4 replies to this topic

[HoleDigger]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum and thought I would say hello first.

I live in North Bristol (anyone know of a good local club??) and am just about to start the recomisioning of a 1962 Morris Cooper.

The car is in very good condition and comes with all sorts of nice performance parts and quite a high spec enginebut has been standing for 5 years.

I also have a 1964 GP1 VW Beach Buggy that I restored and up untill recently I had a VW Westfalia camper.

Anyway, I 'll start having a look around, I think I will be spending alot of time in the technical section.....

Cheers

HoleDigger

[Albertini]

Welcome and good luck with the Cooper. You'll find the help you get on here fantastic.

If you get a chance could you put up a pic of your Buggy, I have a soft spot for them.

[mk1leg]

Hi..and welcome to TMF and enjoy your cooper...................good luck on the recomisioning.....we need lots of pics...........

[HoleDigger]

Well after a few months the mini is getting closer to getting on th road.

 

I have had a few issues on the way, but slowly getting there.

 

Brakes are proving a problem, but hopefully that will be solved soon.

[HoleDigger]

Well probably time for an update...

I got the mini going but was struggling with a number of issues and generally running out of time, patience and knowledge with car.

In about September last year I decided to do something drastic and get someone with proper knowledge to help me out. By chance I came across a local engineer who builds engines for race, track and autograss cars who particularly loved minis and currently raced one in autograss.

I came up with a list of things that needed doing and we agreed that it would be back before Christmas with a fresh Mot and all up and running.

The first issue came with getting the car re registered with the DVLA as it was no longer on the computer. After lots of help from the MCR and dealing with the questions registration came through in early summer this year. During this time the car had proved a bit problematic with lots of small issues, combined with Tony the bloke finishing it having lots of other engines to build meaning it finally hit the road in mid June. Right on target for my birthday at the end of
June where I spent a good part of the day driving around the local lanes grinning to myself

We always knew that the car had quite a tasty engine in it but like all these things took it with a pinch of salt. That was until the car was finally set up at a local rolling road where they do a lot of mini etc. whilst I won't go into figures they said it was the most powerful mini they had ever come across on the rollers. Tony backed this up by saying it was also the fastest A series engined mini he had ever driven and warned me to be careful! He also said it was a complete pig to drive at slow speeds and that maybe I should try a change of diff and cam to calm it down a bit....

Anyway, I have driven around the local area in it and whilst it can be a bit of a pig at slow speeds, love bombing around the lanes for the last few months.

I did have one thing I needed to do though and at the fore mentioned birthday in June my best mate, who was also a great mini fan gave me track passes for The mini world action day at castle Combe

So last weekend me, my best mate and a 52 year old mini hit the track! What can I say the 'pig' of an engine just made sense, the mini flew down the straights but struggled a bit around the corners partly due to my lack of track experience and maybe set up on the car. One thing that sticks in my mind is that as we sat in the pit lane waiting to go out on track, my mate turned around and pointed out that we the only car in our session without a roll cage, we just laughed and floored it out onto the track.....

The 3 years of frustration on getting the mini on the road were forgotten, in the space of a few track sessions. All I need to sort now is that roll cage the car came with