A tangible link through to the home of the Rover 200, namely the Austin/Morris Mini! I picked up this slightly unique variant of a recent run of this Mini. The body is the same colours and tampos, but I have to admit the gold wheels and branded tyres got me hooked. It's not a custom, more a factory production line test run, which is a process to test each stage works. In this instance, it was tested through official paint and tampograph application, but when the wheels were fitted, someone chose this combo. It's all rivetted up from the factory! How does the tampographing work? Well, they seat the body onto a frame, apparently 3D printed and that holds the shell in place as the big rubbery 'mamory-like' applicators press the tampos onto the shell. As it happens, I also found an example of one of these blocks, complete with a random bodyshell attached! Now, for those well versed in the closure of Longbridge, might remember they discovered a Mini in the tunnels... This car is now in the Gaydon museum, in the second building up on the mezzanine floor alongside some special test mules. Admittedly the real one is a Clubman front, but when I discovered the Hot Wheels test model looked this this... ...well that seemed too good to pass up!
