Now then.

Are you sitting comfortably? Good.

Pour yourself a drink and consider the following.

This 1976 Mini 1000 was first used as a demonstrator and then sold to its first private owner in 1977.

That lady drove the car until 1984, when it had covered a paltry 15,327 miles.

At that point, the car had the bare-faced cheek to fail an MoT.

At that point, presumably to teach it a lesson, she drove it into a shed and there it sat, gathering dust, until it was put onto the market and bought by the vendor’s late father in May 2018.

Yes, what we have here is an entirely original, authentic, unmolested 1976 Mini 1000 that, today, has just 17,189 miles on the clock.

The vendor’s father got the car back up and running and it made a few appearances at various Mini rallies.

He found that the car needed remarkably little doing to it in terms of remedial work, and although he overhauled the brakes and checked and cleaned the cylinder head, no major work was required other than to fit a rep...