Gizmo (79 GTS)

[Jared Mk3]

Please excuse the condition of the seat as it's had a lot of hard hours of work both on track and off. 

Is that where the stains come from? 

[Miniac]

More than likely, Ashley spends a lot of time doing gymkhanas in his minis and I've seen him do some crazy stuff with them.

[Sean1380]

Ah correction there ...........

Only the last lot of GTS's had those seats.

Up to +- 1977 the GTS used the same seats as the Austin Apache.

No head rest or provision for a head rest, just like the set in Spencer at the moment.

[Miniac]

Well the addition of the headrest was more around 75/76 but let's be honest here, what's the first thing that comes to mind when a person mentions GTS seats?

The seat having the provision for the single pillar headrest.

So for the sake of originality and authenticity, early 73-74 model GTS minis were more based around the GT just with the waist height stripes rather than the sill height stripes up until they did the brake and wheel upgrade in 75, thereafter continuing to upgrade and change the GTS up until it's discontinuation in 79.

[GTSPhil]

Okay guys

For clarity

Original GTS seat on the left with no head rest (car believed to be 76 model) my own HLE seats with head rest, after being re-upholstered on the right. Darn clever upholsterer covered the head rest hole, after I instructed them not to do that.

   

As the seat was before being re-upholstered.

   

[Vinay-RS]

Is that not a seat from a Van Den Plas?

[theMINIguy]

Muddy water here it seems.

My first '74 GTS was totally original. It had 12" wheels with 8.4" brakes and black seats exactly like the one Philip posted with no headrest hole.
The '78 project GTS I have now has re-upholstered seats that look very similar in shape but you can feel a headrest hole under the vinyl.

[DomMINIque]

Seems to be a classic case of Mini Manufacturing Mess/Mayhem.

[Jared Mk3]

That picture of the seat before being redone looks like it has a huge spider sitting on it at first glance!

[Miniac]

Thanks for posting those pics Phil, I was trying to find a pic of my old 73/74 GTSs interior which has a burgundy interior like the seat on the left in your first pic, the seat in your second pic is the same as the seats that were in Trinesh(Soopers) 79 GTS.

Malcolm, your 74 GTS, was it a late 74 model that it had the larger brake setup? I only ask because to my knowledge the larger brakes were only introduced in 75 and I'd love to be able to fill in some of the blanks and build up a concise log of what happened when as there seem to be some very shaded areas that we might be able to enlighten each other on.

The GTS was unique to SA and the numbers are dwindling fast from the 4212 that were originally produced and obviously over time (as with all minis) some were adapted to suit the styles of their individual owners, which is what I love about the little critters, as each one seems to have their own personal character individual from the next.

For me, a matching numbers car can always be taken back to original if the owner has the want and access to information to do so and if a concise log can be put together of what happened when and why, it'll make it that much simpler for the current owner to take it back to factory spec.