1970s Mini Clubman Estate - the coolest small 70s British classic?

Mini Clubman Estate

What do you do with a car like the Mini? It was a hugely successful car for British Motor Corporation and they were keen to continue building on the success.

Although it must be said, it wasn’t their most successful car like many seem to think, that accolade goes to the ADO16 better known as the 1100/1300 cars badged under Austin, Morris, Wolseley, Riley, etc.

But back to the Mini, because the team knew it was a successful car but also recognised that the rumblings of competition from Ford and the early murmurings of the European superminis was to present a challenge to Britain’s no.1 supermini.

So what did they do? Well, they went over to the competition and stole one of their best men. Roy Haynes.

Now if you’ve heard that name before, it’s because Haynes was responsible for the styling of the cars like the Cortina and keen to save money, the parent company, now British Leyland not BMC was keen to use Haynes’ talents to streamline and simplify the range.

The idea was to bring it down to five platforms and have key similar styling notes throughout the range - that’s why you’ll see such a strong familial link between the Clubman and cars like the Maxi and Marina; which throws me off slightly later because it feels SO similar in many ways when you jump in!

The Clubman was to run alongside the standard Mini saloon and replace the Countryman and Traveller.

The Clubman also had another purpose - it was to streamline the spin offs from the Mini such as the Riley Elf and the Hornet. By the tail end of their production lives, they were only producing 125 units a week, so the idea was to give that section of the buying market a mini which yes, didn’t have a boot, but had ample space inside to pop all their bits in.

There are also other Minis which are shelved such as the Cooper which goes in 69 and in 71 the Cooper S, although this might’ve been down to licensing agreements and the fact they were paying out on every one of these Minis and they already made such slim profit.

For these customers, they added in the 1275 GT - you might hear it called the Clubman 1275, but it was simply badged the 1275 GT.

Engine wise on these, from 1975 if you were going for the manual transmission as we’ve got today, you got the 1098cc engine but if you were picking an auto, you got the 998cc which Clubmans had been fitted with as standard until 1975.

As mentioned later on, this has the 4 forward speed box with synchro on all forward gears and 1975 also saw the launch of the rubber mounted front subframe - which is what this has got.

The Clubman came to an end in 1980 and the replacement was the MK1 Mini Metro, which although exciting in its own right if you have a 1275 and an open road, doesn’t quite match the thrill and pastiche of the humble Clubman.