Highlights from Scramblers’ A-series at 70 celebration

Small but mighty

The engines-out set-up at a car show isn’t always for everyone. It has its time and its place, such as when you’re celebrating the 70th birthday of one of the most popular and common little units in UK automotive history.

The A-series engine is probably most famous for being bolted into the Mini, but it found its way beneath the bonnets of a wide variety of models, from mass-produced family cars to one-off specials.

Which brings us to the latest Scramblers Assembly on Saturday 25 September 2021, a small and friendly gathering for enthusiasts who buzzed into Bicester Heritage for a chat, pint and wander, this time marking seven decades of the A-series. 

Thankfully they’re frugal cars, so the turn-out wasn’t too affected by those fuel-station queues…

By the book

With everyone packing the same powerplant – or at least one based on the A-series – it’s best to come prepared, as this owner did.

We are pleased to report that everybody safely fired up to head home, mind, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

That said, one Mini owner had a problem before heading off to Bicester and instead rolled in behind the wheel of his Jaguar E-type fixed-head coupé in a fetching shade of brown.

Good as new

One of the most eye-catching A-series exponents at Bicester Heritage this weekend was this Mini Cooper ‘S’, a competition department car from 1966.

Most fascinating of all, though, is that its odometer doesn’t yet read 10,000, because from Abingdon it disappeared into a lock-up. Its engine had never even been fired up.

Since then it has been sympathetically restored, still wearing its original shell and most of the parts it left the factory with.

In demand

So it’s no surprise that the Mini’s owner, Graham Carter, was a man in demand.

If he wasn’t being bombarded with questions, he was guiding fellow A-series owners around the engine bay and the works modifications. 

You’ll hear his side of the story in an issue of Classic & Sports Car soon.

Turning some heads

This Turner caused a stir when it made a late appearance alongside another. 

Its bare shell is matched by an even more bare interior, proudly displaying its glassfibre wares.

The Sports Mk1 was launched by the limited-run manufacturer with an A-series or a Climax engine, with later iterations pinching Ford power including the 1.5-litre from the Cortina
 

Turner take two

The second Turner was rather more, well, you can fill in your own blanks here…

Yet the pair perfectly encapsulate the A-series’ diversity and exactly why it was such an important engine throughout its life in period – and still is today.
 

Colourful Clubman

Mark Burnett of Burlen, whose door plaque has been added to the Fire Section building, as the firm teased on Twitter over the weekend, also made an appearance with the specialist’s stunning pair of Mini racers.

This Clubman will be familiar to anyone who watched the Goodwood SpeedWeek races in October 2020, when it was sliding its wooden-framed body at all manner of lurid angles.

The rapid rebuild suits its SU colours to a tee, too.

Ogling an Ogle

Here is a classic that is rather more obscure and had many a curious visitor around it.

But again, anyone who has stood on the banks of a historic race meeting will be familiar with its unfamiliar shape, at least.

This is the Ogle, a glassfibre-rebodied Mini with the odd Riley part – and by all accounts it is rapid. 
 

Not your average

Another car to file under ‘obscure’ is this Austin-Healey Sprite with an Ashley hardtop.

Add in the Dunlop wheels without trims and it’s a very appealing proposition indeed.

The difference is in the detail

The leather-topped lid is without the later (almost) Kamm tail, but does feature the small boot and opening quarterlights.

Ashley Laminates Limited originally built new bodies, from (you guessed it) glassfibre, but turned its attention to roofs with the Mk2 Spridget until as late as 1972.

Elfing about

The antidote to the speed-chasing A-series fettlers was this much-loved Riley Elf.

Unfamiliar to some, but a wonderful blast from the past to others, the Mini-with-a-boot is a treat to behold, especially in such an original state as this.

Inside the Elf

This Riley Elf also provided a dose of luxury to proceedings, with its wooden dash and all its trimmings inside.

And out, for that matter, with its glistening grille and mirrors mounted almost ornamentally down the nose.

Flying the flag

Bicester Heritage’s resident rallyist 831 YOO took its chance to shine at the A-series Scramblers meet, too, on display outside the Vintage Car Radiator Company.

Alongside it was a modified 1275GT Clubman, bright purple and with blacked-out windows, plus a wild Mini with chunky wheels as well as a tuned and tweaked powerplant.

More to come

Meanwhile ‘SOW’, seen driving away here, is better known as ‘Little Miss Piggy’, for obvious reasons.

And to mark that fact, front and back are little pig stickers above the Morris Cooper badge.

Like so many of the cars on show, it has its own little story – and you’ll read it in C&SC soon.

Expect the unexpected

Despite the expected Mini dominance, there was great variety all over the site for this Scramblers Assembly.

Added to the group pictured, which also features the lovely two-owner Cooper of Bicester Heritage’s Dan Geoghegan, was an MG Metro Turbo (albeit very briefly) and even a Westfield Eleven with 1275 A-series engine.

Elsewhere were Minor Travellers, a sublimely modded 1000 and more.

Drop the top

Another to add a dose of variety was this Morris Minor convertible, which arrived with a delighted dog ruling the back seat.

Not all was as it seemed beneath the bonnet of this very drivable and reliable summertime classic, either, because its owner has fettled just about everything that is within reach. 

And as its grille plaque underlines, it gets its fair share of use.

Young guns

Yes, we know, there is not an A-series engine here, but bear with us…

BMW and MINI lent its support to the event celebrating its most famous engine, by loaning a JCW Works GP1 and GP3, both two-seaters with bonkers amounts of power and even more fun.

The third iteration is the most powerful front-drive Mini ever and a (certified by C&SC) future classic.

This, though, is the one that started the line, the GP1, and it didn’t look out of place among its ancestors.
 

Inspired by history

Its dash even pays homage to the original’s, seen here in this classic example that shows the splendour of its simplicity.

In many ways it describes the Mini, and the A-series, as a whole: simply brilliant, brilliantly simple.

A broad church

Though the specialists’ doors are usually shut for these exclusive meet-ups, there’s often the odd supercar or super classic dotted about. Such as the stunning Aston Martin DBS outside Wax Works (at the back of this Sprite and Turner set), or the Tordoffs’ Porsche 356 in the window of Sports Purpose.

Or the Scramblers member’s mint Alpina parked close to the aforementioned E-type, or the Cortina the owner hopes to restore with his son, or the brace of Mustangs, or the… You get the picture. It was a meeting in praise of the A-series, but there was much more to enjoy, too.

Raise a glass

And last, but by no means least…

Not ones to miss out on a celebration – in fact, they’re a key part of the best parties – on-site beer-maker Wriggly Monkey Brewery concocted a special 1.275% beer. Fittingly, this was the first time it poured from the taps in the MT Yard.

It is also the first low-alcohol beer by Wriggly Monkey Brewery, labelled ‘Sanction H’ to continue the line of experimental beers, and at less than one unit of alcohol, drivers can try it, too (responsibly). Cheers!

And happy 70th birthday to the much-loved A-series engine.

More to come

The relaxed atmosphere of the Scramblers Assemblies has grown a bit of a following already – so if you like the sound of it, keep your ears open.

The topic for the next Assembly is expected to be announced soon, and there’ll be another beer from the chemists of the Wriggly Monkey Brewery, too…