Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2016 i Mini Magazine

• Earlier this year, the Mini 7 Racing Club offered the chance for budding racers to win a Mini Miglia race weekend at the Brands Hatch Mini Festival for just £20. The draw took place at the beginning of May, with Josh Banwell, Stuart Gilby, Stephen Wolfe and Ollie Coles picked at random and sent through to the qualifier at Llandow. The lucky four were invited to a trackday on July 2, testing out Rob Howard’s very own 2016 Miglia. From there, Rob and Endaf Owens had to make an incredibly tough decision on who would be best to race the new car over a full weekend at Brands Hatch. The drivers will all extremely competent, but it was Stuart from Wickford in Essex who just shaded it to be…

• Minis from the Moles Mini Club in Wiltshire joined up with the Under 17 Car Club at its 40th anniversary annual charity ‘Magic Day’ at Castle Combe in June, raising money for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Lined up with the Minis and MINIs from the club were 60 other specialist cars including Aston Martins Ferraris, Porsches, Caterhams, a rare Noble and a few American muscle cars! For a small donation to the Cancer Trust, the members of the U17 Car Club, aged from 11 to 17, were driven for a few laps round the track. It had, unusually, been set up as a two-way road system, complete with roundabouts, T-Junctions, give way and stop signs, plus 30 and 60mph limit sections. As usual, the Minis were very popular and…

Donington Park hosted the third and fourth race of the 2016 Mighty Mini Championship season on June 18-19, with changing weather conditions and the circuit still sodden from the previous week prior. In the Mightys, Paul Inch drove like a man possessed to win the first of the two races, with Stuart Coombs hot on his heels in second. Greg Jenkins took the final step on the podium, with Coombs taking the fastest lap. Buoyed by his podium finish, Jenkins was determined to go even better in race two, and did so in style. He was able to take his first victory in six years of competing, finishing ahead of Sam Tomlinson and Paul Inch. In the Super Mighty Minis qualifying session, Neven Kirkpatrick was making his first 2016 championship…

Northern Ireland played host to one of the most significant occasions in historic motoring as the ‘Join the Mini Legends’ event took place over the weekend of June 3-5. The venue was Gracehill House in the quiet countryside close to breathtaking Causeway Coast, which includes the beech tree-lined avenue known as the Dark Hedges, made famous as Kings Road in the TV series Game of Thrones. Organised by George Jennings and Trevor Barlow with help from Minis In Northern Ireland (M.I.N.I.) members, the event brought together 60 very special Minis from the ‘60s and ‘70s, as well as some of the big names that made them famous. Most notable among these were Paddy Hopkirk MBE and Rauno Aaltonen, together with co-drivers Mike Wood and Terry Harryman. They were joined by…

Mini In The Park has grown year-on-year to become one of the biggest and very best Mini shows in the UK. It’s a two-day party with camping on the Saturday night and the main show on the Sunday. Don’t miss it! Here’s a run-down of this year’s event: RETAIL VILLAGE Looking for hard-to-find Mini modifications or parts? You are likely to find them amongst the retail village at MITP. Traders range from well-known Mini specialists through to autojumblers selling used parts! Book a trade or autojumble stand by calling +44 (0)1733 353371, or email classicarworld@kelsey.co.uk CONCOURS CORNER Many of the UK’s finest Minis of all ages will be competing for trophies in a variety of classes, painstakingly judged by a panel of experts. There will be 11 categories in all,…

PROJECT PROFILE THE OWNER NAME: Richard Humphrey AGE: 71 OCCUPATION: Retired LOCATION: Northamptonshire THE CAR: CAR: 1965 Austin Mini Cooper 998 START CONDITION: Barn find, off the road since the early ‘90s CONDITION NOW: Repaired bare shell TIME TAKEN SO FAR: Three years ESTIMATED TIME OF COMPLETION: Summer/Autumn 2017 Come retirement age, what would your dream plan be? Relax in the sun, renovate the garden or keep working away regardless? We reckon Richard Humphrey has chosen the best option of all. He’s got stuck into restoring a 998 MkI Mini Cooper to matching-numbers condition at home, right down to the Hydrolastic suspension overhaul and re-welding of body number tags. Richard’s been a member of the Mini Cooper Register since it began in the mid ‘80s and clearly knows a thing…

