Crayford returns: Is this £35k Mini the ultimate budget resto-mod?

This is one of those cars whose elevator pitch would be a remarkably straightforward one: it's a car for someone to keep at their holiday home, so they take an old Mini and cut the sides off. And that's about it. That's the explanation. Lobby, please. This is the Crayford Mojito (Mk2), a restormodded Mini whose modifications are completed partly in Hungerford, Berkshire, but mostly in Rochford, Essex, hence we've come to Southend-on-Sea to have a go in it. Affordable seaside fun meets etc, etc... If you think you've heard of Crayford before, it might be because a company of that name made Minis into convertibles in the 1970s- those and Triumph TR7 estates - and it put convertible tops on everything from Mercedes-Benz CE Coupés through to Morris Marinas while importing an eight-wheel multi-terrain amphibious vehicle called the Argocat. The then owner, David McMullan, retired in the 1980s and the name fizzled away, but it has been brought back by Paul Osborn, a lifelong car dealer who ran top-end retailer Chequered Flag International over in Los Angeles. The McMullan family has lent Osborn its approval, pleased to see the name in use again. That they're willing means "there is a connection", says Osborn. So tell us about the car, Paul. I can see it's a Mini, and... "Basically we've removed the side," he says. That's the 'tl;dr' version of it. Crayford likes to take a classic Mini, ideally not in too shabby condition because restoration is costly and Heritage shells are "too expensive", and then he sets to work with – I'm assuming a bit here – a marker pen and an angle grinder. Out go a door, the rear window and some of the bodywork beneath it. Added are three new panels - one where the door hinged, a taller sill structure and the angled rear panel. Of what has been taken away, "none of it was load-bearing, so to speak", says Osborn, with some reassurance. For use in the EU, a rope across the gap is an option, and while this car has lap seatbelts, there's an option to have a bar placed behind the front seats that allows the fitment of a full inertia reel belt. But most owners will, I suspect, run around in the car as it is shown here. Mechanical changes are slight. "We want to keep it as Mk1 as possible," says Osborn. The engine gets a minor retune for low-end torque rather than power, this car has disc front brakes, and then comes some interior work. Seats are trimmed with "material they use outside on yachts", and the car goes to a company called Flexiteek (also in Essex) to have its synthetic marine flooring put in. A sunroof goes in, sourced from a company in an arid bit of the US and which initially had kittens when it learned its canvas tops were coming to the UK, because they're not exactly watertight. But a few drips from a sunroof in this car are not going to be noticed. Other new bits of trim arrive looking 'fine, good enough', but with original switchgear still around, the Mojito is clearly - and very deliberately - modified to a price point. Osborn is a car seller, not an idealist. "We're doing a basic version of what [Porsche 911 modifier] Singer is doing," says Osborn, extremely aware people will not pay Singer prices for a Mini. In fact, not enough of them were even paying David Brown prices (around £100,000) for a Mini, so he admits to cutting a few corners here and there to keep conversion time short and the cost as low as is practical. "I'm interested in being at the price point where people say 'well for that, I'll have one'," says Osborn. People are buying them for their second homes, beach houses or partners and will tool around in it for just a few weeks of the year. Prices, then, start at £35,000, although you could spend £50,000 if you put your mind to it. The one here started life as a 1986 Austin Mini City E or Mayfair (£3447 or £4075 at the time) and as-is would today cost £37,500. To drive? Well, it's a Mini. Which means it feels incredibly compact by today's standards- at just over 3m long and, even with these wheel arches, I'd guess still under 1.5m wide. The driving position is bent of knee, and you hold the steering wheel like a plate at a buffet. The amount of air one is afforded means it doesn't in any way feel cramped, of course. The weight probably hasn't changed much from its original 650kg-ish, and there's no assistance for anything, so it's incredibly direct and interactive and precise. It rides pretty well too - perhaps it's a bit bouncy in its primary ride but with its secondary ride rounding off edges very deftly for a car of such low weight. It steers nicely, the four-speed gearbox is fun in a long-sticked way and there's a lot of torque (and/or not a lot of weight - probably that, actually). Plus, everyone loves it. Do you feel exposed? A bit, but predominantly in a nice way, immersed in your seaside surroundings. I wouldn't want to sit on the M1 in one, but people don't: Crayford is making one a month for short, fun town journeys. Which is where the next step comes in: making this fun car more accessible. "Automatics are tricky," says Osborn. That's because not many Minis of this era were fitted with the £699 optional automatic gearbox that isn't very good anyway, but more and more, drivers aren't used to a manual like this. Osborn sees an electric conversion as an inevitability. "EV is the future for it," he says. "There are people who want one who aren't stick drivers." Plus there's the fact that leaving an old car sitting in a garage for a winter by the sea isn't conducive to it behaving when you return in the spring. Not everyone wants a classic combustion-engined car. Problem is, says Osborn, most of the existing EV conversions "are all £15,000-£25,000 just for the parts", but he adds that this car "doesn't need to have the range and performance of a Tesla". What he wants - and has found – is "the kit to give us the range and performance of a Moke (the electric Mini Moke-alike that isn't mechanically an original Moke at all], and for under £50,000". A car that can do 50mph and around 80 miles. Osborn adds that a lot of people "already assume this is electric" anyway. We'll return to have a go in an electric one once that conversion is complete. In the meantime, I can see how one of the cheapest restomods on the market is also one of the more compelling.

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Crayford returns: Is this £35k Mini the ultimate budget resto-mod?

Coachbuilding marque revived for open-sided beach car that brings endless fun for VW Golf money

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