11 replies to this topic

[iMurray]

So whilst working on my mini today a guy, who's dog we look after, arrived and a conversation started...

Chris "now that takes me back"
me "you've had minis?"
Chris"I'd say, I had a downton-ised one, competed in the 1963 rac rally etc."

Me" I love downtons, what was the engine size? 998?

Chris "no, a 948"


So this confused me, as I had never heard of this engine size... definitely didn't hear him wrong so am I being naive and was there such a motor?


Cooperman any general 60s rally chat would be nice

[Noah]

Did he mean 848cc? Being an 850?

I suppose in theory a 850 could be bored out to 950 but I've never heard of it?

[mini danny]

ive has this before people say i had one of them it was a 1375 or 1475 they just confused hahah

[Joe-C]

could have been an 850 with a longer stroke?

edit:
http://en.wikipedia....ries_engine#948

Edited by Joe-C, 16 December 2012 - 05:44 PM.

[iMurray]

I thought that, he did seem pretty certain though.


I was just excited to hear the word Downton. Love them

[Shifty]

Yeah, i'm fairly sure you can make an 850 into a 948cc.

[surfblue63]

Lots of old Downton Spec sheets here...

http://mk1-performan...olt_on_kits.htm

...no mention of a 948cc conversion.

Although BMC did a 948cc A-Series engine, it was only ever onn the rear drive cars like the A30, A40 and Frogeye Sprite. It had the same bore as the 848cc Mini engine.
The original prototype Minis were fitted with a 948cc, but this was changed to 848cc as the cars were thought to be a bit quick.

http://www.aronline....history-part-1/

From the airing of the first prototype, to the car’s launch in August 1959, only a few major mechanical changes were made; a reduction in engine size from 948cc to 848cc was ordered as a direct result of the fact that early prototypes had been clocked at over 92mph, which was considered far too fast for the market the Mini was aimed at. The new capacity was arrived at by reducing the stroke from 73mm in the 948cc version to 68mm in the final 848cc incarnation.

Edited by surfblue63, 16 December 2012 - 06:05 PM.

[Cooperman]

I doubt a 948 Mini would have done the 1963 RAC Rally as that would not be a homologated engine size in Groups 1 or 2, and thus not allowed on a European Championship international rally.
I serviced for 2 Coopers on the '63 RAC using a Vauxhall Victor Estate. What is the guy's name as I might well know him.
The first RAC I competed on was the 1964 in a 'semi-works' Simca 1500 - the worst, or equal worst, car I ever navigated in (the other load of junk was a Marina 1.8 TC Coupe)!
In those days the RAC was, typically, 2500 miles long and it ran from Sunday morning until Tuesday evening without a break of more than 1 hour on each morning, then from Wednesday morning until Thursday evening again with only a 1-hour break on Thursday morning. There were some long road sections where the crew would take it in turns to drive whilst on the special stages the co-drivers would read the road from the OS maps as no practice was allowed and all the stages were 'secret' and driven 'as seen'.
I remember in 1964 my friend Barrie (Whizzo) Williams rolled his Cooper 'S', 120MNP, a few times. Each time it got narrower and in the end, on a long road section, he found a body shop and got them to use a 'Porta-Power' to make it wide enough to sit comfortably in again, if a rally Mini can ever be comfortable .

[Midas Mk1]

Downton is simply the best...

[iMurray]

Thank you cooperman, I'll get his details soon. I find old rallying so interesting.


downtons are my favourite minis. Was lucky enough to have one follow me out of Beaulieu this year, we stonked it up the marchwood bypass back up to the motorway.

[Cooperman]

Keeping awake was a big issue and all the top crews, maybe with one ot two exceptions, used to take amphetamine tablets, obtained on prescription of course. It did helm if the navigator was able to 'press-on' safely on the road sections to enable the driver to sleep.I used to reclon I would drive 60% of the road sections when I was co-driving/navigating on a typical RAC Rally. The prime sin was for a co-driver to bend the car on a road section, even though the road conditions could be very bad. I recall driving on an RAC Rally in 1971 around 100 miles down the A9 whilst my driver had a good 3-hour sleep. It was snowing, the roads were covered in the stuff and the car was a BMW2002 Ti Alpina with around 190 bhp. Made life interesting. No studded tyres were allowed, so we had skinny little knobbly forest tyres which worked OK.

[iMurray]

PM'd cooperman