What's a MINI? There may be some people from outside the former British Empire, or Europe, or who have been living on Venus since 1959, for whom this may be a relevant question, well... This is an Australian made 1977 Leyland Mini 'S'
Mini's are the first front wheel drive 4 cylinder car,
and were invented in 1959, and are still in production, with a 'trendy'
new version being planned for next century (New Beetle style). It
seems that everything about the Mini is small, tiny little parts, small
dashboard, 10 inch wheels (only because 8 inch wheels were impossible to
fit brakes into), miniture radiator, and funny little shock absorbers.
The Monroe catalogue specifies the same front shock absorbers
for all body styles, the yellow brick above has what's called a "Clubman"
body (why that name, I don't know, does the flat grille and squared off
front end resemble a Lotus Seven in any way?), there is also the 'traditional'
body style (which is still in production in the UK, has a smiling grille
and rounder bonnet), Station wagon, Van, Ute and Moke (a sort of
box trailer, with mini subframes at each end).
I used to own a Moke, with a set of six inch wide wheels and 205/60 tyres it "cornered like it's on rails" and stuck like glue - causing everything inside the car to end up outside when you did round a sharp bend. Although as you sit on a Moke rather than in a Moke, the concept of inside and outside is hard to define.
Another point of interest - early Mini's apparently also
have a brake pressure regulating valve attached to the rear subframe, which
can be modified into an adjustable pressure regulator to balance front
rear brake performance, which may be neccesary if your Locost brake master
cylinder set up is consideranly different from the front discs, rear drum/discs,
say for example you are using a variety of different donors.