Iain Ayre has been writing about Minis for longer than he cares to remember, starting with MiniWorld, before the Rolling Stones looked like raisins, and moving over to Mini Magazine while the Mini was still in production. Of the 1000 or so motoring magazine articles he has written, a good percentage have been about Minis. He has driven a Mini to Alicante and back for fun, and has even designed a three-wheeler, based on Mini mechanicals, which failed to make his fortune.Since 2000, he has been reporting from North America on the US and Canadian Mini scene, and has sadly neglected his rare Canadian-spec Mini, in favour of assembling a Mini-Marcos, an obscure racing kit car based on the Mini mechanicals: this is fitted with a mean 1100cc engine, the spec of which is detailed in this new book. The Ultimate Mini Restoration Manual will be his second book on Minis: the first was a collection of surreal but entertaining Mini derivatives entitled Mad Minis.