Never been much of a fan of the Mite, then again I've been around a few and a friend had one once. Best use he found for it was to stick on the roof as an advertisement. Structurally weak and poor metal quality prone to quick and excessive corrosion. They had a short service history for a reason.

The Austin Champ was basically the British post-war answer to everything that was wrong with the Jeep, and it was done up pretty well.


I'm just not much a fan of British cars per se, but got this in a cheap trade. It's complete and needs basic restoration with only some rot in the floors which is typical and easily repaired since it's all flat sheet. Neat vehicle though in that the body lifts up from the front giving access to almost the complete chassis. Drivetrain is interesting with a reverser off the rear of the engine driving the combined transfer/transaxle meaning you get all 5 gears in reverse as well as forward. Guess the idea there was to get out of trouble as fast as you got into it! If and when I work on it the LRDG version is an interesting one to think about...