What do veteran glam rocker David Bowie, Queen Elizabeth II and Hollywood bad-boy Mickey Rourke have in common? Stumped? Then let's give you a jump start by adding the world's first supermodel Twiggy, king of cool Steve McQueen and shagadelic international man of mystery Austin Powers. Still stalling? Then squeeze in Michael Caine, Madonna, the Beatles, Paul Newman, Brigitte Bardot, Dudley Moore, Cliff Richard, Dame Margot Fonteyn, Clint Eastwood and 25 British students (all at the same time). Still haven't got your brain in gear? How about Commercial Radio DJ Sammy Leung Chi-kin and former singer and actor Eric Kot Man-fai? And a Tuen Mun physiotherapist, a Mong Kok car-spares dealer and a Hong Kong jewellery salesman.
Cutting to the chase, all have, at one time, fallen bonnet over big-end for the Mini, the humble British car that has captured the world's imagination since the late 1950s. John Lennon had one painted in psychedelic swirls of red, green and white. Peter Sellers had his trimmed in wicker. One-time Formula One world champion James Hunt's first racing car was a Mini. And his great rival, Austrian driver Niki Lauda, also enjoyed his first racing success in one (now he owns two). Fashion designer Mary Quant said a Mini parked in front of her studio in 1965 prompted the name of her own great invention: the miniskirt.
Although more than five million of the cute cars were produced, the classic Mini was never big in Hong Kong. Here size has always mattered, hence the popularity of the more prestigious BMW and Mercedes-Benz marques. According to Cecil Yau, senior marketing officer at Rover, which owned the Mini brand in the 1990s, the local dealer sold just 200 new Mini Coopers, priced at about HK$180,000, from 1990 to 1997. But for a small group of motoring enthusiasts, there is only one car that really gets their engines running.
'We're all die-hard Mini fans,' enthuses Ted Wong Chi-yin, 33, president of the Hong Kong Mini Fan Club (HKMFC), which gathers twice a month for barbecues, treasure hunts, cruising and much posing. Cornered at a recent gathering of 20 proud owners in Tai Po, the Tuen Mun-based physiotherapist says it is the classic Mini's iconic status that gets members really revved up. Wong himself owns five Minis, which he houses in a rented New Territories warehouse. His favourites are a British racing green 1996 Mini Cooper 1.3i from the last batch of a Hong Kong Rover dealer, a modified black body-white roof 1991 Mini Cooper S with a 1,275cc engine, and a midnight-blue 1969 Australian Mini convertible with wind-up windows. And he's after another, if only to keep it in the HKMFC family. 'It's a white 1960s Mini that a member plans to sell. I've known the car for some time. I don't want to see it land in the hands of somebody not familiar with it.'
Talking of families, Wong's enthusiasm for the Mini has even infected his ebullient wife, Vanessa Wan, and their two daughters, aged six and two. 'The Mini ties our family together,' says Wan, who wears a delicate pair of red Mini Cooper drop earrings for the club's big Sunday out. 'We all visit Japan and Britain to attend Mini events and search out spares like brake cylinders, shock absorbers and door hinges.'
Alex Liu Lik, 52, affectionately known to HKMFC members as Brother Lik, set up and registered the club with just 10 enthusiasts in February 1993. Since then it has motored ahead and now boasts 140 members. Liu finds this surprising, saying that classic Mini drivers are generally the type of people who like to set themselves apart, to stand out from the crowd rather than belong to one. Liu runs an auto-spares shop in Mong Kok and bought his first Mini in 1982. He was soon hooked and at one time owned six. Today he restricts himself to just two. His favoured steed is a 1972 Mini Cooper S with a 1,275cc engine. Painted British racing green with a white roof, the car boasts a green leather interior and custom-made instrument panel.