We love trolling the eBay “other makes” listings because undoubtedly we’ll see something we have never heard of, dreamed of, or knew about before. In this case, the car is called a Wolseley Horney MKII and it is a little British unit that was based off of a Mini with some added looks and room. We think it would be a perfect place to start for a neat hot rod using some of the high output, small displacement modern engines that are being cranked out of factories these days. Preferably we would stick the 1.0L EcoBoost in the front of this thing because it is actually smaller (physically) than the four banger that is in there now and it makes roughly 2.5x the power. This little car with a wicked up three banger making like 150-175hp would be hilarious. You’d be smoking those Minilite wheels for as long as you wanted to.
As we said above, these little cars were based off of the Mini that was so popular in Europe during the 1960s. The idea for Wolseley was to up the “luxury” and usable space for people who were turned off by the mini’s lack of both. Aimed at older, more traditional car buyers, the new nose with the tall grill, brightwork, and chrome bumper were added as well as a small trunk on the back of the car as well as a couple of really short, stubby fins as well. Proportionally it looks pretty good to us. Typically when someone modifies an OEM design like this, the results are a comical disaster. Here they actually make the car look a little tougher in our eyes.
This one is left hand drive, so it was built for export to either the US or Canada way back when and somehow it made its way though a series of owners who took great care of it. We’d never seen or heard or one of these thing prior to today but we’re into it….especially the idea of making an high powered version that could slay cones at the autocross and maybe even tweak some people at the strip. Weirdo FTW!
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE SOME PHOTOS OF THIS LITTLE WEIRDO AND THEN HIT THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM TO SEE THE EBAY AD –
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE EBAY AD FOR THIS 1966 Wolseley Hornet MKII
This one is so nice that it ought to be left alone. A tired one or a tired Mini of similar vintage… then the 3 cylinder Ecoboost idea sounds real good.
I agree with Gregg68, this one is too nice to cut up.
both of you just said what I was going to say 🙂
I was just talking with my buddy to day about his 1969 Triumph GT6 . and there is so many ways to hot rod it . but tune it and leave it alone? , or do a resto mod ?
It’s nice to see a mini based platform on BS. I have a 76 Mini. I’ve been wanting to save up for a Honda Vtec swap for years. My friend had a Vtec Mini and it was stupid fast once the 12″ tires found traction. In a related note (and interesting thinking about the CRV story) there is also a subframe to install the rear pumpkin and cv joints from an AWD CRV to have an AWD mini, that’s my dream, well that and a faster Matador, and 37″ tires for my truck.
Ah you speak of project Binky! Follow the link, marvel at the engineering of a Celica GT4 Turbo 4WD/mini frankenstien.
http://www.badobsessionmotorsport.co.uk/test/index.php/projects/binky
I was actually thinking of the minitec conversion subframes ( http://vtec.minimania.com/awd-mini-gallery.cfm ) , but project Binky looks sick. Thanks for the share
I agree with the general consensus that this particular Hornet is far too nice to chop, but were a rougher one on hand I’d lean in the direction of making a tiny Gasser out of it, just to be weird.
Nice idea!
the Eco-boost is a nice engine – even better if you stick another one in the back! There were several so-called Twini-Minis built in the 60s – even one made by the great john Cooper himself that nearly killed him in an horrific crash.
I think the Hornet/Elf is a much better looking car than the Mini and is well worth modding. However some moron will no doubt ruin it all by working out how to put that heap of junk called an LS into it!