Thursday 27 June 2013

The Internet, Late nights, The joy of learning and the last Mini out the Factory

I have been pondering stuff today first of all due to the Power of communication I found out something a bit mad.

Right, I am not going to do a copy and paste and I am not going to just give you a link.

I will give you a Brief teaser of what I thing is a Pretty mad Story and a good example why The internet is compulsive.

...and why I struggle to get an early Night.

I am into Old cars, I like finding out about Old buildings, abandoned rusty stuff.
 It is my thing, Like some may like to sit beside a river with a Fishing rod, Or others like Getting a Metal Stick and whacking their tiny balls into the the next county Proudly telling anyone within Earshot How handicapped they are.

Neither Fishing or Golf are my thing, but hey this is my example so I reserve the right to talk in an animated fashion about the subject.

Occasionally I Look on Urban exploration sites, I like looking at pictures of decaying old buildings ,Factories and Funfair stuff Especially.

One day a while back I was on an UX forum just nosing and I saw Pictures of the former Austin Rover Plant.
Sadly the British car industry is on its arse and this was a casualty.

Parts of this vast factory were really old. It had a network of tunnels below it to help the workers get from one part to another during WW2 . It was perceived as quite a target for the Germans efforts at reconfiguring the area into something a bit flatter you see.

So there were quite a few Tunnels, and these Tunnels existed right up until the closed the factory.

In later years somehow or other a Gold 1275GT Mini ended up down one of these tunnels. If legend is to be believed... A factory worker went for a spin in it, Crashed it, and hid it there hoping no one would notice it gone.
Experts believe the car dates from 1974 and it ended its days with 11 miles on the Clock.

The car then gradually got looted and vandalised by workers who knew the secret until it was a battered shell.

and that's what I saw on this UX site.
Interesting story but it didn't end there, well it did for me for a year or so Cos I forgot about cool story or not.
It was a fun but none the less story that was going nowhere.

Well its not like anything was going to happen to it was It?

Wrong! there I was surfing for rusty old things last night and after reading about Spitfires buried in Crates, up popped the Mini again only this time it is being auctioned off soon.

What the? How? Why?

Guess what I went looking for next :D

I found all sorts on mini Forums, saw the arguments for and against its exhumation from the tunnel.
Saw Videos of it as found and as partially restored. and found out its frankly mad estimated auction value.

The Kudos of having the last mini to leave Longbridge is high apparently.

and with compelling reading like that a click away an early night is unlikely

So with that I'm off to look for interesting stuff.

Laterzzzz
M


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2 comments:

  1. dude, we should go eplore the tunnels one day, who knows what else may be down there!! :D

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  2. Fella i think we may have missed the Bus on that one , The tunnels have now been blocked off

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