1. Mike Mark’s Cooper Car Co tribute, September 2008 It took three decades to create this Group 5 Morris Cooper S racer tribute, complete with Weslake eight-port head and Lucas mechanical fuel injection. It’s a real triumph of engineering, and a wonderful hark back to a golden era of Mini motorsport. 2. Stephen Smith’s Cooper S, Sept 2000 This amazing late-registered 1071 S was created with the aim of building the best Cooper S in the country, and it was certainly mission accomplished as Stephen’s car was voted Best Mini in the World at Mini 40. Sadly Stephen passed away in 2009, but the memory of a great Mini enthusiast lives on. 3. Chris Krzywic’s Austin Cooper, December 2001, Winter 2005 One of select few cars to be featured in…

Generally, we’re not ones to feature the same car twice here at Mini Magazine. There are exceptions of course, like when it’s been transformed with an enormous power hike, or looks nothing like it did before. This red Cooper S has barely changed since it was featured way back in our launch year though, so why is it here? It’s quite simple really; what was a remarkable story back in 1996 is now even more so some 20 years later. Any MkI Cooper S is now extremely valuable and sought-after, even with a somewhat spurious history. But there’s nothing spurious about this stunning example. Influenced by close friend Daniel Richmond, the genius behind legendary tuning firm Downton Engineering, retired GP David Blacklidge bought his 1071 S brand new from Downton…

As the upmarket version of the humble Mini, the Riley Elf notched the levels of luxury up a fair bit. You got plush leather seats, a full-width wooden dash, lashings of extra chrome and, from the MkII onwards, the bigger 998cc engine. Along with the Wolseley Hornet, the Elf carved out a small extra niche for the slightly more upper-crust Mini owner. For some though, the standard factory effort wasn’t quite upper-crust enough – especially when you’re looking for a town car to sit alongside your Regal Red Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. As a result, this particular Elf got some rather special treatment. First registered in early 1968, this luxurious little Mk3 example has enjoyed a very illustrious past. The car’s first owner was Captain Kenneth Douglas-Morris of the Royal Navy,…

Someone, or something, had clearly spent a lot of time polishing up the rocker cover I was taking a Scotch pad to. But needs must, and if there was any way of getting the crackle black paint to stick properly I had to be thorough with the prep. And the reason for a rocker cover change was to install a new breather system, which I’d kind of overlooked on the original rebuild. The engine’s quite rev-happy with a Kent 286 cam in there, and I was finding the crankcase vents were breathing a little more oily residue than hoped, so here’s the solution. All the hardcore racers use a breather and catch tank system of sorts, rather than venting it back through the carb inlet and upsetting the fuel mix,…

With the blue racer back from the bodyshop and the white seven-port Mini out of storage for the first time in eight years, they needed to be readied for the MkI Performance Action Day at Blyton Park back at the end Of April. Bless him, my mate Oliver turned up with engines for both cars, giving us five days ahead of the event to fit both units. My helper Steve and veteran racer Mike Partington also helped as we started with the seven-port first. With a freshly-built motor and gearbox underneath from bits lying around, it was in the car by Wednesday, but could we get it to start? Oliver came to my rescue and took it off to help as we were running out of time. Seven porters can…

A 1965 MkI Mini may not be the most obvious choice for a modern day touring car champion, but 2013 BTCC title winner Andrew Jordan started out racing Minis, and his latest project is far from archaic. Like the car, a mix of historic and modern flows through the Jordan Racing Team’s workshops, where this project was envisaged and assembled. The finished Mini sits beside some of the finest historic race machinery to grace the Goodwood Revival, including pristine Austins, Lotus Cortinas and Porsches. These historic race cars are driven hard yet presented, to our eyes, as well as any concours car. It’s all in the detail; period-perfect dashboards beside modern racing instruments, original upholstery behind high-tech bucket seats. The team now works exclusively on historic cars, although the years…

