My first Mini? Well actually my dad’s. A 1966 Austin 850 Super, I think. Memory’s not as good as it should be.
Its first modification was while in dad’s ownership. A straight through Peco pipe exiting centre – as seems to be the norm for today’s sporty cars. Very noisy.
Taken over by me in the late 60’s it began a period of modifications and a life of minor motorsport events (12 car rallies, autotests, etc) plus a few memorable trips to the south of France.
The big rebuild was started in the early 1970’s with help from CCC, Clive Trickey plus the excellent Marshall and Fraser hardback – I still own it, complete with greasy fingered pages.
Engine out, rebuilt with Swiftune 998 fully balanced block/crank/cam (camshaft from 997 Cooper considered best road/sport compromise at the time). Cooper S gear cogs in standard mini gearbox. Gas-flowed head, some fiddling with distributor springs to change the advance, both done by me using black and decker drill on the head and needle files on the distributor.
The distributor mod required regular change of spark plugs dependent on planned journey. N6Y, (or was it N7Y?) plugs for long motorway driving. Can’t remember the town pottering plugs. The plug change must have looked odd to those watching at autoroute peage parking areas. Mini tuners in those days were like chefs, we had asbestos fingers.
Mods continued with running all hydraulic pipes through inside of the car. When done, nice shiny pipes in places where passengers put their feet, first trip out, brake! Nothing.
Fluid swimming around in car – good job I’d removed all the carpets.
And this car was used to ferry wife and Nick’s sister Lucy around. How irresponsible is that!
Some suspension changes, negative camber all round, didn’t want wheel arch extensions so to keep legal negative camber kept tops of wheels inside arches. Also eventually ditched hydrolastic suspension for rubber doughnuts, not realizing until assembled second-hand doughnuts were from minivan. Rock hard with tail up stance.
Trips to south of France were memorable. The early 70’s was a time when traffic wasn’t so heavy in Provence and the Cote d’Azur. Holidays staying in the perched village of Le Castellet were fun, as the daily drive down the road from the village to the sea at Bandol had some lovely sweeping bends, and in those days only farmers donkeys to look out for.
These were also the days of F1 at Le Castellet. The colour picture attached is of me on the road not far from where Frank Williams had his awful crash. Some similarities to Nick’s picture in November mag don’t you think.
Mods continued to include subtle body ‘styling’ tweaks like, mini front splitters in front of wheels (see b&w picture) that must have increased top speed by, …well probably nothing. Also a natty ‘gilled’ heat extractor vent on wing over radiator made from central heating boiler ventilation panel.
Remember, these are the days before Max Power was even thought of.
Car then sold to wife’s brother-in-law for fraction of build cost, then bought back by me. Eventually sold for a pittance.