We then promptly spent all his wage packet at min-its and put adjusta riders on it and GMAX shocks. Then he pimped it up with some bling 12" Minilights.
Then we threw caution to the wind (and a shed load of rust) and the and chopped the front end off! A round-nose front was fitted along with some new A-panels as the was no "A" left.
soon afetr a mate of ours (James) rolled his mini and we snatched the engine for £300 we fitted it n got it running. It was and MG Metro 1275cc and with a stage 1, it made 76bhp@engine and 56bhp@wheels.
Now the good bit, I bought it for £900! Was chuffed! It was treated to optimax and blew a 1.3SR Nova on one of the first outings, from then there was no lookin back, as i nearly bought a Nova SR instead!
Then stuck a cage in it, not b4 i chopped the rear pockets out and the seat overhang. Bought the cage of my mate and fitted it the same day, was well chuffed Heres some of the first pics of when I bought it.
As can be seen from the photos the body work was a little worse for wear and i was currently happy with the SR killing engine, so a tidy up mission began.
Not sure if you can see from the photo but the bottom 3 inches of the doors are gaffa tape as there was no door underneath! I bought 2 doors of my mate for 40 spondooglies, rubbed them down, protected and primered them and then hung them on the car. Also Got SMMC (southam mini and metro centre) to put on 2 new sills, 1 inner sill and a footwell in and various patch various holes in the arches!
As had I caught the "strip it out bug" I promptly ordered some polycarbonate windows,, as they are light and reduce the cetre of gravity of the car.
I then rubbed the rear quarters down and touched up some other bits and bobs on the body and it started looking like it was all coming together.
Then i found an oil cooler at college (sweet) and bought the hoses from dave at min-its, cut the fromt grill out n mounted it on the front frame, made it look ace i think....
.....and then the head gasket gave up! Oh well I had saved some sponds luckily. Engine time. I bought some SC/CR gears and drops, 4 pin diff and a 1293cc bottome end, 7cc dished powermax pistons, worked head, and got Rod at smmc to build it up. Installed it and on a 1" 3/4 carb with a big needle it made 98bh0@the wheels @6200rpm
Then i got some Magnum buckets and aircraft harnesses and combined with the 1293 i felt like it was really shifting.
Next I bought some cooper S discs and callipers and did the 10" rims conversion. I bought some 2nd hand GB rims, sprayed then white and wrapped them in anti-grip teflon Falken Tyres. Stuck some lowered spax shock on it n decked it. Looked plush.
As the thing weighed about 560Kgs and was goin well i went to the mini showdown 2004 and ran a 16.249 @ 81mph, this proved good enough for third! later found that 2nd place ran a 16.1, i should have done more than 2 runs as i think there was a bit left in her with a better launch!
Heres what the trophy winning machine looked like....
Ok now the bad bit (it turned out ok i think - but i`ll let you be the judge of that)
The falken tyres heard me slagging them off one too many times and I stacked it down lane. It was in the wet and I was pushing the car hard, coulnt believe how shocking the tyres were in the wet, untill i locked up, understeered, floored it, feathered it, locked up again and then went into a hedge - all this in a complete straight line. Horah for falkens. I didnt take and pictures because i was too upset. Dont think the spax hepled much as they were on max stiffness.
Throughout this i was spending more and more time at SMMC and they had a white clubman which i thought was cool. The boys were prepared to sell (arm twisting X 100). Problem solved. It was lightened as mine used to be and seemed to be a good option. I proceeded to strip my mini of its bits, not fun. Nothin like the feelin of lookin at your blood seat n tears gone to waste.
Onward and upward. I painted the black subframe and put a new front one in as the old one was a little bit bent.I bought some rear neggy camber brackets and put them on, put all the perspex in, weled some rails in for the seats -thought i`d better do it properly. I chopped the inner of the doors out, and the front inner wings and the front and then fitted the clubby flip-front and mounting kit, same kit i used before. The front was lime green at the time! I got the trusty halfords spray paint out and got it the same colour as the car looked orite (ish) ok ok it looked rubbish so through help of my trusty pal rich we-resprayed the whoe it in leyland white for £80, was going to spray it the same colour as my old mini, diamond white, but i thought it would be bad luck!!!
It looked sweet and along with this i fitted a front mounted rad to utilise the space under the clubby front, Havent got a pic of this yes put i will post and engine bay shot soon.
It looked like this......
Ok so now it looked sweet I wanted power (never satisfied) So i bought a head through SMMC from MED, 37/31 valves fully ported and polished. We went to put this on and realised the head gasket was about fuct. This was worying as it had already gone between 2/3 before. On inspection it looked like the suface texture was not so good between 2 and 3. Engine out. Block skim. While it was out I went mad again n thought i`d buy a worked crank (the bo**ox) some balanced rods, omega pistons (also the dogs bits), billet ultralite flywheel+backplate, AP rally clutch and then stuck a copper race gasket inbetween the newly surfaced block and badass head.
Then i bought a 48DCOE webber on a brian slark inlet manifold (bling!) off a racer and promptly filled the large hole i chopped out of the bulkhead. The engine was stuck on the SC/CR box and put back in the car. I bought some A032 cut slick Yokos, which are completely awesome. I backed off the shocks, didnt want any more safari time in the jungle and it handled amazingly combined with the tyres. I ran the car in up to 3000rpm and then 4000 for 500miles also. It was popped on the rollers and made 116.2bhp at just over 6000.
A further 1000miles was put on and it went back to the rollers. (overkill - but wanted to make sure)
My mate sold his mini at this time and we swapped his red aldon dizzy 4 mine b4 we sold it....sweet. This went on and we advanced it up and put some bigger jets in the carb. we tried it at 12 degrees n got 120bhp and then knocked it back to 14 degrees and mad 126.4bhp@7500@wheels.
I was well chuffed - it was, and is, ballistc.
Stuck some 1275GT stripes down the side and a badge on the front and I think its now on a par will the old round-nose...???? I can`t make up my mind!
I had it down the strip 2 weeks ago and squeezed a 14.9 out of it. Was struggling for traction which led to spinning the 1 wheel off the line, every time got a bit frustrating as it did the same in the burnouts too even when i blipped the throttle and was violent with the steering wheel!.
So i`ve bought a sailsbury LSD off e-bay and is going in soon. It will definately be ready for the showdown 2005 and im goin for another trophy and potential nuff respect for the mini forum!!! Hope you like the clubby i`m really proud of it even though its taken priority and stopped me from gettin a bird, at least it gives me an excuse haha! See you all at the showdown, hope this provides a bit of inspiration - stick at it - never sell your mini, just make it faster and look better!!! Dudley.
