The History of FABMOC

Friends and Buddies Mini Owners Club was founded in September 2003 by Simon, Vicky, Matt and Miriam
Prior to then, they had been members of West Yorkshire Mini Owners Club which folded.
The four of them came up with an idea of starting their own club in West Yorkshire, which would be open to people with an interest in Minis. (Classic or New)

You didn’t even need to own a mini to attend Monthly Gatherings, go on runs or attend shows.

This is a non profit making club.
We do not have a committee, we do not charge a joining fee. Even the website is free to members and visitors.
Club clothing is charged at Cost .
All the original set up costs were paid for by the founders of the club.

The gatherings were initially held at Redbeck Café in Crofton, Wakefield. When the winter evenings arrived it was decided to travel a bit further up the road to a local pub, where people could at least keep warm and dry.

We still meet at Redbeck Café at 7.30pm on the last Wednesday of each month and then at 8.00pm, travel to a local public house for a chat.
We attended various shows including, Mini in the Park, Himley Hall, International Mini Meet (Norfolk) and Mini 45 at Silverstone. We joined in with some great events, Dales Mini Run, Lakes Tour and Northern Minis “Mile of Minis” and Moorland and Coastal mini adventure.

In October 2005, two of our members from the Doncaster area wanted to start a club for people in their area, therefore the Doncaster branch of FABMOC was born. The Doncaster branch of FABMOC was run by Jojomini (Jo & Dave) & RC1407 (Richard) for a while, then RC1407 enlisted the help of Seabreeze (Liz). By Janaury 2010 the Doncaster co-ordinators could not give any time to the club, so unfortunatley after only 4 years it was decided to stop having Doncaster gatherings.


In March 2008, we were asked if it would be possible to have a branch of FABMOC in North Wales. Reuben Bebb, who has been a member of the club since 2003, had moved to Wales. We decided that, to avoid confusion, a separate forum would be set up.


At present we have over 300 members registered on our website/forum, they are from all over the world. So when the front page of the website says “FABMOC based in Yorkshire but live to the world” you can believe it.