During our trip to Taupo for a day of ¨Mini racing we met up with Tim and Lis’ restored Mini Jem

I have to admit I wasn’t too sure what to expect because, to be quite honest, I had never before seen a Mini Jem. However, I was more than pleasantly surprised when I spotted this superbly restored example sitting in the pits at Taupo Motorsport Park.

Before we got started talking about the Jem, I had a wonderful conversation with Tim and Lis about their other Minis, and it didn’t take too long before I realised that this couple is deadly passionate about all things related to the marque. Between them they own five Minis (down from seven), including a 1966 Austin Cooper 998 — nicknamed ‘Tacious’ — which Tim has owned since he was 15 years old, for about thirty-three years.

Lis owns DC6, the former British Embassy’s Mini, which she had stripped and rebuilt 10 years ago by Laurie and Tony Axcell. Lis’ Mini sports a 1275cc engine and brakes, plus an interior from an MG Metro. The car was originally black and was nicknamed ‘Darth’ but, during its eventual restoration and after she decided to repaint the car in Knightfire Red, her Mini was renamed ‘Anakin’ — yes, she’s a science fiction fan!

Also included in their collection is a 2000 Rover Cooper S Works Touring Mini (nicknamed ‘Maggie’), which Tim and Lis purchased new in the UK directly from Cooper. From there they were fortunate enough to participate in the Italian Job Rally that year before touring the UK, Ireland and parts of Europe, and shipping Maggie home to New Zealand in 2001. Then, of course, there’s the Jem and a low mileage 1966 Austin 850 called ‘Donna’ to round off the collection.

Motor Sport Enthusiasm

Tim and Lis moved to the Manawatu on their return from Europe to be closer to the things in life they value most — motor sport, and good friends Laurie and Tony Axcell (and their partners). Tim believes Laurie and Tony are the best Mini men in the country when it comes to restoration and race preparation. The Mini Racing Drivers’ trophy for most reliable car of the season is, appropriately enough, called the Axcell trophy.

As an indication of their enthusiasm for motor sport, Tim and Lis were volunteers at racing events for many years, including at the MG Whittaker’s race meeting for nearly 10 years with Lis as timekeeper and Tim as the pit guy, on hand to help sort things out for entrants.

Tim was also involved with the Wellington street race and was a leading voice behind the Save Our Street Race Campaign — an effort that worked for one year until sponsorship funds dried up.

Tim admits to having a bit of a laugh these days to see council members of that period who were once so against the street race, trying to get on the bandwagon as they attempted to promote Wellington as a venue for the Aussie V8 Supercar street race which, of course, ended up in Hamilton.

Now living in the best of both worlds, Tim and Lis reside, quite literally, right next door to Manfeild on a 15-hectare block of land, which they organically farm. Tim also runs a small catering business called the Potato Guy, and Lis crunches numbers for a local waste disposal company.

Little Jem

Tim and Lis discovered this little Jem — a Fellpoint MkII car — 15 years ago, behind a shed in Karori in Wellington with a tarp over it. At that time they couldn’t afford to do much more than buy the shell and some parts, and put it into storage. So for 10 years the most the car did was get trailered from lock-up to lock-up.

Alex McDonald of Almac Cars in the Hutt Valley carried out some remedial repair work to the car’s nose cone before the money ran out again, and a decision was made to return the Jem to long term storage.

The car remained undercover until around six years ago when Laurie Axcell took over the project, using his knowledge and skills to not only project manage the restoration, but to source trades people with the necessary skills to finish the car to the highest standard possible.

Work began by stripping the fibreglass shell, removing the floor and making a new one — the original being badly cracked. After that, the entire shell was blasted with baking soda so as to keep the original gel coat in good repair. This work was undertaken by Darryl at Supreme Sandblasters. It then went back to RMH Fibreglass to repair fine surface cracking and get a general tidy up.

