Lot details
Registration No: T.B.A.
Chassis No: BD123608
Mot Expiry: April 2012

The trend for luxuriously-specified Minis was arguably started by the actor and comedian Peter Sellers, when he persuaded HR Owen to convert his new 1963 Mini Cooper into something more opulent and exclusive. Their answer was to commission Hooper to undertake the work. The bill came to £2,600 (against £679 for a standard Cooper at the time). As word of the Sellers Mini spread, a healthy demand for similarly-specified examples grew. However, Hooper were not interested in repeating the exercise and it fell to Harold Radford Ltd to seize the opportunity. They announced a range of three off-the-shelf conversions, devised by Graham Arnold (better known as sales director of Lotus Cars) under the name 'Mini De Ville', which aimed to capture the spirit of the Sellers car while being considerably more affordable.

After a period of success, the company failed to produce a car from 1967 to 1977 and was duly dissolved. However, interest in the idea continued and the Harold Radford name was revived in 1989 by car designer Chris Humberstone, who set up shop in a showroom just off Baker Street in London. Two models were offered, the Mini De Ville and Mini De Ville S, both of which featured a variety of the kind of refinements for which the car had originally become famous, along with more contemporary options such as electric door mirrors, power steering and CD stereo systems. Many of Humberstone's products found their way to Japan, where demand for original Radford Minis far outstripped supply. This operation continued until 1996, by which time Humberstone was becoming increasingly involved in the Australian motorsport industry, but his business partner continued the business as Radford Cars, meaning that it was still theoretically possible to order a Radford Mini into the new Millennium.

The second generation Radford Mini De Ville offered was one of those last of the line examples and was built in 1996. It is finished in Dark Blue complemented by a Cream leather interior. The vendor considers the indicated mileage of 19,000 to be genuine and the mighty Mini to be in "beautiful overall condition". It is MOT'd into July.

PLEASE NOTE: The MOT for this vehicle expires April 2012.