An Awesome Aussie Ute And A Marvelous Mini: Members’ Rides

Welcome to Members’ Rides! In case you missed it, last week we were out camping with Stephan and his curated collection that has been specially built to get out into nature.

I’m sitting here waiting for a snowstorm that’s about to hit in Virginia and debating whether to drive the convertible to work anyway or not. With that in mind, I wanted a warm story to share this week! So meet Tom, aka Groover. Tom is an Aussie who was somehow convinced the grass is greener in the Milwaukee area, but despite the cold Midwest location, he’s got a very fun garage that warms my heart to see, and I am excited to share it with you!

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What’s currently in the garage?

• 2021 Mini Countryman JCW
• 2001 Holden Commodore

How did you get into cars?

I’m an Aussie country kid displaced to the American Midwest with a thick head and a heavy right foot. I grew up spending time on my grandparents’ farm in a place some might consider “the outback” (further north and west than Laurence) and learned to paddock bash in a Suzuki Sierra at the age of 9. Have always had an appreciation for mechanics/engineering, but I really got into cars when I bought an old Audi in my early 20s when living in Sydney.

How did you pick out the Mini?

About three years ago, I had four daily drivers in ten months. I had a Mercedes-Benz C350e that I loved, but it spent five of the 19 months I owned it waiting for parts. After the last warranty repair, I immediately sold it before it broke again and started daily-driving my project car, a 2000 Jaguar XK8. That obviously wasn’t sustainable! So when my in-laws’ Accord lease ende,d I bought that out. I know journos love the Accord, but man, I did not feel it. Too big, too economy-focused, it felt “hollow” to me.

Right about this time, the GR Corolla was announced. Through a connection, I had the friendly ear of a Toyota dealer where they don’t charge markups. Roughly six months later, the allocation arrived with a quote that was magically $10k over MSRP. After some Australian language, I was immediately on the market again. I loved the idea of a compact AWD hatch with a lot of power, so I went Googling to see what else there was. I was told by a VW dealer to expect a 12-month wait and a similar market adjustment to the GR – so I went to the next option, which was MINI. The car I bought was the first car I drove. I loved it!

How is it?

It’s a very silly car. When you start the engine, it does a little “rev” like starting an old carbureted car with your foot in it a little. The steering is quite heavy but very sharp, and the handling is excellent. The ride is very firm, unless you’re in Sport, at which point it’s borderline corporal punishment.

And yeah – the throttle response. It’s hard to describe accurately; if I had to guess, I’d say it’s possibly overactive torque management or a safety feature? Basically, from a stop, it straight up ignores you for a moment. Not exaggerating; check out this video demonstrating the behavior. It takes a little getting used to. My wife, who drives a Nissan Leaf, hates driving this car around town. But on the highway, once you’re on the boil, it’s a weapon.

What’s been your favorite thing about this?

I’m not sure how I can describe this, but it’s the most “why not?” designed car I’ve ever owned, like every idea someone had was immediately approved. Features and design touches done “just because.” Coming out of a Mercedes, out of a Honda Accord, man, it’s refreshing.

The interior design is utterly delightful … all the old-school toggle switches, the build and materials quality, the weird extra side visor. The HUD that pops up out of the dash when you start the car and goes away when you shut it down. Why? Because. The way they insist that this hatchback is really a proper SUV when it’s smaller than a Corolla hatchback. It’s like Bing Bong from Inside Out in car form. A lot of it is a bit dumb, but dumb isn’t boring. I think people sleep on these cars, though the current ones have foregone some of the silliness in favor of minimalism, which is a shame.

Anything you don’t like about it?

The throttle response is fine once you’re moving. But from a stop, it’s infuriating and borderline dangerous until you get used to it. My wife once nearly had an accident at a four-way stop sign where she and another driver were figuring out who had right of way. They ushered her to go, and then her hesitation followed by the car just ignoring her for a beat meant the other driver thought they could go. I’m planning on finding a tuner who can hopefully identify this behavior and delete it.

Also, two beefs with the Union Jack taillights: as Torch wrote on the old site, the “arrows” are pointing the wrong way. On top of that, this being a USDM car means the turn signals are red instead of amber.

Minis have a mixed reputation for reliability. How has it been for you?

Yeah, the old R-series Minis are renowned for having issues, but generally the F’s have been much better, and this one hasn’t put a foot wrong. The gearbox is an Aisin 8-speed, and the engine is a BMW B48 with beefed-up internals, and this combo is generally considered to be very robust, aside from the usual BMW shtick of using plastic cooling hardware. Just crossed 60,000 miles driving to Baltimore and back!

What will replace it when the time comes?

I have this thing where I am always wanting to try something different. I’ve never owned a Toyota or a Mazda, so I’m thinking that’s where I’ll go; maybe a Lexus because I’m sure at some point I’ll tire of the suspension firmness in the Mini that I’ll want something soft, haha.

Now what’s the story behind the Commodore?

Well, it was about 2013 when I decided I wanted to eventually buy a ute and bring it up. I created a Wise account and set up a small recurring transfer to my Australian bank account, and I created a spreadsheet tracking year, mileage, location, condition, and asking price to keep an eye on the market and get an idea of budgeting.

When I lived in Australia, I remember practically tripping over old V8 utes, but I’m guessing either I’m wrong or time and bogans got to them first, because there weren’t many that matched what I was after, and the ones that did were maybe twice what I wanted to spend.

Then COVID hit, and the market went insane for cars that were even a little interesting or collectible, and all of my data was irrelevant. I got dissuaded and stopped researching. This is right around when my Benz was going to hell, and my Jaguar was resenting daily driver life. But after a time, I happened to go onto Facebook and a Marketplace popup got me looking at utes again – maybe not with the fervor I’d had before, just kinda scrolling.

