1993 Mini Moke

The Mini Moke is a vehicle based on the Mini and it was designed for the British Motor Corporation (BMC) by the great Sir Alec Issigonis. The name comes from ""Mini""- the car with which the Moke shares many parts - and ""Moke"", which is an archaic dialect term for a donkey! The initial design was a prototype for a light military vehicle in the style of the American Jeep, but its small wheels and low ground clearance made it rather impractical as an off-road vehicle. It was subsequently offered in civilian form as a low-cost, easily maintained utility vehicle. The Moke finally achieved success as a beach buggy-becoming a popular 'cult' vehicle in the Seychelles, Australia, the United States and many tropical resorts in the Caribbean. Mokes were first built at the Morris factory in Oxford before production moved to BMC's Longbridge, Birmingham plant, and then eventually overseas. 14,500 Mokes were produced in the UK between 1964 and 1968, 26,000 in Australia between 1966 and 1981, and a further 10,000 were built in Portugal between 1980 and 1993 when production of the Moke ended.

In 1990, British Leyland (by then called Rover Group) sold the ""Moke"" name to Cagiva, a motorcycle manufacturer based in Bologna, Italy. Production continued in Portugal until 1993, when Cagiva transferred the tooling to their factory in Italy with the intention of restarting production in 1995, but this never happened. Since Cagiva did not own the ""Mini"" name the 1,500 cars they built were sold simply as ""Mokes"". This brought the total production run of Mokes and various other Moke derivatives to about 50,000.

This particular Mini Moke is a 998cc example that is presented in highly original condition. This most useable little Moke is showing some signs of age with minor surface rust on the floors but it is otherwise a very solid little run-around. Although not a concours example, we would suggest that some simple attention given to the paintwork would increase its "curb appeal' no end. With that said, it wouldn't take much to bring this late model back to first class condition all round. The odometer is reading a mere 12,915 kilometres, which we believe to be genuine.