The Rover Mini Cabriolet

The Rover Mini Cabriolet was launched in July 1993. Depending on who you speak to or which magazine article you read, production numbers were as low as 300, making it one of the rarest Mini's every to go on sale. In the UK alone, Rover had 700 dealers - this means that most of the dealerships never sold a single car and probably never even saw one!

When the Mini Cabriolet went on sale in July 1993, one of these little topless beauties would have set you back £11,995 - quite a tidy sum for a Mini!

Rover's official Cabriolet was based on the LAMM version, which was built by one of Rover's German dealer, LAMM Autohaus. In 1991, only 75 of these mini's made it into England and sold out in days.

Copying this German version, the Rover model included a full colour-matched body kit, which included massive front and rear wheelarch extensions, a big front spoiler incorporating extra driving lamps, side skirts and a large rear bumper. All this would have looked wimpish with the standard wheels, but the car was shod with 175/70-section tyres on 12in, five-spoke Revolution alloy wheels.

The interior conversion was equally impressive, for the car had been refurnished to match the higher selling price. There was a new-style wood-grain dashboard, door-top cappings and gear stick knob. The seats were Recaro.

The Cabriolet was originally available in two colours - Caribbean Blue (UME BLVC 911)and Nightfire Red (COQ BLVC 916). In 1994, British Racing Green (HAF BLVC 317) was introduced.

The manual hood is easily raised and lowered in seconds. Two clips on the front lip of the hood lock into the top of the windscreen surround lock the hood in the closed position. Simply unclip these and lift the hood backwards till it rests on the boot. The hood frame was manufactured by Tickford and each frame has a unique serial number.