Yokohama A510's and most of the induction and exhaust system was scrapped to make way for a full Stage 1 kit, K&N filter and cylinder head skim. To finish it off I swapped the existing Goodmas tape deck for an Alpine CD head unit.
 

1990 Mini Mayfair 998cc

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• WIPAC Halogen headlamp conversion
• Clear front indicators & side repeaters
• Cooper grille
• Stainless steel wiper arms and blades
• Chrome twin washer jets
• Black Minilight 12x6" alloys
• Yokohama A510 165/60 x 12 tyres
• K&N air filter & RC40 exhaust system
• Dark window tint rear-side and rear
• Mountney 10" leather steering wheel
• RAZO RA16 Blue Alloy Shift Knob
• Monte Carlo door scoops
• New Mini bonnet badge
• Front arches modified to accept 12x6" wheels
• All Mayfair logos and coachlines removed