About the Cars
Whether immortalised in film, a Motorsport giant killer in the 60s & 70s, or as the definitive example of automotive cool, the Classic Mini either in their Cooper S guises or not, are motoring icons. To even the most automotive disinterested person you could possibly meet - they would recognise a Mini amongst a plethora of other cars.
Diminutive has a rights agreement to reproduce reimagined Minis using the Z Cars chassis and DNA. Z Cars was founded primarily as a kit-based company enabling enthusiasts to build their own mid-engine Minis. Alternatively they could commission a factory build. Hundreds were sold, where invariably the specification would vary, where no two builds would be the same such are the opportunities to personalise to the Nth degree. However, at the risk of stating the obvious, there could be no control or influence over how those home-builds were executed. Therefore, a high quality, high spec. home-build with mostly new parts, restored and built by someone with complimentary skills will be at the opposite end of the spectrum to an unrestored amateur build with the A series subframe, used parts on an older shell where no MOT is necessary.
Generally we have found the standard of home-builds to be quite poor with many built without a competent restoration and strengthening.
This effectively created a multi-tier hierarchy in respect to the quality of the builds however the poor, unsafe home-builds undermined the residual values and reputation of the better home-builds and factory builds as well as weakening the integrity of the brand. An analogy would be - albeit on a vastly different scale - the Volkswagen Audi Group bought Skoda in 1991, but how long did it really take to stop the Skoda brand being referred to in a derogatory way? Many in the know, nowadays buy a Skoda knowing it’s really an Audi underneath.
With these observations in mind and - as one factory build client once put it - the kits were having similar impact as counterfeit goods might on premium fashion and watch brands to name a few, so this became imperative to try to create a clean-break from the kit home-builds.
Why Diminutive? Z Cars was founded predominantly as a kit car company selling kits for around 20 years. Historically, for the most part, the legacy builds tended to be under-utilised as the focus was on lightweight, raw, higher revving machines often being the B-road adrenaline-fuelled toy playing 2nd fiddle within the typical family pool of cars. Although this potent fun formula often provided much needed escapism, their lower torque, Hayabusa or K20 platforms made them tiring to drive given their drive-them-like-you-stole-them vibe.
Furthermore compromises such as heat soak, chain drives and a spartan track day focused interior, made them better-suited to shorter journeys only. They also made for an uncomfortable experience for passengers, such that for many a partner, sharing that experience more than once lacked appeal. We’ve been told many times how a new partner or a child on the way brought ownership to a bitter conclusion. With busier roads and increasingly sophisticated traffic cameras, these in combination lessened the opportunities to exploit the Z Cars performance locally. Unless the owner was lucky enough to live closer to a driving nirvana, the legacy raw setups hardly lent themselves to driving to the best UK bucket list roads, in Wales, Northern England or further afield like the NC500 or Euroland.
Whilst these Minis were renowned for being many steps up on performance of the hot hatches of the day and could make a then supercar owner weep, the world of the performance car has moved on in those 20 years. By reimagining the Mini, our new editions are a ground-up update on those legacy RWD Minis. Aside from strengthening the shells, an example is the evolution of the front subframe to an outboard dampers configuration and redesigned the double wishbone setup.
This allowed more space in the front for a larger fuel tank around double the size of the legacy setup. In conjunction with the option of more modern turbo-charged engines with more torque capable of better fuel economy, this effectively doubles the useable range of our cars, introducing more practicality and usability. Whilst there are overtones between the two philosophies, the kit car and visceral culture are reputations, the new company has chosen to confine to history, so we needed a new name.
As can be seen with Twitter and X there are potential pitfalls and can be a divisive path, we endeavoured to find something that didn’t need a chapter and verse explanation, and even if not received overly positively, the rationale would hopefully make sense. With BMW acquiring the Mini brand in 1996, the brand now promotes their SUVS and their - not much smaller - hot hatches, venturing too close to using their brand name within the overall company name risks a cease and desist order probably hand-delivered in a 1.3 ton Mini Cooper S...
