Honda Electric Go Cart

Passionate about a dreamy classic

AS RETRO, polished and cute as she looks, don’t let Mabel’s classic looks fool you: this old girl is a bit of a rebel.

Mabel is the project of Sergeant Jim Gill, 46, from Aberdeen. It has taken Jim a number of years, and quite a few Minors, to get his dream hotrod on the road.

As with many car obsessions, Jim’s passion for Morris Minors goes back to his teens.

“When I was 16, I had a Morris Minor van and, when I took it apart to work on it, my dad, who was a mechanic at the time, said: ‘get rid of it; it’s no use’,” said Jim.

“So I sold the engine and everything separately, and then ended up buying a part-built hotrod from a guy at Cults. However, it was a bucket, too. I had stripped it and started rebuilding it when I graduated as an engineer. Then I worked on and offshore and then joined the police, and a colleague in the force offered me a Rover V8 engine to put into it. Of course, at 23, I was a numpty and went for it.

“A year later, I ended up meeting my wife, Erika, and before I knew it I was jetting back and forth to Switzerland, as that’s where she’s from. Cars, money and everything else went on the back burner.

“Then I got married, had two children, moved house, had lots of roles in the force, including road safety, and one day I realised how many years had flown by without me giving the Minor a second look.

“So I went back out and looked at what I had, and thought: ‘nope, that’s not going to work’.”

If at this point you’re expecting a miraculous, life-restoring story in which Mabel rose from the grave, you’re wrong.

“I realised I really needed to start from scratch, and actually get a decent Minor,” said Jim.

“I went on to the internet and found a grey Morris Minor shell, with wheels. When I phoned, the owner said: ‘All you need to do is put the glass in, do some wiring, and it’ll be ready for an MoT.’

“In 2004, I went down to Essex for a volleyball competition with the police, so this guy came and picked me up and took me to see the car. It looked like a pretty solid base, and he said he could take it up to Scotland for me, so I said yes.

“Six and a half years later, I’ve finally finished it. It wasn’t quite as straightforward as he had said.

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