Looking for prototype photos? 27AE03, 07RN49 & 14BT16?
Here's one to get you scrambling through the various Moke books and magazines that you might have!
27 AE 03 commonly referred to as the RAF Moke. Photos of this Moke seem very thin on the ground and I am particularly keen to try and find more if I can.
07 RN 49 which was trialled by the Royal Marines. I have come across photos taken at the Fort Cumberland, the RM base at Portsmouth as well as some showing it undergoing trials slung from a helicopter at the Army Air Corps base, Middle Wallop, Wilts. Furthermore some from the Westland Helicopter company at Yeovil. So this one is quite well covered in photgraphic terms but you never know someone might come up with a shot I have never seen before!
14 BT 16 Other than it being mentioned just once in a letter I had back from the army many moons ago I know nothing whatsoever about this Moke. My own Moke is 14 BT 18 and the one in the Haynes Museum, 14 BT 17, so 14 BT 16 must have been a very close relative. I am pretty certain that the army had them on trial in the Bordon/Aldershot area of the country.
Alternatively just post any photos you might have here on the forum.
By the way, don't suggest that Gaydon might have some photos! That source has already been tried and regretfully they have very few of the early Mokes. I've also done a fair amount of Googling to try and find photos of these three Mokes but once again with little success.
Re: Looking for prototype photos? 27AE03, 07RN49 & 14BT16?
As mentioned in the other thread, I've had a look in a couple of spots for pictures. The article in watto's "The Mini Experience" magazine on prototype Mokes only shows 14 BT 17.
The excellent book "Mini: The Definitive History" by Jon Pressnell shows the first one from the other thread, some original and current pictures of 14 BT 18, another with no plates which it refers to as the "second stage" (has the fuel tank in the side), and then a couple more of those odd shaped short ones with the rounded bonnets like the ones that turned up in Africa.
http://www.austinmemories.com/page74/page74.html there are a couple of pics of prototypes on his site inc. one of yours! but he may have others you never know.
Yes, I was ahead of you and did contact him a few weeks ago. I think I started my email by telling him that he owed me a favour as I had spotted a photo on his website that I had taken of my Moke not long after I finished the restoration. To see the photo on his website was news to me! However he replied to say that he was unable to help with any info. That's OK, at least he replied and he did so relatively quickly which is more than I can say about others I have written to! Having been back to his website I see that my name now appears next to my photo so all is well!