(aka: Mini Moke)
The Story
The Little Yellow Car is a 1974 British Leyland Mini produced in Australia.
This version is called a Mini MOKE. Originally designed in the 1960s as a
light duty British military vehicle, it was dropped by the military eventually
(too light) and fabricated for years in Britain as a consumer vehicle.
It came in various odd specialty forms but the most prominent is the classic Moke.
The Brits stopped making them in the 1970’s when the rights were sold to
manufacturers in Portugal and then Australia. We bought this car in 2007 and
had it imported from Sydney to California where we lived at the time. Since
then we moved to Boston and have also rebuilt the car completely.
Mini Mokes can can be found nowadays mostly as a resort car in the Caribbean,
southern Europe, Australia, and the South Pacific. We first drove one in
Moorea in 1995. In the US there are some handfull in California,
Nevada, and Florida as well as a very few here and there around New England.
Technically this a late model British Leyland powerplant. It is a transverse 4 cylinder, 1275cc engine with integral transmission (no seperate gear box….all in one, same oil that lubricates emngine, lubricates tranny…which can be a problem of course.) The car can do about 90mph maximum with the 4 speed manual transmission. The front brakes are disc and the rear are caliper. It is completely street legal and it’s age means that it pre-dates many restrictions such as pollution control. Under the hood is a single SU carburator on the intake side, and a straight pipe and simple muffler on the exhaust side. Anyone can look at the engine and understand it in minutes. Simple and clean.
Want one?
You can actually buy these cars used today. Since they are often found at beach or water resort areas they may often have some rust issues (especially the floor pan), but there are after market parts readily available,
If you interested in finding out how to buy one please send me an email at steve@littleyellowcar.com
