Local Heroes: David Brown Automotive

A new chapter in the Mini’s local history is being written not in Oxfordshire but in Buckinghamshire – just. The doors to David Brown Automotive’s state-of-the-art base at Silverstone is just yards from the county boundary with Northants, and the Mini’s original manor is just a few miles the other way.

That means it's comfortably within the 30-mile radius for the Local Heroes display at the Scramble on Sunday 23 April, too. 

Founded a decade ago by the famously named David Brown, no relation to Aston Martin’s creator, the Mini Remastered range is one part of an expanding offering that reimagines classic shapes. The Speedback GT, for example, is an homage of sorts to his namesake’s grand tourers.

For Mini Remastered, the original little car offers the base but from there David Brown Automotive’s team takes over and brings the icon right up to date. Visually, the seams are gone and wheelarch profiles are improved, twin pipes sprout from the centre of the rear bumper, too.

Inside it is a thoroughly modern experience, Moto-Lita wheel aside, with new dials and switchgear that wholly embraces the digital world.

The punchy A-series powerplant has been completely refined and tuned, stripped and rebuilt to produce 30% more power – 71bhp as standard.

Two cars, an Oselli Edition and Marshall Edition, will be on display at the Scramble on Sunday 23 April as part of Local Heroes, which celebrates the automotive links in a 30-mile radius of Bicester.

The Oselli Edition in fact is a doubly local hero because it has been created in partnership with Oxford’s Oselli, who has been fettling Abingdon’s finest since 1962. First founded as Oxford Engine Services, the team took its rapid Minis into competition under the name Oselli.

This Mini Remastered edition evokes that with twin-SUs, bumping power to 125bhp and shaving the 0-62mph sprint to 7.8 seconds. No Mini Remastered can match it in the performance stakes.

All manner of personalisation is available to ram home the competition history, from stripes to bucket seats and harnesses.

The Marshall Edition is the newest, an exclusive run of 60 cars to mark 60 years of Marshall Amplification. Naturally, it’s available only in black with gold accents, and the grille cleverly incorporates the iconic Marshall amp mesh.

Not only that, among the scores of Marshall references is an integrated amp in the boot with its own power supply.

Both David Brown Automotive and Marshall donate to the Music Venue Trust as part of every sale, too.

Don’t miss these Mini Remastered Editions like no others on the Local Heroes lawn on Sunday 23 April.