Material

A published interview with Dave Champion about cabriolets in Mini Magazine circa 1996 indicating number converted being one a week, circa 1,000 in total.  This is disputed by myself, as there are only 800 or so weeks between 1980/81 and 1996, and it is known that there were conversions on other marques, (Jaguar, Mercedes, Bentley and Rolls Royce etc.,) and from experience, some Mini conversions took longer than a week, especially where other remedial work, body kits and painting were required.  Additionally the promotional show cars, the St.Tropez C450SLU and Monoco F877LKE, took weeks and weeks to build.  From Dave’s own Linked In profile, where he states he is the general dogs body doing everything, mathematically, I can’t see how so many Mini’s were converted in that time frame.  In fairness to Dave, I think when asked, he just quoted this large figure as he probably didn’t actually know at the time of the interview, and it probably felt like 1,000.  However, we think Dave sadly passed away (unconfirmed) some time ago and the business is no longer in existence, so we can no longer ask.