The origin of an established brand name like Z Cars - albeit amongst petrolheads mainly - has less importance or indeed relevance as the years pass, yet it came about as the original founder was an ex-policeman and he chose the name of a popular British TV Cop show from the 1960s when the company was incorporated in around 1999. Nevertheless the name is intrinsically a kit-car brand and as inferred with the Skoda / VAG anecdote, we felt some of the established reimagined classics are generally unencumbered by a potential hangover on perceived reputations and stigmas. As we look to find a footing in North America too, Datsun’s sports coupes 240Z and the generations up to the 300Z are referred to as Z Cars.
Another quirk of the choice of name is we often get emails and texts for a cab to the Airport, as there are multitude of taxi firms all over the UK called Z Cars. As with the link to the cop show, the taxi connection is the old-fashioned practice of going into a phone box and flicking through a phonebook to the letter Z as you would always quickly find a cab phone number. How bizarre! The origin of Diminutive is primarily due to being applied as a more sophisticated word for; small, tiny, miniature and of course Mini. Whilst paradoxically it might have four syllables, it is increasingly used as a possible polite term of endearment for a person below average height normally out of their earshot!
Consequently there is not such a tenuous explanation for the rationale behind the name for the new brand given we build the smallest reimagined classics money can buy.
Evaluating the reimagined classic sector, the common denominator seems to be a recreation of one of the foremost iconic creations of all time, for the modern era. Incorporating innovations or advancements in automobile technology to enhance the performance, comfort and safety of the classic car, giving the timeless appearance of the original, but the outdated underpinnings of the car have been replaced with more modern, high-performance components. This essentially is a Restomod, a reimagined classic often with integrated exotic materials where in the main, a donor car is sourced, restored, updated and positioned as the original car with its original chassis number intact, but for all intents and purposes, it is essentially a new car.
To drive one, is to take in the like-minded acknowledgement from your passenger, pedestrians and other road-users, you are in something special. In the seemingly never-ending horse power arms-race there are some shortfalls with the new faster, faster philosophy, where realistically, you can’t utilise that power on the roads these days which is why track days are increasingly popular. It’s partly why we feel the useability should be primary and the implicit performance, secondary.
It could be said some of the more powerful eye candy miss the point of road driving as the reimagined classics are so much fun, fit in a supermarket car space and invite genuine, spontaneous goodwill whilst out for a drive, given way to at a junction, a wave or thumbs-up and a chat at a fuel stop. Breaking driving down into its basic components; moving your arms and legs, steering, gear change and what you feel through your hands and through your backside. Then combine those dynamics with the silhouette and charm of an older car with the reliability of a modern car, these for many are the perfect ingredients of a Restomod. It is perhaps why so many motor journalists feature them on their YouTube channels and seem in their element. Fun at 2-tenths and linear exhilaration thereon?
A modern performance car may need to be taken over the national speed limit to extract the fun factor. With each new model - replacing its previous generation - seemingly larger, heavier and more indistinguishable from a rival, it would seem; car parking spaces and driveways on new developments have not got that memo. Our Minis look almost nano-esque on today’s roads but practicality comes in various forms. Having our reimagined Minis based on one of the most iconic and instantly recognisable designs is an advantage and our builds are less ostentatious than many in this sector but our cars have the underlying performance most of them could not match and will give the so-called RestoGods of the sector something to ponder on. It’s also how they make the driver feel and so on.
We are always adding to the list of existing premium parts, most recently our commissioned Coolerworx manual shifter as an alternative to our take on the dual clutch transmission setup with this being one of our USP considerations, i.e. having the choice. We can also offer the option of a new shell (subject to age- related import regulations in some markets, like the Us and Australia) along with a new registration. Our CANBus electronics setup affords adjustable traction control and forced induction with variable boost to not drop the owner in at the deep end with the interesting combination of big power accompanied by a very short wheelbase.
In addition, we are looking to take the edge off the hyper-pricing which is one of the downsides of this sector. For us usability is primary, but these don’t hang about and as for the ostentatiousness with exotic (almost pseudo–unobtainium) materials… well that could be an optional extra in the future as the Mini evolves over the period of ownership, at the owners discretion of course.