The next task was to remove the inner sills and take out the 50mm by 25mm timber, which was originally used on these cars. Tim is amazed to think that the manufacturers believed wood wrapped in a sheet of glass-fibre would actually do the job.

Tim at Octane engineering fitted a full roll-cage — probably best described as a space-frame built inside the shell — before the bodywork was completed and painted by Roydon, formerly the owner of Advance Panelbeaters, a rare breed of man who actually enjoys breathing in fibreglass dust, according to Tim.

Still under the watchful eye of project manager Laurie Axcell, the next items on the agenda were the engine and gearbox.

All machining on the 1380cc powerplant was carried out by Lynn Rogers and Motor Machinists in Manawatu. The unit was fitted with Omega forged pistons, a Lynn R special crank, and a mild street cam for added performance.

What with the limited space, the interior proved to be a tricky exercise and specially made seats were made by Dave Black of Race Tech. Standard seats fitted, but the wings hung out of the back window — which wasn’t the look that anyone, particularly Tim, would have gone for.

Because the interior was so narrow, Dave Black started with a jet sprint seat base and grafted on FIA-specification backs with the head wings shortened to suit. Ross Pickworth from Auto Marine Interiors in Foxton carried out the dash and interior upholstering.

Writing the Cheques

Tim reckons he’d like to take credit for the finished car but knows that all the accolades must go to Laurie, as Tim basically just wrote the cheques. Often Laurie would say to Tim ‘would you like to do this or that thing?’ and Tim would just look back at him and say, “Pretend it’s your car and money didn’t matter to what would you do.” And that’s exactly how Laurie handled the restoration.

The detail he has achieved in simple things like the hand-made cowling around the front-mounted radiator is amazing — not to mention the hand-fabricated exhaust and manifolds.

In Tim’s mind, Laurie would have to be one of the finest restorers of anything Mini in the country, and he cannot express his appreciation enough for a fantastic job.

The goal was not to build a concours car, because Tim reckons a component car could never be that, but to try and build a ’60s-style classic British race car. Mission accomplished, I reckon.

Tim would also like to thank the following people for their part in this fine restoration — Laurie Axcell, project manager and spanner man; Roydon Crossland, body and paint; Supreme Blasting, which stripped the old paintwork by blasting with baking soda; Motormachinist, Palmerston North for prepping the block; Lynn Rogers for his skilled work on the crank and other engine components; Ross Pickworth of Auto Marine interiors in Foxton for the leather dash and hood linings; R&H Fibreglass in Palmerston North, which did a lot of structural repair work to the fibreglass; Tim at Octane Automotive for the roll cage; Ewan from Fielding for the cylinder head; Neil Allport, who sourced the Minilite-style alloy wheels; and last but not least, his partner Lis, who let him loose with the cheque book. Now that’s commitment!

Jem History

Due to close association, the Mini Jem is often confused with the Mini Marcos — no doubt due to the fact that both cars originated with the Dart, a car designed by then famous test-pilot, Dizzy Addicot. The name deriving from Dizzy Addicot Racing Team. Essentially, the Dart was a Morris Mini Van with the bodywork severely cut away and replaced with an unattractive, dumpy-looking aluminium body. The Dart made its first public appearance at the 1964 Racing Car Show in London. Jem Marsh or Marcos was involved in the later stages of the car’s development, and suggested that a fibreglass body would be more suitable. Falcon Shells Ltd of Essex was tasked with developing and producing a set of Dart moulds. However, Falcon Shells was rapidly slipping into liquidation and work was transferred to Marcos, at that time based in Bradford-on-Avon. It was at this point that the Dart split into two cars — Addicot, wanting a higher specification model, took over the moulds, leaving Jem Marsh to develop his own version of the Dart, the Marcos Mini.

However, Addicot soon lost interest in the Dart and Jeremy Delmar-Morgan took it over. He promptly renamed it the Mini Jem, after a shortened version of his own name.

