Hello World!

This blog is dedicated to the memory of the great Portuguese racing driver Manuel Lopes Gião and all the people who is helping me with the complete restoration work of his 1961 Austin Mini Cooper Mk I 997cc, which we believe that was one of the very first Mini Coopers imported to Portugal, since she has the oldest Mini Cooper license plate known.

The racing driver Manuel Lopes Gião used this particular car for racing on several occasions during 1962 as is documented by some known old pictures and magazine articles. By chance and with a little help from my dear brother Miguel Antão I was able to get some of the original rallye plaques used with this car. 

 

       (by courtesy of Fernando Soares)

   

The Mini Cooper Mk I 997cc is one of rarest of all Mini models given that only 24,860 units were produced between 1961 and 1963. 

One of its successors, the Mini Cooper S Mk I 1275cc, quickly became the best sporting sedan in the world during the sixties, being famous in race tracks as well as at rallye stages. It was the Monte Carlo Rallye winner for three times (1964, 1965 and 1967).

All the restoration work was done according factory specifications and based on John Parnell's book “Original Mini Cooper and Cooper S”. The new interior trim was supplied by Newton Commercial, which is British Motor Heritage approved.

This was my ultimate full restoration project and given all the accumulated experience along the past years I think this is the best. The restoration work started during the Summer of 2016 by the hand and the supervision of my long time friend Mr. Ruy Sampaio. He is the best classic cars specialist that I ever met, where perfection is one of his qualities that I appreciate most. 

We met in the early 90's and made our first Mini full restoration in 1996, a 1973' Austin Mini 1275GT. During the past years we have restored several Minis, including my 1967' Morris Mini Cooper 'S' Works (Monte Carlo winner) replica.

One of Mr. Sampaio's best restoration work ever done was this 61' Mini Cooper. Mr. Sampaio and his brother Anísio Sampaio, me and my dear brother Miguel Antão, have done parts restoration and car build up to factory specification, for almost 2 years, with lots of pleasure. 

Finally, in the early days of September 2019 Mr. Sampaio finished his work, gave me the car's key and the Mini was back on the road again. 

Such a great work. Well done Sampaio brothers. Thank you all! But we still have lots of work to do concerning fine tuning and other small details... 

On September 17th 2022 the car was back to racing 60 years later, this time for Rally ACP Clássicos 2022, celebrating both the car history and the racing driver ace from the 60's, Manuel Gião. And his son, the also racing driver Manuel Gião (Jr.), joined in the celebration.

Finishing the race on the 4th place (category F -  cars from 1961 to 1970), with this great 997cc Mini Cooper. 

Award

VII Concours D'Elegance ACP (Estoril Classics 2019)   

See the winners list at the press edition of Jornal dos Classicos.

Winner of "2nd best car" for "Mini of the 60's" category

The first and last Cooper used for racing by the racing driver Manuel Lopes Gião, got together with their owners by chance. Notice that the lady in red on the left is actually the racing driver's daughter.

Latest media reference

Auto Clube Jornal, "Automóvel Clube de Portugal", August 2021

Auto Clube Jornal, "Automóvel Clube de Portugal", September 2022

turbo magazine, October 2022

Mini Runs

The first Sunday morning run to Serra do Montejunto, June 28th, 2020 

Some build up pictures

Restoration work details

In the following links one can find details about the full extent of work carried out.

1. Pre-restoration condition
2. Bodyshell restoration
3. Sub-frames restoration
4. Engine rebuild by Gonçalo Silva
5. Interior Trim by Joaquim Sardo
   (using Newton Commercial's classic Mini interior trim)
6. Car build up to factory specification

Past restoration projects

Mr Ruy Sampaio and I already did several full restoration projects in the past, such as: 1973 Austin Mini 1275 GT (1996-1997), 1967 Austin Mini Cooper 'S' Mk1 1275 (2003-2006), 1965 MGB (2008-2009), 1967 Morris Cooper 'S' Works replica (2007-2010) and 1965 Morris Mini Cooper 'S' Mk1 1275 (2012-2016). 

Acknowledges

Who are we? I believe that we are much like our parents, our family, our friends and all the good people that we met during our lifetime.

First of all I'd like to thank my father, José Antão (1929-1978), for teaching me all his skills, namely of how to use tools, and for motivating me to build my own toys since I was a very young child (5 years old as far as I remember). 

He really was an artist and a Portuguese Aviation Pioneer who even built two aeroplanes, with a couple of friends from the Aero Clube de Portugal (and Clube de Aeromodelismo de Lisboa). The planes are the "CS-AXA" (Bebé Jodel D.9) and the "CS-XAA" (Volksplane VP-1), where the first nowadays can be seen at the museum (Museu do Ar, Alverca, Portugal).

Ruy Sampaio is a classic car restoration master and a good teacher from whom I learned almost everything about restoration. Thank him and his brother Anísio Sampaio for all the the help and work done, and both for their endless patience and true friendship.

Paulo Conceição "the handyman" (1967-2017) was a very good friend, a great companion for the Mini adventures, an incredible car mechanic (despite doing small jobs for any people such as making and repairing all kind of things in their houses) and one of the most clever persons that I ever met. Fortunately I also had the chance to learn a lot with him regardless he always worked very fast while solving any kind of problem. A great man and a great loss for all. Rest in peace my friend! We'll miss you... 

(Paulo is the first on the left, then from left to right Nuno Castanheira, unknown, David Antão and Diogo Trindade at Estoril Historic Festival 2004)

Miguel Antão, Mário Abreu, Jorge Pais, Mário Tavares and Sérgio Azevedo.

Gonçalo Silva (Mini Maniac Special Tuning).

Carlos Coutinho and Carlos Frade.

Bryan Purves and Josef Kretschi.

Minis de Lisboa.

Thank you all!

(under construction)

Copywright (C) 2021 David Antão