The halfway point in the Dunlop Mini Se7en and Miglia season took place at Donington Park on June 18-19, and produced another dramatic weekend. There was a real shock too, as newcomer Zack Booth took the first victory for an S-Class in the opening Se7ens encounter. Having taken over the S-Class entry of Justin Cooper at the last minute, former Mighty Mini racer Booth qualified sixth for Saturday’s opener. The race then saw him dice among the leaders and grab an unbelievable debut win when, firstly the leading pair of Lewis Selby and Kieren McDonald made contact, and then Andrew Deviny bounced across the chicane at the last corner, allowing Booth and Selby ahead. Booth’s Sunday race was cut short though, ending up in the gravel after a clash at…

British Mini Club brought together two iconic marques with its second annual Midsummer Mini and VW Bus Meet, which took place at DK Rugby Club, near Kingswinford in the West Midlands, on June 25-26. The event catered for all Minis and MINIs, together with VWs from the earliest Type 1 right up the current model. Perfect for a spot of summer relaxation, the meet had everything you would expect of a BMC event. Those wishing to make a weekend of it could camp over on the Saturday night, with a live band to provide the entertainment in the bar. Sunday’s main event proved to be a busy affair, with club stands for both marques, special parking areas and a show ‘n’ shine competition where the cars were judged by fellow…

Name: Dirk Ide Rettig Car: 1977 Clubman Estate Location: Germany • Hi Mini Magazine, I’m a German Miniac, have read the magazine since 1998 and I thought you’d like to see my project! It’s a Leyland Mini Clubman Estate with a Metro A-plus engine and it’s had a full rebuild. There has been hundreds of hours spent on this little estate, including many panel repairs and a full respray. All of the mechanicals were overhauled in the garage and then colour coded with a silver and orange theme. The wheels are original Cosmic alloys with a custom paint job and Yokohama tyres. I’ve also installed a coil spring conversion and completely re-trimmed the interior. The engine has a Mk3 Cooper S head and a Stage 1 kit, and there’s front…

Mini Magazine first hit the newsstand shelves back in May 1996, and quickly found its niche amongst a buoyant worldwide Mini scene. Much has happened since those heady days, but the magazine’s loyal readers have ensured it still remains a strong favourite, 20 years on. In 1996, Mini Magazine was the product of a small publisher and an even smaller but very hard-working team. It was the plucky upstart compared to the other Mini title in the market, but a stronger focus on achievable road cars and people, plus a friendly and welcoming tone, soon saw the new kid on the block become a major player. Remarkably, the first 12 issues were produced at home by launch editor Martin Vincent, and a designer shared with three other titles. Martin’s main…

1. The Don, April 2009 The brainchild of Carl Austin and Tom Fenton, this fearsome looking machine was simply known as ‘The Don’. Complete with a turbocharged KAD 16-valve motor, it regularly ran the quarter mile in the 11-second bracket and is still probably the fastest A-Series Mini out there. 2. Mad Frank’s Belgian V8, Nov 2002 Not content with building a bespoke Minivan crammed full of stereo, the crazy Belgian known as Mad Frank then created this insane, all-steel cabrio. Powered by 6.7-litre Dodge V8 engine, this was one of our craziest feature cars ever! 3. Stuart Meads’ drag racer, January 2000, June 2011 Another Mini to make two appearances, Stuart Meads’ insane Ford-powered drag racer has run the quarter-mile in a staggering 9.6 seconds and staked a real…

