24 replies to this topic

[The_Jouhars]

Did you make it to DEWS?

It is a lovely looking car - hope it serves you well.

I am sorry for the delay in replying - Thanks for your kind comments - Yes, we made it to the DEWS day, although there are still a few small things to sort out on the car before we take it on the European trip. We want to get a good few hundred miles on the car, in case of any issues - My daughter, who will use the car when we get back, wants some "sounds" in the car, so I have bought another parcel shelf and will fit some surface-mounted "pod" speakers, and I have a very small amplifier that will be hidden, so she can just attach her iPod to that.

Also, we want to get a "period" look to the car, with stickers, the roof rack and the lamp bar - the idea is that anything we do will be completely reversible to get back to the cars original look - I will post more pictures as it progresses further.

Regards

[GW]

sounds good, looking forward to seeing the progress - would love to see some pictures from DEWS too if you have any?

[sonikk4]

Thats a lovely looking car even with the tyre wall modification, me likee a lot.

[smtaylor3]

any further progress?

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

Was wondering this too, Any updates mate?

[The_Jouhars]

I am sorry - I should have come back here to give you a report on the actual event.

There were two classes this year in the rally - our car was eligible for the "Historic" class for pre-1973 cars and we were lucky enough to win an award for the best car in the Historic class.

This is what I posted on the Scally Rally forum at the end of the rally:-

OK - now we are back to the UK, we have some decent access to the internet and I have uploaded some pictures. We covered a total of 2800 miles from the time we left home and the car used 310 litres of fuel, and just 1.2 litres of oil !!

The engine did not miss a beat in all that time, despite the 30-33 degree heat that we experienced every day - and the varied driving, including long motorway runs at a steady 70-75 mph, and 2nd gear climbs up the many passes that we drove over, whilst crossing the Alps from Zurich to Brescia.

What a fabulous job Steve Harris did for us,on the engine and gearbox re-build - Thanks very much Steve !! We took loads of spare parts with us, but fortunately we did not need to use any of them.

Ready for the off !



The event started from the Cite Europe shopping centre car park in Calais. You can see that the mini attracted a lot of interest.



Filling up with fuel - I calculate that the car did about 38 mpg on the trip.



At the top of one of the passes - what a fantastic view.


The "Mille Miglia" part of the event ran from Brescia to Ferarra to Rome, and back up to Brescia - we started at
the Mille Miglia museum in Brescia, and we were allowed to park the cars in the Museum courtyard - there were
about 33 cars in total, in the rally






We used a SatNav, but on occasions, we wished that we hadn't !! This is one road that we ended up on - it was
clearly wrong !




At the end of the rally, we drove South West from Brescia to Monte Carlo, and we parked up in Casino Square
for a while. Despite the police (and a film crew in the background), no-one moved us on, so we were able to take
some pictures. Again, the mini attracted a lot of attention from passers-by !



We really enjoyed the trip, and the mini attracted a huge amount of attention, with people constantly hooting us on the
roads and waving and giving the thumbs-up as we went through towns.

What now with the car ? Well, I had thought that Victoria was going to use it, but just before we left, she found out that she
had been promoted at her work and she can have a company car, and that seems to be a more attractive proposition to her
at the moment ....so the mini may have to find a new home - we will see...

(if anyone might be interested in buying it, please let me know)

Regards

Edited by The_Jouhars, 28 July 2010 - 07:42 PM.

[george91]

Well done it looks brilliant and all that way with out any problems, the picture in monaco is great. I think you should keep it too, there lots more fun to be had with it.

Edited by george91, 30 July 2010 - 09:24 AM.

[buddylove]

Great job with it! Why not keep it around as a weekend car?

[liirge]

I Love the look of this car! really really do!!
What was the specification of that engine?

[The_Jouhars]

I Love the look of this car! really really do!!
What was the specification of that engine?

The engine has a 1966/67 block with an EN40B crank and it was already overbored once, so it is now 1293cc - there are a number of Downton parts in the engine it has a lightened flywheel with pegged ring gear and enlargement of the driving strap fixing screws, and a lightened pressure plate - all modifications as carried out by Downton Engineering in the late 1960's......

Thats why the engine was painted GREEN, rather than the black that you usually find on the Mk3 Cooper "S" cars - because the engine block is earlier than a Mk 3.
The cylinder head that was on the engine had a little damage to a couple of the valve seats, so it was replaced with a slightly modified reconditioned one, but I have the old one, as I am sure it can be renovated, but due to time constraints, I went with the recon one.

You can see a thread all about the renovation of the car and engine, with pictures here

http://forum.minicoo...ead.php?t=12396

Regards