The cars we're exposed to when we're young are most often the cars that end up having a significant impact on our motoring lives, shaping them and guiding the direction they take, and so it was with Mark French, the owner of the Almond Green Mk1 you see before you here.
"I've been into Minis for a long time," Mark begins as we chat. "My parents had one, and I remember six of us in it going down to the coast," he laughs. "I've been a car nut all my life – my wife says I have petrol running through my veins. I had my first car when I was 14, a Triumph TR4, and then my third car, before I was 16, was a Mk1 Austin Mini Cooper in blue with a white roof. I've been fortunate enough to own a lot of very nice cars throughout my life," he continues, and on a list that includes Astons, Jaguars, Porsches, and, his favourite, an E46 M3 CSL, there also feature several Minis. "I've had three really nice ones in the last ten years," says Mark, and this example is most definitely one of them. "I bought it because it
