The Sunday News
Lovert Mafukure
The Mini is one of the most well designed small cars and right now one of the most sought-after classics. The Mini Clubman on the other hand was the facelift and a bit more masculine looking from the normal Mini.
The Mini itself was popularised by the British Sitcom Mr Bean with his classic Yellow-Green Mini. The Mini really lived up to its name, it was a small car but big enough to steal the hearts of many.
The Clubman was an attempt by British Leyland to facelift the Mini but it wasn’t much of a success.
In 1969, the Mini was restyled and face-lifted under ownership of British Leyland, the facelift model was called the Clubman. It still had front-wheel drive with a transversely setup engine. The Clubman had a completely different front end. The bonnet was redesigned, the fenders lost their bulging ends, the lights were still round but smaller with a longer grill. The front end was longer which meant that there was more space in the engine bay — the Mini had always been criticised for being a pain to work on because of limited space.
The rear lights were longer and squarer and the Clubman designation was clear all round the car, it was there on the boot and on the steering wheel together with all the other Clubman refinements like seatbelts, a radio and more modern instrument cluster.
It had a simple design, which had a male inclination than the older Mini. It had the standard chrome bumpers which were redesigned to fit the new square front look. The Mr Bean “moustache” grill was thrown down the gutter as well as the bulging bonnet. As much as the looks changed, the vehicle remained a tiny 2 door 4 seater car with some modifications here and there.
The Clubman did not become very popular and its production life was cut short with some 600 000 having been produced.
The introduction of the Clubman however, did not mean that they stopped producing the original bulging front Mini. It had its advantages but still seemed inferior to the original design. The longer square front meant that the car had more space to work with under the bonnet but apparently it was aerodynamically inferior even though it offered better protection in case of a head on collision.
The Mini was produced as a response to the 1950s oil crisis that saw the Brits rationing fuel. Most companies realised that they had to make smaller cars that were more fuel efficient as sales dropped for larger vehicles with bigger engines. Since the Mini was under-powered the new British Leyland guys decided the Clubman was going to have slightly bigger engines, ranging from 1 000cc to the 1 275. The fan was still driven by the engine and it radiator was still on the left side and not upfront like normal cars, it was a bit weird but it worked and helped keep the car as short as it possibly could. The Clubman had enough space for a radiator upfront but I guess the Leyland guys just weren’t bothered.
The original Mini was designed to be as cheap as it could be. The doors all had visible hinges with sliding windows on earlier models but the Clubman had hidden hinges and roll-down windows.
The doors had to lose the pockets because of the roll-down windows. The car had to be small but big enough for adult occupants, the design therefore made sure that micro-wheels were at each corner of the car so there could be more room inside. The wheels had to be very small too, 10 inch to be precise and the Clubman still kept those 10 inch wheels.
It was more expensive than the original Mini but it never really became popular. For an expensive Mini, it was still not fast, it still had a bumpy stiff ride because the chassis was still the same with small 10 inch wheels. You could also get the Clubman
Wagon which was longer and had two doors at the back that open like a wardrobe). You could carry quite a bit of luggage with the wagon.
The engines on the Clubman were basically the same as the normal Mini just some of the engines were slightly bigger. They were still made the same way and also came almost as a complete unit with the gearbox.
The gearbox was incorporated into the engine sump and used the same oil as they engine. I know not of any other car that had that same design. The Clubman was still slow, taking some 23 seconds to get 100km/hr, with age now I’d like to believe they take close to a century to get to 100km/hr if they even get to 100km/hr.
Many Mini enthusiasts including Clubman owners are now doing engine swops with the most common one being the Honda Civic engine Swop. Others however, prefer to keep the Minis original. The Clubman only weighs about 650kgs, it was very light and a more powerful engine means it’s easy to turn it into a bullet of a car.
Give us feedback if you have similar classics in your garage.
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