A personal account of his life during the 35 years of the Mini
by Keith Dodd

After taking '0' Levels in 1963, I embarked on what I thought at the time would be a short stay job packing parcels for an Austin Morris dealership. I had always been fascinated by the Mini since my friend's father had bought a surf blue standard model in 1960. I could never afford a Mini at seventeen and had to wait until I was nearly nineteen to buy a Mini Van, which I soon transformed into a fast eyecatcher. My love for the carwas forged never to be broken, and with Speedwell along the road at Finchley, I soon learnt their tricks of the trade in the tuning world. I persuaded my friend 'Lofty' in the workshops to show me how to pull apart the gearbox, and I was on my way to working on cars every minute of my spare time. The Cooper variants had become very popular by the mid sixties and such was my expertise, on what fitted or replaced what on these cars, that people and racers from all over the South used to pick my brain for the correct parts. As the Austin Morris main agent I worked for were the largest in the South from Birmingham down, the company was offered a Special Tuning dealership which I helped set up and enjoyed running. I was very fortunate to visit Abingdon on Business trips and remember the set up well. After 11 years working in the dealership, now under the Leyland banner, I believed a specialist section should be set up solely for Minis. My employees, Mann Egerton, could not see the virtue of this, so I left to start up my own company. It was very difficult, as hardly any customers followed me and I had no contacts anywhere. I did however, have the great knowledge of Minis and over 6 ,000 part numbers stored in my head. To this day I have no contacts or sources of information, only what I read in the press, and I have been used to the 'lone wolf syndrome", which obviously made me so innovative. Rover and Rover Motorsport seem to disregard my company, which is wasteful , and proved to be so when preparing the Monte Rally Car. It is a strange, but convenient relationship. They do not realise I have worked solely with the Mini as a dealership would, for 31 years, and unlike other companies have never strayed from the marque, which must make me more knowledgeable on this car than anyone based at Rover, or any other company in the world.

They did need me however in 1992, when the Coopers were first announced. I had to supply them the grilles for all their showroom models as they had no stock. All the grilles had been delivered to me and I had to break open a container on it's way to sail from Felixstowe. My original upbringing in the Leyland / Rover mould has directed Mini Spares into keeping only genuine and quality parts, as they are the best, and we rarely have warranty claims. To give customers the choice, we keep certain pattern parts, especially if a genuine part is not available, and offer a view biased to the original part when alternatives are available. I undertook a policy of remanufacture in the late seventies, when other companies never realised that his would be a classic market, and to date I have tooled up for all the parts we require, that are not available anymore. I take great pride in the fact that everything that has been tooled is made in Great Britain, even the chrome and plastic badges, especially as the Mini originally had all it's parts made here in GB (not the case today!). Although parts might cost more, the quality and testing can be controlled and trusted. Our brake discs are more expensive, but they are of best quality steel and cooled correctly to give the desired strength, so that they can be fitted on performance vehicles and not go blue like the Italian and Brazil imports that frequent this country. Quality has to be very high, as we sell and test a lot of parts in the USA. Because of this, we have a very high insurance premium to cover Product Liability and any MS/C up to $5 million worldwide, which few if any other Mini companies have.

Our Cooper'S' drive flanges are upgraded to EN24T to cope with the higher demands of the more powerful cars of today. Most Mini hard parts were designed over 20 years ago and not designed for the power achieved today. I have kept the shop at Southgate because it is a convenient location for overseas visitors, but have a warehouse and major interests in engineering facilities totalling over another 20,000 sq ft. Yet a majority of the parts we produce are farmed out to British Specialist Manufacturers. I have seen many people and companies emerge in the Mini market and many disappear (some with regret). Most of the people and companies that jump on the bandwagon have changed direction to other projects at various, but Mini Spares has only ever had an interest in the Mini, and will carry on regardless of its future, to keep the enthusiast and car alive. My only regret is the time I have to spend on paperwork and financial dealings with such a large organisation and the chasing of spare parts. The turnover is now so prolific, manufacturers of some products including our own, are unable to supply to demand. Special Tuning parts constitute 30% of our stock but such items as flywheels sell 260 per annum, lightened pressure plate - 160 pia, ultimate engine steady - 800 pia, 400 pairs of negative camber arms and 120 pairs of spherical jointed lower arms are our biggest sellers. But, nothing compares with RC40 twin box system at 1500 per annum and the single box version at 1300 per annum. On standard parts we sell nearly 1500 Mk. 1 grilles pia and 500 non genuine front panels and pairs of front floor pans (all figures are fact not fiction). I suppose it is a shame that we have never had any help from anyone - a large Japanese investment would have been welcome - but all our projects and developments have been solely- financed and the whole company has been built up off our own backs. My happiness is the involvement with the car, and I have succeeded in making Mini Spares without doubt the largest and widest range of mini spares available in the world, apart from Rover. All our competitors seem to try and copy our parts or advertising, so something must be right, and even though people will knock us, that is quite flattering really, because everyone loves to bash the market leader. Keith Dodd.