Mini Magazine - Summer 2018

ON THE JOB
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ON THE JOB
Words Martyn Collins Photography Adrian Brannan
Saving Little Pig
Sarah Thomas is on a restoration crusade to put the once unloved
‘Little Pig’, her Studio 2, back to its glorious standard.
This 1991 Studio 2 is Sarah
Thomas’s first Mini. In fact, it
was bought as a project back
in July 2011 by her dad for her
youngest brother Alex, the
idea being they would work on it together.
The Mini was roadworthy, but needed a
few repairs. However, Alex wasn’t really
interested, so the Mini was left in the
garage, rather neglected, until 2013 when
Sarah’s dad decided to tidy it up and sell it.
When it was ready to sell, Sarah and
her other brother, Robert, decided to buy
40
it. Sadly (or thankfully, depending how
you look at it), Robert didn’t like driving
it. But Sarah fell in love with it straight
away – she knew she had to own it!
This Studio 2 became her daily in
September 2013, and quickly earned the
name ‘Little Pig’ because it’s little, and “a
pig” to work on! With Sarah having no
mechanical knowledge, her dad was the
one who had to come and rescue her
when Little Pig broke down. She
remembers often driving to work with a
wet floor, because there was a leak, and
they were unable to find the source!
In November 2015 Sarah was hit by
another car, with Little Pig receiving a bit
of damage to the wing around the driver’s
side headlight. It was at this point that she
decided it should become a weekend toy.
After meeting partner Neil, who owned
two Minis (a 1982 and 1984 Mini City), in
May 2016, she started going to bigger Mini
shows and realised how few Studio 2s
were about, and it was then that she made
the decision to restore Little Pig to as
close to factory standard as possible.