Californian Mokes

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Doug G
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Californian Mokes

Post by Doug G »

I didn't realise that Australian Mokes later became the 'Moke Californian' . I thought that there were some 'Californian' Mokes produced and that the last setoff production were all 'Californian'.

According to this.

Image
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Doug G
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Re: Californian Mokes

Post by Doug G »

Can somebody please clarify?
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Nigel(no top)Sykes
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Re: Californian Mokes

Post by Nigel(no top)Sykes »

I think Californian was just a marketing name really, starting off with a limited run of specials bound for the American market but then also sold on the domestic market.... perhaps one of our Australian members can give a definitive answer
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Doug G
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Re: Californian Mokes

Post by Doug G »

From what I can gather there are more 'Californian' Mini Mokes around now than were ever build by the factories. :lol:
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Tim
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Re: Californian Mokes

Post by Tim »

There are now.

I can't be bothered reading that poster, its too small, but the first Californian Mokes were produced in the early 1970s and they looked like the one in Spider's picture from Minis in the Mill (except the wheels are wrong, they should be plain steel wheels).

Image

They used the "special export' body, and had hoods in two optional colours, 'Orange Bali', as shown and another one that is black and white which was called 'Verve'. They also had colour coordinated steering wheels.

In 1977, Leyland resurrected the name, and they gained a bunch of other dress-up features, the white spoked "sunraysia" wheels, sports steering wheel, denim look vinyl roof, 'tombstone' seats in denim , 'bullbar' bumpers and stickers on the bonnet. This is a period photo of one - exactly the same as mine.

Image

They continued to be available until the end of production, alongside base model Mokes, but there was a lot of mixing and matching as many of the dress-up items were available as options or aftermarket, so some of them weren't as fully optioned as others. Theoretically you can tell a later Californian from a base model by the ID numbers, but in 1977 it was easy because it says 'Californian' on the compliance plate.

Urban legend has it that they were all 1275s, this is not true. The first ones were (the only 1275 Mini with drum brakes, anywhere in the world, I believe). Then from 1977 until around 1980 they were all 998s, then after that they could be either 998s or 1275s, as I understand.

Tim
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Doug G
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Re: Californian Mokes

Post by Doug G »

Tim wrote:There are now.

I can't be bothered reading that poster, its too small, but the first Californian Mokes were produced in the early 1970s and they looked like the one in Spider's picture from Minis in the Mill (except the wheels are wrong, they should be plain steel wheels).

Tim
It says that "the Australian Moke would become the Moke Californian."

Thanks for the additional information.
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Tim
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Re: Californian Mokes

Post by Tim »

Well, Its partly true, but it also stayed as the plain old Moke.

I'm pretty certain that the very first Portuguese Mokes (prior to Jim Lambert's intervention) were also available as Californians. Its hard to find much info about them though, they only built a handful over a period of several years.

Tim
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Dean
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Re: Californian Mokes

Post by Dean »

I can't see the second photo you linked to Tim.
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Nigel(no top)Sykes
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Re: Californian Mokes

Post by Nigel(no top)Sykes »

Not just me then :shock:
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Tim
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Re: Californian Mokes

Post by Tim »

Hmm, me either.

Image

Any better?

Tim
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Re: Californian Mokes

Post by Nigel(no top)Sykes »

No :(
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Tim
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Re: Californian Mokes

Post by Tim »

Do any of these work?

Image
Image
Image
Image
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Dean
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Re: Californian Mokes

Post by Dean »

I can see the picture of the red moke now in your last two posts Tim but none of the other images in your last post.
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Tim
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Re: Californian Mokes

Post by Tim »

Thats OK then, they are all the same image, just trying different settings. I wonder what I did that worked?

Tim
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