Heather Wright/The Independent

In a sea of long, shiny classic cars with giant fins and chrome as far as the eye can see, Bob Hyde’s Austin Mini stands out.

The car isn’t just a mini in name – it was by far the smallest car at the annual Fins and Fenders Car Show in Wyoming last Saturday.

Hyde’s car is an Austin Mini-Minor and at 10 feet long coming off the production line, it was smaller than most traditional classics in the first place.

But Mini aficionados decided it could be smaller and created the Mini-Minor Shorty. Hyde says collectors would take out the front seats and then saw off three feet of the frame and floor and weld it back together. The result – an eight-foot long car with a bench seat which Hyde admits isn’t the most comfortable for the 72-year-old to drive.

Saturday, he brought the car to the show on a trailer to save himself the inevitable back pain if he drove it to Wyoming from Sarnia.

Hyde, a British national who has lived in Ontario for decades, never wanted to own a Mini.

A friend had purchased the car and, knowing Hyde was handy, asked him to take a look at the motor.

After much pestering, Hyde eventually agreed to purchase the Mini for $500, “more to shut him up” than any other reason.

The Mini became a project for Hyde;

“I took it completely apart, completely stripped it down. We didn’t have a garage or anything. We actually had to go out and buy a gazebo to put it in,” he says.

Hyde’s wife threatened more than once to put it in the front yard and plant flowers in it.

Hyde doesn’t want to even think about the hours he spent planning repairs, sourcing parts, fixing the engine and restoring the car to the point where it was ready to make its car show debut in Wyoming Saturday.

The hard work paid off.

As people walked by, they smiled. Many stopped to talk with Hyde about the unusual vehicle and “they’re surprised by it.

“I wish I’d had it when I was 20 years of age,” he says with a twinkle in his eye.

“The ladies like it.”