Love Mini’s. When I was barely old enough to ride a bicycle, my mom had an 850 Austin, and my uncle had a red with a black top 1963 Mini Cooper S. We lived in a part of Los Angeles called “Silverlake” that had a big reservoir, with tight right and left handers on the north side, emptying into a mile straight, then a 90 degree right that led to an impromptu jump. Then high speed right and left sweepers on the south side that dumped you right back on the north side to face the tight corners, and the mile straight. In the early 1960’s traffic was very light, and this road around Silverlake reservoir became our race course. The Mini’s ruled Silverlake until around 1967 when GM and Ford started producing fast cars that you steered with the gas pedal, and it was over for the Mini. Most of the Mimi’s ended up in Norman’s Automotive waiting for parts. A sad end indeed.