So the problem with these cars is that I wanted three things, but it’s a “choose two” situation:

• Ideal spec with an LS1 V8, manual transmission, low mileage
• Straight chassis, uncrashed, unmodified, good paint
• Affordable

I found a great car that met the last two bullet points on Marketplace, found a mobile mechanic to go check it out, got the thumbs-up, and had Mum go pick the car up for me. I unlocked the achievement: buy a car sight unseen from Facebook Marketplace!

So what spec is it?

It’s the 5.7L LS1 V8, currently with an automatic transmission. I am planning on keeping it that way short-term, but I’ve always been a bit of a shadetree mechanic, so I want to swap it to the 6-speed. Unlock another achievement, haha. It does have the LSD rear end though, so I can get up to some mischief as configured.

What made you want to have this in Milwaukee?

Besides perhaps being a little homesick after living stateside for the better part of 15 years, I just love these cars. And I’m excited to have a car with so many wild aftermarket options available. It’s kinda funny to think that it’ll be easier to get things like engine/gearbox parts for a car that was never sold on this continent than it was with the XK8.

How often do you think you’ll be driving this? 

If it’s anything like my last project car, I’ll probably drive it everywhere, all the time, for the first six months. Trips to the mailbox and back, haha. After tha,t it’ll probably get driven once or twice a week outside of salt season.

I know you said it’s a project. What kind of shape is it in?

My purchase criteria really focused on finding a car in good shape for the stuff that can’t be fixed. Like, you can have a car with a leaking rocker cover, or bad engine mounts – but you can’t un-crash a car completely. From what I was told, this car was in excellent shape until roughly 2018, when it got stuffed in a shed and spent the next five years doing nothing.

The seller eventually needed the space, and so stuck it on Marketplace. The notes from the guy who did my PPI were pretty extensive; what mattered to me was great. Everything else, though, needed work. No ABS, no A/C, pretty much all of the rubber in the engine bay was cracked & worn, as were the tires. But it started, ran, and drove just fine, which was enough for me (and for what the seller was asking).

Mum picked up the car & drove it home. Fortunately, there’s a very good auto mechanic that she trusts near her work, so a few times she’s dropped it off to take care of some of the issues for me. The rest I took care of when I visited the car last year.

What all did you do to it?

Some of it I did last time I was down there. First thing was to get all of the leaks sorted. Following that, there were also some things like a harmonic balancer and engine mounts that really needed doing ASAP, so I paid a bloke to get those done. When I got down there, I tried to get all the other bits and pieces sorted; the thing reeked of petrol so much that it made your eyes water, and speaking of water, it was leaking when it rained. It was a very busy two weeks.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the A/C fixed while I was down there, so all of my driving in the middle of a hot Australian summer was in a black car with no A/C.

That sounds less than ideal. What was the cause of the gas smell?

Fortunately, the car wasn’t leaking petrol (the car’s in Australia, doesn’t run on “gas” yet haha), but the smell of it was so strong you basically had to drive with the windows down. First guess was something loose in the engine. Turned out not to be the case.

I tried replacing the petrol cap, also made no difference. Then, while installing the backup camera, I noticed the smell was much stronger in the tub. That’s where the petrol tank is. Under the plastic tub liner, there’s a panel in the load floor you need to remove to get at the tank. Only 22 screws later, I’m wincing as I have found the culprit: a dry-rotted O-ring. Thankfully, these are easy to source, so I got a new one and popped it in. No more strong fume smell.

What do you have planned for it?

Once it gets up here, I’m going to swap on an SS front-end and fog lights, lower it, and upgrade the stereo. I actually already have the stereo; my plan was to find something “period correct,” something very early 2000s “sex spec” if you know what that means. A stereo with a big button that says like “MAXX BASS” and has a blue backlit screen that shows an animation of a dolphin or something like that.

Eventually, probably in 2027, I plan to swap to a 6-speed manual transmission. The six-speed gearbox these use is a Tremec T56, so I’m hoping there’s one that fits stateside from a Camaro or something. If not, I’ve found an importer out of Indianapolis that can bring one in.

How hard is it to swap the SS nose onto it?

Absolute doddle. These things are pretty much Lego, to the point that people would do things like swap Statesman front ends on. Probably going to be harder to get the paint to match, honestly.

Will you keep the Holden badges on it, or will the front have the Chevy bowtie?

This is a Holden, 1000%. Always gave the bogans side-eye when they took off the Lion to replace it with a bow-tie.

What’s the plan for getting it here and road legal?

Honestly, it’s pretty simple. It’ll be 25 years old, so it meets the criteria for customs to wave it through; though, being a utility vehicle, it does attract the dreaded Chicken Tax. Once it’s in Wisconsin, it’ll have to pass emissions, which is fine, it passed NSW roadworthy a few months ago, so WI emissions will be a cakewalk.

I’m currently working with the Tyler from Tiki Bunny Imports on setting up scheduling. The ute’s legal on January 25, 2026. The plan had been that it arrive to the docks stateside as near to that date as legally permissible; but in my excitement, I forgot that I live in the frozen tundra of Milwaukee, WI, and there’ll be snow, ice, and worst of all, shitloads of ute-destroying road salt. So instead, the plan is to head down under early in 2026, do a bit of wrenching, and – if I can time it right – drive it to the docks myself. Obviously, driving it onto the carrier is straight-up not going to happen, but it’d be neat to get as near to that as I can, even if that’s just going to the wharf.

So if my planning works, I’d get down there sorta mid February, do my thing, get it on the boat, and by the time April rolls around, it oughta be getting dropped off at my house as the snow starts to melt. Hopefully.

Thanks Tom!

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