Mechanically, the Jem was based on the Austin Mini and built around a fibreglass monocoque chassis with timber and steel reinforcing. Diminutive in size — measuring a mere 4.1 metres in length and just 1.11 metres high — the Jem was designed to accept all unmodified BMC components from the 850 Mini to the 1275 Cooper S. It could also accept a wide assortment of performance equipment including wider wheels, racing tyres and Weber side-draught carburettors. Dry or hydrolastic suspension could be chosen depending on budget and preference. The end result was a two seater, front-engined GT with front wheel drive and about half the frontal area of standard Mini, at roughly two-thirds the weight.

Further Development

Initially the Jem was a true special and was sold as a very basic body-chassis unit. Prospective builders faced a Herculean task in completing a car but, despite that, around 20 Jems were built at Delmar-Morgan’s London workshop during 1966 and 1967.

Under Delmar-Morgan’s stewardship, the Jem also made its first motor sport appearance — initially in club racing in 1967 and, more ambitiously, when a three-car team was fielded for the 500km race at Nuremburg. Delmar-Morgan finished a creditable second in class in his Mini Jem.

Meanwhile, in November 1967 Delmar-Morgan rented new premises near High Wycombe at Robin Statham’s Fellpoint Ltd in Penn. A further 12 Jems were built here before Delmar-Morgan pulled out, handing everything over to Statham.

Statham immediately began to work on a number of improvements to ensure easier construction by home builders. Another 42 body/chassis units were sold during 1968.

However, Statham wanted to further develop the car, which had quickly gained a reputation as being uncivilised and noisy. Accordingly, he began work on what would become the MkII version of the car.
For this, Statham, modified the Jem’s body shape, with the windscreen being set further back and inclined less steeply,  with corresponding changes to the door shape. The roof line was slightly raised to give more headroom.

One interesting feature of the MkII is its lack of external door handles — access to the cabin is gained by lowering the window, which is secured by a panel lock, and reaching for the inside handle. The option of opening rear quarter lights on the MkII was usually taken up by customers.

As well as these changes, Statham also ensured the MkII would be a much easier car to build — around 50 hours being the official build estimate — and a whole lot stiffer and tauter. The MkII Jem made its first public appearance at the 1969 Racing Car Show.

The MkII was available with all doors and windows fitted, fully painted and trimmed for £350 — all that was required to complete the car was to bolt on the appropriate Mini components.

With a 1275cc Cooper S engine fitted, the 533kg Mini Jem sped to 60mph in 10 seconds before topping out at 177kph (110mph). Statham, who had previous experience racing GSM Deltas, Mini Coopers and a Tornado Talisman, went one better than that by racing a lightweight version of the Jem, complete with a 1293cc full-race engine capable of pushing the car up to 209kph (130mph). In this car, Statham proved very competitive in club racing.

Last of the Jems

Despite what looked to be rosy future, the Jem was soon overshadowed by Statham’s new project, the futuristically designed Futura a VW-based sports car. Sadly, the Futura was a victim of spiralling development costs, and in July 1971 Statham’s business went into liquidation, and the Mini Jem went with it. At the time of its dissolution Statham had sold over 160 MkII Jems.

Production rights to the Jem were then purchased by High Performance Mouldings Ltd of Wiltshire, and it began to sell cars more akin to the car’s earlier form.

Further changes were made to the Jem — the wheel arches were extended leading down to points at either side of the nose, and an opening rear hatch became an optional extra. In this MkII form the Jem soldiered on until January 1973, when production was taken over by Malcolm Fell, who worked from premises in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire. Fell kept the Jem in production until sometime around 1976. The Jem moulds were abandoned to a Norfolk barn, and at one time were believed lost. Today, the Jem’s moulds are owned by the Mini Marcos Owners’ Club in the UK.

As an interesting, Antipodean side-note — until 1976 MkI Mini Jems were also made under license by John Taylor, in South Australia.

Words: Ashley Webb, Photos: Dan Wakelin

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