Strangely enough, the hydrolastic suspension on this Mini has never had to be topped up. At the Mini Cooper Racing Club there are tales galore about disasters with the suspension leaking and a general inability to fix it 100%. The chairman says it is (not to him though) a secret recipe of alchohol, glycol and some lubricant that does not perish the rubbers. It is his opinion that my car was the among very first of this series to be filled up with this fluid since the local assembly plant wanted to show the British managers that they knew what they were doing. Later models were just left to an appie on the line and he might or might not have got it right.
I am selling the car, I have had a ridiculous offer from someone in Johannesburg who must have more money than sense and he is sending a car-carrier for it this week.
The Austin Apache is one of the worst cars ever to come out of the UK. The body rust after 2 or 3 years was frightful. As for the handling...