Ibis
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Tim Monck-Mason writes from New Zealand: “In the late 1980s we made a few cars called the Ibis Berkeley that paid homage to the
Berkeley but using Mini front and rear subframes and a fibreglass monocoque six inches wider. Sold as complete body units to accept Mini parts by
Ian Byrd and Tim Monck-Mason, these were advanced little cars using carbon fibres and foam beams. This later became the WASP looking more like a
scaled down Cobra.
“We made a few and sold a few as body chassis as it was a complete monocoque tub shaped for Mini subframes to fit. The project started with a very broken Berkeley body, hence the shape. Which by the way resembles a Cobra as the Berkeley was styled by same chap as the AC Ace. In new Zealand we had very few sports cars and kept old cars going, the Mini was still a club rally car and my own Ibis had a very nice rally cars engine which made it very very fast as it was much lighter. We had no rules or checks, I simply registered it as a rebodied Mini with no engineers check or anything. “We sold a few to Japan and indeed in the 90s a new owner of the moulds sent more to Japan as he was already sending Minis out for huge profits. They were still cheap here but had gone crazy in Japan. My own car went to Germany, how they registered it I don't know.” Many thanks Tim, and also the owner of the Japanese facebook page where we found the photo. |
Last updated 10th June, 2013