The Mini Moke — an antique that, in its day, never really worked as intended, sold only in modest numbers and has been out of production for nearly half a century — is to be revived. What does this resurrection tell us?
‘Icon’ is an abused term, but not in this case: few artefacts better express the values of their age. However, be warned that sequinned loons and Cuban heels may not be far behind.
The Moke was intended as a cheap utility vehicle for the Army. A 1965 example, registration HLT 709C, was memorably driven around spooky Portmeirion by Patrick McGoohan in the cult television series The Prisoner, first broadcast in 1967.
Converted for McGoohan into a playful, beach-car specification by Wood & Pickett (who also made de luxe Minis for the boulevardiers of the King’s Road in London), no car better captures the strange mixture of anxiety and delight, frivolity and danger and of counter-cultural glamour that were the Sixties.
And there can be no more profound affirmation of the Moke’s iconic status than in the fact that, a year after McGoohan’s TV imprisonment, a Dinky Toy model went on-sale.
But in 2021, it is not only the Moke that is a messenger from the motoring past. Today, there are people who will sell you a ‘new’ (in fact, re-manufactured) Jaguar E-Type, another emissary of the 1960s.
Iconic: the Mini Moke is set to be resurrected with power steering, a heated windscreen and waterproof seats. Pictured: the original Mini Moke known for its lack of doors and windows
In the fake news era, it’s significant that what car collectors call the ‘restomod’ movement (which sees classic vehicles upgraded with modern running gear) makes strenuous efforts to achieve authenticity — even if that authenticity involves degrees of fantasy and invention, which improve greatly on the original.
The new Moke, costing some £24,000, manufactured in Nuneaton and assembled at Cerizay in the Deux-Sevres commune of South-West France, arrives with innovations including power-steering, waterproof seats and a heated windscreen. An electric version will soon be available.
But the original, which went on sale in January 1964, was a derivative of the 1959 Mini.
A great part of the Mini’s extraordinary appeal is based in one unique aspect: for reasons of economy, the welded seams and hinges on its body are left exposed, creating a sort of unconscious utilitarian chic.
The unique interior door-bins proved useful for storage, but were there because, as an economy, the Mini did not have wind-up windows.
The same extreme functional logic was applied to the Moke. Like the 1948 Land-Rover, it is, artistically speaking, an exercise in pure geometry.
Katie Moss drives round with Sadie Frost in a yellow Mini Moke while in France in August 2019
Nothing is done to excess. Everything is there — or not there — for a reason. Indeed, the Moke lacks not only wind-up windows, but doors themselves. If you wanted a description of laid-back simplicity, look no further.
Ironically, when the Moke’s creator John Sheppard met the Mini’s designer, Alec Issigonis, at The British Motor
