ML Motorsport - Classic mini and retro car specialists

This was my wife's car but warrants a feature, as it was one of our show cars for several years, which we exhibited as an example of our work.

Starting life as a humble vermilion Mini city I was ordered to give the car ‘a bit of a tidy up'!!! The car earned its name ‘Vermin' after a drunken planning session on how the car should be done!! (The missus can't pronounce Vermilion when sober so the addition of several large Vodkas really is a challenge!) The Gran Tourismo 2 Game provided inspiration with a chrome orange Lotus Elise, and so the colour was selected!

The body was stripped and fitted with new front wings, front panel, ‘A' panels, doors, and a set of our favourite WP replica arches. We then repainted the shell with several coats of Lotus Chrome Orange.

Subframes were rebuilt with adjustarides, bushes etc cooper ‘s' brakes and the addition of a set of superb MB Racing 6 x 10 modular wheels got the shell rolling.

The interior was fully retrimmed with every square inch of metal covered with Jaguar grade magnolia vinyl, special ‘ruched' door panels were constructed and finished off with walnut dash, door cappings and furniture.

An engine spec was selected to be reliable but “torquey”, a 1293 A+ engine was built up with an MG cam and head, and a twin HS2 carb setup was fitted to give nice throttle response. A loud exhaust was requested so a PlayMini DTM exhaust stepped in! The engine was fitted and ‘dressed' to impress with silicone hoses, alloy radiator and fittings.

Over the years we fitted incar and undercar neon's along with a Subaru style vented and scooped bonnet to update this long serving member of the MLM fleet.

Vermin has also been featured in MiniWorld Magazine Jan 02 and has appeared at mini shows all over the country and has won several trophies over years including highest scoring car and Light Show winner at Southern Minidays 2003. The car was sold in 2004 and has since sadly been written off.