Remembering the MINI Wildgoose, the 1963 Awesome Expandable Motorhome

This is how the MINI Wildgoose came to be, often described as one of the rarest campers today. Chances of having heard of the Wildgoose are slim if you’re not a MINI fan, but chances of actually seeing one in person are close to none: of the 60 units produced over a short production span, less than a dozen survive today. Urban legend says that as few as ten still exist, and some of them are locked in private collections, so even passionate MINI fans have a hard time seeing one in person, let alone go for a ride in one.

The MINI Wildgoose is a MINI-based camper – a “motorhome” is how coachbuilder Wildgoose Ltd. described it in the brochure that was circulated at the time. You can find it in the attached PDF document below. That description must strike modern camper owners as ridiculous, but before you die of laughter, think of it this way: this was the ‘60s and, more importantly, this was a product designed for pensioners looking to explore the British countryside. Which is to say, getting to a destination was not the focus; the journey itself was all that mattered.

The Worthing, Sussex-based coachbuilder actually offered three models of the Wildgoose, as well as the possibility to get a conversion with your donor vehicle, or to buy the camper as a complete project. All three models were based on the BMC MINI Van, with two featuring pop-up tents in the rear and the third a telescopic roof that doubled headroom. The roof could be expanded either by pressing a button on the dashboard or manually from the outside.

This was also the most spacious model, as well as the “deluxe” version. It was called the Brent Super VEB (vertically extending body) and could sleep as many as four adults. It was a good thing then that seating inside the car was also for four, though back in the day, they had very few qualms about packing a car with more passengers than it could seat.

“Especially designed for ‘retired couples’ who, being freed from business, desire the carefree life,” the brochure said of Brent. “There is no more reasonable way of seeing the country or the continent or the world, in COMFORT, than by Wildgoose.”

Well, as long as you were in no hurry.

The Wildgoose was powered by a four-cylinder, 850cc (52ci) engine rated at 34 hp (25 kW), with a claimed top speed of 70 mph (112 kph) and a cruising speed of 50 mph (80.5 kph). In reality, with all the weight and volume added on top, the Wildgoose would – at best! – hit a maximum of 60 mph (96.5 kph) and, on the few occasions when it happened, the owners vouched it had been the most terrifying thing ever. The Wildgoose looked and moved like a snail, which prompted jokes even back then that you needed a calendar, and not a stop-watch, to time its acceleration time.

The idea was, of course, that no pensioner would be in a hurry when camping, so in this sense, the Wildgoose was just perfect. Inside the Brent, you got everything from a two-burner hot plate, a sink and a table, seating for four in the dinette, three 2-gallon (7.5-liter) water carriers, and “lots of” storage space both for clothes and foodstuffs. You also got sleeping berths for four people, in whichever configuration you wanted. And, of course, curtains were part of the standard package. Optionals included the possibility to underseal the cab, a combined luggage rack and spare wheel container, extended wing mirrors, and a hammock-type bunk.

The body was a wood frame with aluminum skin, and furniture inside was of waterproof plywood, finished with wood lacquer.

By today’s standards, amenities were basic, and even that’s probably an understatement. But for some 60 couples, it proved like the promised package, especially since it played into the day’s MINI mania and the desire to own a camper that wasn’t a different vehicle from the daily driver. It wasn’t an expensive option, either, with the Brent selling as a complete conversion at £998 ($1,340, the equivalent of $12,112 in today’s money).

The MINI Wildgoose was in production only between 1963 and 1968. The video below shows an impeccable example in Australia. Speaking to Carsifu, MINI spokesperson Andreas Lampka noted that these campers are so rare and hard to come by that a price estimate on them can’t even be made. They are, Lampka adds, among the rarest campers today.

Unicorns, one might call them.