MY FEEDLY

The Mini Moke: Probably The Most Fun Car (Pound-For-Pound) Ever Put Into Production

It’s hard to argue that the Mini Moke isn’t one of the most fun cars ever put into production. The truth is, the original military intentions for the Mini Moke were destined for failure before the blueprints were ever finalized, but the vehicle was wholeheartedly embraced by civilians – and it still is today over 57 years after it was first introduced.

The Moke may be the lightest car ever driven by Bond in the famous 007 film franchise, James Bond (Roger Moore) drove a white Mini Moke in the 1973 film Live and Let Die on the fictional island of San Monique. Many Mokes would be used as rental cars on many tropical islands, and some still are.

Fast Facts – The Mini Moke

The Mini Moke is directly based in the classic Mini, using the same engine, transmission, and suspension.
“Moke” was an old British slang term for a mule, and it was deemed the perfect name for the vehicle given its design.
The Moke uses a steel platform chassis with steel box sections on each side to help with rigidity. The left side box contains the fuel tank (on most Mokes), and the right side box contains the battery and a lockable storage compartment.
Amazingly the Moke would remain in production from 1964 until 1993, and it was recently brought back with some design updates and an electric version.

The Mini Moke – A Wildly Successful Failure

When Sir Alec Issigonis and John Sheppard originally developed the Mini Moke it was to fulfill unfinished business for Issigonis, who had designed a parachute-deployable, amphibious military vehicle called the Nuffield Guppy in the 1940s. WWII had ended before the unusual vehicle could see service.

The Mini Moke handles much like a road-legal go kart, giving them a no-frills driving experience that can be hard to beat.

The desire to create an ultra lightweight version of the Mini for use as a parachute-deployable vehicle makes sense until you remember that the Mini has very low ground clearance – only approximately 6 1/2 inches (16.2 cm) with no load.

Issigonis and Sheppard did their best despite this limitation, even going so far as to show four soldiers getting out of the car and physically carrying it over obstacles, but the British Armed Forces never placed any significant orders.

That said, there were a few mysterious Mini Mokes used by British forces during the Falklands War, but further information on them is hard to come by.

Mini Moke – Specifications

The simple design of the Mini Moke made it relatively simple to mass-produce. Just as with the Mini, the engine and gearbox are a single unit mounted transversely (sideways) that drive the front wheels. The chassis is essentially just a flat steel floor with box sections on the left and right, the left side contains the fuel tank and the right side contains the battery and a lockable storage box.

In order to keep weight down the interior of the Moke was kept as spartan as possible, though simple fabric tops with clear plastic side windows were available to help keep the sun of rain off depending on your local weather.

Mokes proved popular as holiday rental cars and saw use as far afield as Mauritius, St Barth, St Tropez, Barbados, Macau, and on Australia’s Magnetic Island where you can still hire a Moke to this day.

A number of different engine versions were offered in the Moke over its production run, starting with the 848cc unit also used in the Mini and moving up to the 998cc, 1098cc, and 1275cc engines – all with 4-speed manual transmissions.

The open air driving experience of the Moke has long made them popular in sunny holiday destinations.

The car was originally produced in Britain from 1964 until 1968 however sales were slow, possibly due to the fact that the regular Mini was a far better option given the local weather conditions. Production was set up in Australia where it flourished from 1966 until 1981, local versions were produced with more powerful engines, more comfortable seats, and larger 13″ wheels giving better ground clearance – the original wheels had been just 10 inches.

Production shifted to Portugal in the early 1980s where many thousands were made, the rights to the Moke and the equipment to build it was then sold to Italian motorcycle company Cagiva who moved production to Italy. Sadly full-scale production would never restart.

More recently there have been a number of firms vying to bring the Moke back into production, Moke International is the official owner of the rights to the Moke, and they’re selling an updated version that you can order now.

The 1968 Mini Moke Shown Here

The Moke you see here is a rare original British example from 1968, finished in its factory-applied Spruce Green paintwork and a set of 10 inch “reverse-rim” Mini Cooper steel wheels.

As an unrestored car this Moke does show some signs of age, as one would expect, however the overall level of preservation is remarkable given its age of 53 years.

As you would expect this car is powered by the 848cc A-series inline-four cylinder engine producing 45 bhp, feeding power to the front wheels via a 4-speed transmission.

If you’d like to read more about this car or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on Collecting Cars. It’s currently being auctioned live and it’s based in Surrey, in the United Kingdom.

Images courtesy of Collecting Cars

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from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/austin-mini-moke/
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There’s A $200,000 Mohs Safarikar For Sale On eBay

Just three examples of the Mohs Safarikar were ever made and only two have survived to the current day, the vehicles were designed to be a combination between a four-wheel drive and a Rolls-Royce for wealthy people to use when big game hunting in Africa.

When new the Safarikar cost between $19,600 and $25,600 USD, a vast sum in 1972 dollars. Due to the high cost, unusual looks, and exceedingly small potential market the car wasn’t a success, and it would be the last car offered by Mohs.

Fast Facts – The Mohs Safarikar

The Mohs Safarikar is based on an International Harvester Travelall 4×4 chassis with a bespoke “dual cowl phaeton” body designed for hunting off-road in Africa.
The body of the Safarikar is made from aluminum and it has an outer covering of soft polyurethane foam covered with black Naugahyde – a waterproof synthetic leather.
Power is provided by the Travelall’s 392 cubic inch (6.4 liter) V8 and it’s sent back through a 3-speed automatic transmission.
Seating is divided into two sections, with the safari guides up front and the shooters in the rear. The rear seats can also fold down and become a bed if needed.

The Amazing (and Eccentric) Bruce Mohs

It’s impossible to tell the story of the Mohs Safarikar without first talking a little about the company’s wildly eccentric founder Bruce Mohs.

