british-cars
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Re: Mini Moke

To: Dick Harold <harrold@INDYVAX.IUPUI.EDU>
Subject: Re: Mini Moke
From: "W. Ray Gibbons" <gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu>
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 1995 10:06:16 -0500 (EST)
On Mon, 9 Jan 1995, Dick Harold wrote:

> On Mon, 09 Jan 1995 10:20:30 -0500 (EST) "W. Ray Gibbons" said:

> Could you possibly be confusing the appearance of the Hotshot with that of
> the Mini Moke, Dick?  
> 
> Ray Gibbons - 

> *** Well I remember some obscure cars such as the Pup, the Playboy with two
> engine options, the Tasco Town Shopper, the Kurtis which later became the
> Muntz Jet (I think), and who could forget the King Midget?  Then there was
> a Davis three-wheeled car and the American Bantam, and such "vehicles" as
> the Imp with a fiberglass body and a one cylinder engine, or how about the
> Hoppenstand rear-engined two cylinder job made somewhere in PA?  But I must
> admit that the "Mini Moke" is a new one on me.  Come on Ray, did you make
> that up?
> 
> Dick
> 

A british car enthusiast who has heard of the Hoppenstand but not of the
Mini Moke?  Well, of course, *everybody* is familiar with the Hoppenstand
and the Tasco Town Shopper.  But Gee, Dick, what is a Mini Moke?  Next
thing, you'll be asking what a Leaf or a Powell is. 

Now let's see if I can get it right.  The Mini Moke was (and for all I
know may still be) made on a BMC Mini chassis.  It's a Mini-sized (of
course) runabout with no doors and a jeep-like body that appears to have
been constructed from US army jerry-cans (just kidding, british subjects). 
Transverse engine, front wheel drive, basic Mini mechanicals.  Sort of a
shrunken VW Thing.  Great fun, I expect, if you live in just the right
sort of climate with just the right sort of roads.

I think your doubt re: the Kurtis-->Muntz is well placed; I question
whether the Kurtis became the Muntz Jet.  Kurtis was a race car fabricator
who made a couple of passenger car models.  One resembled a
street-modified race car, while the other was a very pretty car with an
indented contrasting color panel on each door as a major styling feature. 
Mad Man Muntz owned appliance/TV stores on the Left Coast, and built an
envelope bodied convertible for a little while.  Maybe they connected at
some point, but I don't remember it.  I have seen a MJ, but never a
Kurtis. 

Seriously, did you make up a Hoppenstand?  Two can play that game, you
know.  Was it a contemporary of the Drive-n-park?

Ray

   Ray Gibbons  Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
                Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
                gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu  (802) 656-8910






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