Enjoy The Ride

Having built a modified Sportpack’d blue saloon and fallen in love with it, Steve Morton added two more to complete this brilliant patriotic trio.

- Jeff Ruggles

Remember the wedding sequence in The Italian Job film? You’ve got the happy couple, minding their own business on steps of the Grande Madre di Dio church in Turin, when all of a sudden red, white and blue Mini Coopers come hurtling down from both sides while trying to escape the police. Michael Caine yells ‘good luck’ from the passenger seat of the red one, and an inextricable link between the three cars and weddings becomes part of Mini folklore.

We know we’re preaching to the converted here, but we reckon the Mini has all the right credentials to make an excellent wedding transport – albeit without the strong sump guards and gold bullion in the boot. It’s traditional, iconic and universally appreciated, and unlike some hair styles and fashions, won’t be horribly out of fashion when you look back at your wedding photos in a few years time. One car isn’t really spacious enough though, so what better way to mark your big day than with a modern take on the patriotic trio that lit up so many of our screens? Enter Steve Morton’s red, white and blue Sportpack’d saloons...

TOP SECRET

Steve plans to hire his Minis out for weddings, proms and other worthy occasions, but he had different intentions when he picked up the basis for the blue car back around four and a half years ago. “All of my friends have had Minis, but this was my first,” he says. “A mate had mentioned in passing that there was a Mini for sale about two miles up the road. I wanted something unique for the girlfriend’s 30th birthday, so I went and bought it. I had to do it without her knowing, so it became a top secret project.”