Not only did Bruce Mohs become an automobile manufacturer, but over the course of his life he was also a specialist mechanical prop maker for Hollywood, working with the likes of Alfred Hitchcock.

The Safarikar is a decidedly unusual looking vehicle, designed to combine the luxury of a Rolls-Royce with the go-anywhere ability of a four-wheel drive.

He would also become a restaurateur and a hotel operator, he was the inventor of the instant milkshake, he was a big-game hunter and photographer who travelled to 110 countries, he did infrared photography for NASA’s earth satellite program to help calculate satellite trajectories, he was a museum curator, and he was the inventor of the Reflecto-strip, a reflective material used on highways and guardrails around the world.

That’s not all he did in his life, but it’s enough to give you a general idea of what kind of person he was.

“Concentric people go around in circles; they never fly off in a tangent and get anything done. Many concentric people are simply going and doing their 8-to-5 jobs and coming home and sitting in front of the TV tube and opening a can of beer and going to bed and doing the same thing the next day. I think everybody should have some little eccentricity.” – Bruce Baldwin Mohs

The first car developed by Bruce Mohs was, believe it or not, even more outlandish than the Safarikar. It was called the Ostentatienne Opera Sedan and it was essentially an uber-luxurious way of driving to the opera.

The only way to enter the passenger compartment was through a single rear door that opened upwards, this was to allow ladies in ballgowns to get in and out of the car elegantly in front of the waiting media. The sides of the car were steel reinforced to keep the occupants safe in an accident, and the air-conditioned interior was awash with rich carpeting and plush upholstery.

Only one example of the Ostentatienne Opera Sedan was ever made, however this left Bruce Mohs entirely unperturbed, and he immediately set to work on his next creation – the Safarikar.

The Mohs Safarikar

As a big game hunter, Mohs was doubtless familiar with the off-road vehicles typically used in Africa in the 1960s and 1970s – usually Land Rovers with very rudimentary interiors that had lived rough lives.

This led him to his eureka moment, he would build a luxurious vehicle like a Rolls-Royce with an off-road four-wheel drive chassis and a body that could be used as a shooting platform – with rifles being rested directly on soft, foam-covered body panels to help hunters aim.

The seats were apparently designed by Steve McQueen for Baja desert racing.

The Ostentatienne Opera Sedan had been based on an International Harvester chassis and drivetrain, and Bruce would choose the same automaker as the supplier of the chassis and drivetrain for the Safarikar – each would begin with a rolling International Harvester Travelall platform.

Power would be provided by the IH 392 cubic inch (6.4 liter) V8 mated to the company’s 3-speed automatic transmission. Upon this platform a new aluminum body would be built incorporating two distinct seating areas, Bruce liked to call it a “dual cowl phaeton” after the elegant pre-WWII cars with the same layout, but truth be told he was stretching the term so thin it became translucent.

There idea was that the driver and guides would sit up front, and the hunters would sit in the back with their rifles, binoculars, and probably brandy. If needed the rear seat could fold down into a bed to keep everyone comfortable overnight.

Perhaps the most interesting bit of trivia about the Safarikar is the source of the three bucket seats in the front – they were apparently designed by Steve McQueen and his team for desert racing in Southern California and sold under the Solar Automotive brand – Solar Productions was the name of his film production company.

The aluminum body was covered with soft polyurethane foam, which was upholstered with black Naugahyde, a type of waterproof synthetic leather that had proven highly-resistant to the elements. It’s believed that that purpose of this was to give shooters a stable platform to rest their rifles on, without risking damage to the car or the firearms (as mentioned above).

After its introduction to a bewildered general public in 1972 the Safarikar went on to sell a grand total of three units. Just two have survived to the modern day including the car you see here, which believe it or not has just popped up on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $197,000 USD. Interestingly this is considerably less than the $350,000 it was listed for on another platform last year.

If you’d like to read more about the Afrikar or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing, at the time of writing there are approximately 25 days left to get your offer in.

Images courtesy of Hyman Ltd

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An Interview With Giugiaro – The Design That Works: The BMW M1

The Design That Works is a series of interviews with a man widely regarded as the greatest car designer of all time – Giorgetto Giugiaro.

Each episode runs approximately 10 minutes or so in length, with Giugiaro himself going over many of his most famous automobiles and explaining their designs in detail.

It’s a remarkable insight that we don’t often get from the secretive world of car designers, and it provides invaluable insight into some of the most notable cars of the 20th century.

In this episode Giugiaro is discussing the design of the BMW M1, one of the most interesting BMWs of the age and the first production BMW with a rear-mid-engine design. The car had classic Giugiaro lines somewhat reminiscent of his other mid-engined designs from the era like the DeLorean DMC-12, Lotus Esprit, Maserati Merak, and the AMC AMX/3.

Giorgetto Giugiaro is arguably the greatest car designer of the 20th century, this short film shows him explaining the various design elements of the BMW M1.

The M1 project was fraught with difficulties from the get-go, Lamborghini was initially contracted to construct the car due to their familiarity with mid-engined cars with spaceframe chassis.

Sadly the Italian company was going through a period of financial difficulty, and BMW ended up contracting the manufacturing of the fiberglass bodies to Italina Resina in Modena and the construction of the tubular steel spaceframe chassis to Marchesi, also in Modena.

Once the bodies and chassis arrived at Giugiaro’s Italdesign manufacturing facility in Turin the cars were partially constructed including the interiors, before being sent to Germany to be finished by BMW.

Remarkably, 453 cars were constructed this way over the 1978 to 1981 production run and today they’re among the most collectible BMWs ever made.

If you’d like to read more about the BMW M1 you can click here to see the official BMW page on the car.