03 WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE...

The more I read about the Brabus Smart Fortwo, the more red flags came up.  Eventually, I decided that it was too much of a risk to use the little Brabus.  I’m sure I could have done the work, tried and tested it, but there would always be a nagging doubt in the back of my mind - plus Lisa was right, it is too small, and there is nowhere to store any clothes for the journey.

I was committed to using a tiny, impractical car for the journey but needed something a bit more reliable and better suited to the job: cue the new Mini.  

The new Mini first appeared in 2001, so plenty were available on Auto Trader, and some were even on budget!  Digging a little into the available cars, it quickly became apparent that those in the budget had either driven around the globe (judging by the miles on the clock) or had been in an accident and repaired - neither particularly enthused me.  

The budget would need to be increased again to get something decent.

Suddenly, this opened up a calibre of car that might make it to Monaco - result! It also opened up the world of Cooper S variants of the car, which meant some speed, which interested me very much.

The Cooper S came with a 1.6-litre supercharged engine producing a whopping 160 bhp, meaning it will race to 60 mph in just 7.5 seconds - YAAAS!!! This is more like it: a small car that should be reliable and have enough get-up-and-go to make mincemeat of those winding Swiss mountain roads.

But there was a nagging doubt.  A quick look on the Bust Rally website shows that Mini’s have been done to death; there have been plenty of good entrants over the years.  The idea of wrapping the car to make it look like a Cozy Coupe didn’t seem to work as well on the Mini as it isn’t mini anymore (they should have called it the Maxi).  So, it was back to the drawing board until I could develop something original.

With the country under a seemingly endless lockdown, the trip was shelved, suddenly there were more important things the think about than if I could be bothered putting a giant Union Flag on a Mini and dressing up as Austin Powers for a week…