Dean Foster’s Mini love affair

8 December, 2016

In New Zealand Classic Car Issue No. 313 Dean Foster shares his story of how he came to love and cherish the Mini marque, and became involved in keeping them alive all these years.

His first car was a 1974 Leyland Mini, which he bought through good old Trade & Exchange back in 1996, with money he’d saved up from his first job. It had been fully customized and souped up with a worked 1330cc engine, a lumpy cam, and a 28/36 down-draught Weber. It had been painted red, with a white roof and Cooper stripes.

Fast forward 12 years to 2008, and Dean decided to work towards the goal of attending the Mini 50th celebrations, in October 2009. This was a good excuse to get his current Mini out of storage for a quick strip-down and repaint. The strip-down turned into a slightly larger job when he made the call to get the shell acid dipped, and a full restoration ensued.

Have a look at a few additional photos that didn’t make it into the feature in the January issue of New Zealand Classic Car (Issue No. 313) — grab your copy here to read the full story.

Grab a print copy of the mag now!

More to the point

6 March, 2026

This Daimler SP252 is so rare, few people know it exists. It’s one of a kind. It’s the only surviving, in fact the only SP252 ever completed; the would-be successor to the SP250 Daimler Dart. It is also the last sports car to have been designed by Jaguar’s legendary founder, Sir William Lyons.
Perhaps one of the original Dart’s biggest problems was it’s somewhat-divisive looks. It certainly went well enough to win fans, although Sir William wasn’t among them. It crushed the opposition in the Bathurst six-hour race, finishing five laps ahead of anyone else, and it was snapped up by police forces in Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, as it was the fastest thing on the road.
So you’d think a stunning new body with the magic Lyons touch would have been a surefire success. Why this car never made it into production is still something of a mystery, as the official explanations barely stack up.

Polishing to perfection

26 February, 2026

The secret to a show-stopping finish is colour sanding, no matter which paint system you use. Even a good painter, no matter how experienced or talented — like my mate Bruce Haye, CEO at Ace Panel and Paint in Whitianga — can’t shoot to a perfect mirror finish. To get that level of perfection, you need to colour sand.
It used to be called ‘rubbing out’ or ‘cutting’, and it was done with pastes that came in cans. They worked — sort of — but the compounds really just rounded off imperfections instead of eliminating them, and they removed a lot of paint in the process. But now your new finish can be made flawless, thanks to microfine sandpapers that come in 1000, 1500, 2000, and even 2500 grit ranges, and Farecla G3 polish — available from automotive paint suppliers.

Dean Foster’s Mini love affair

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