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Category Archives: Our Motors


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CooperBeast Update

While CooperBeast is no longer at Beastie Folly his new owners have very definitely decided to keep him a member of the 500 club. He now sports new 500 plates that also reflect the family surname and they display his name “CooperBeast” along the bottom of the plate. The 500 roof decals remain in place too. It means a lot to us that his heritage is not being forgotten. Just as you shouldn’t change the name of a boat perhaps if a car has a name that should not change either. Or maybe in this case CooperBeast over the years has just made that name his own. He really is looking fantastic in the flesh and his adventures and escapades will continue to appear on here.


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Car Events 2016 – LUXEMINI at The MINI Reading Dealership

 Saturday had been a busy day for us and Sunday turned out to be more of the same.

We got up at school time and were out of the door at 8.30 in order to be at Reading MINI for a get together with fellow MINI fanatics at an event organised by LUXE MINI.


We have made a lot of new friends in the MINI community as a direct result of being in the Welsh MINI group and we enjoy meeting these people once again as well as old, old friends from the MINI scene such as Andy, who now rides a wicked looking black F56 MINI JCW. Coffee, tea, pastries and burgers were provided by LUXE MINI, which was very kind of them, as they did all they could to ensure it was an enjoyable day for everyone. In truth beautiful sunshine all day ensured this.

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Car Of The Week R50 MINI Cooper CooperBeast

Last Saturday The Elf collected her new VW Golf GTI, arguably the last word in performance and practicality fusion for the ordinary working man.

To get it The Elf had to say goodbye to CooperBeast a beloved red MINI Cooper that has been in the family since it was new some 13 years ago.

We are pleased to say it has found some worthy new keepers as a friend of Beastie, a chap from work Steve, bought it for his wife Dawn. We are also told that it will stay in the 500 club with some appropriate plates being put on it in the future.

It was sad to see it go, but it was time for some new owners to enjoy it and inject some TLC into it. Saturday then was a win day for The Elf, with her new Golf and it was a win for Dawn as she took ownership of a beloved iconic MINI from within the MINI community.

Best wishes to Dawn and The Elf with their new motors.


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ThunderBeast – JCW Srut Brace Fitted


ThunderBeast is looking very handsome. Today we fitted his JCW strut brace and also this week had the front valance fixed where the divers side faux brake duct was not clipped in properly. A refurb on the wheels means that all in all he is looking not too shabby. Now if I could just give him a real clean then he would look pretty darned good!


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ThunderBeast Kenwood HiFi Installation Update


The installation is complete now. We failed in one are which was connecting the steering wheel controls. This is because I ordered the wrong lead twice and lost the will to live on that one. Also there is not much room behind the stereo for the extra box it uses, so we called it a day on that one. In truth the fascia is much more user friendly on this one. 18 DAB presets in in a bank of 6 push button presets and a quick switch to change between banks 1,2 and three are easy to do even in a bouncing GP. 

Phone auto answers and calls are easy to do using the Siri connected voice recognition. Bluetooth music is a doddle, as is cd and usb music. The sound is as good as in the Opel GT, or better than the Mini Harmon Kardon of the JCW coupe. Put simply we are delighted with the upgrade.


The car finally feels like it belongs with its own 500 plates and a nod to it GP name.


Two modest changes prior to the Mega MINI meet at Lytham this weekend.