ANDY BIRKS’ COOPER S REPLICA, JUNE 1996 Here’s one from our very first issue – in fact, as it was positioned on page four, our very first feature car ever! This stunning MkII S replica belonged to Andy Birks of Derek’s Mini Centre, and was a masterclass in subtle modifications. The 1380cc motor, 13-inch Image rims, Wood & Pickett-style dash and custom S recliners had us drooling! Andy actually sold the car before it appeared in the magazine, so we were delighted to see it turn up at this year’s National Mini Cooper Day at Beaulieu. The new owner is Mark Tyrrell from Cork in Ireland, who brought the car over to the New Forest for the show. He bought the car this year from a friend, having known about…

The little 850 engine ticks over so smoothly in this Willow Green Minivan you’d barely know it was running. This well-oiled machine may be a polar opposite to many of the lumpy-cammed modified builds we feature, but it’s every bit as cool with its less-is-more styling, skinny steel rims and pastel paint. Given the condition, it’s no surprise to hear that the van’s owner and restorer, Mick Croft, learned his mechanical skills as a BL apprentice and is a long-term Mini enthusiast. “I started at the local Leyland dealership in Potten in ’75 and learned my trade on the Mini. My very first vehicle was a Minivan and I’ve always liked them,” says Mick. “I remember three of us heading down to Yarmouth in the ‘70s in one. I’d take…

Leather interior trim is seen as a hallmark of luxury for all makes and models of car, especially the Mini. While our favourite car is historically associated with wafer-thin perches that necessitate an osteopath on speed dial, the stars of the swinging ‘60s opted for posh retrims from the likes of Wood & Pickett, Radford and Hooper. The Elf and Hornet models also got the leather, while Rover’s desire to move the brand upmarket during the 1990s means there are plenty of Minis running around with plush hide seats. Without the right care however, leather seats can quickly deteriorate. Exposure to different temperatures and abrasive contaminants means the leather can go dull, harden, and those characterful wrinkles become cracks. Most older classic cars will have aniline leather seats, which is…

“These deposits are literally the acid test, as they act like an acid on the various metal-to-metal components...” Following our focus on short engines and cylinder heads in the previous two issues, the third in our trilogy of rebuilds concerns the gearbox. It’s a subject that crops up with great frequency as the Mini’s transmission can endure a particularly tough time. Aside from the general wear and tear it has to endure from gear selection (not always perfectly synchronised by the user) and transference of power from the engine to the drive train (again, not always perfectly synchronised by a frequently abusive user), it has to do so on the same oil as used by the engine for lubrication, cooling, and – worst of all – dissipation of combustion deposits.…

Getting stuff done on the Clubman Estate has been more of a problem of late than usual. Added to the heaps of work has been an annoying right knee cartilage problem, and a weird heart issue that turned out to be a blood issue. Talk about slowing me down – I was moving about the workshop like a three-legged hippo in a lake of porridge! Anyway, the knee recovered far faster than predicted so I could finally get some time on the Clubby. Having stripped the front suspension and brakes down to their basic components, the disappointment in the build quality just goes on and on. The ball joint cup nuts were barely tweaked up, and two were just finger tight! There is no way this car would have passed…

Andrew Snucins is everybody’s favourite photographer. He’s worked with me on Classic Car shoots, he’s done loads of free work for Classic Car Adventures, and he’ll help anybody out. Andrew’s wife was (genuinely) christened Samantha Minnie Cooper, which is cool, but since she married Andrew Snucins, she’s now Samantha Minnie Cooper S. Even cooler. So obviously Andrew had to buy her a surprise Mini. It turned out to be a lot rougher than it looked, although mechanically it’s healthy. Andrew left the Mini with RWMandCo(.com), a friendly resto shop by my local Boundary Bay airport, for an evaluation of the fairly severe rust, bracing himself for a slow head shake and a terminal diagnosis. The couple’s puppy, Meelo, was then hit by a car, so the Mini’s $11,000 resto budget…

Following its record-breaking 146.6 mph run in 2012, the Project 64 team will return to the Bonneville Salt Flats for Speed Week in August with its incredible 1964 MkI Cooper. The car boasts a heavily-modified and turbocharged 970cc motor with a K1200RS 16-valve head, producing over 300bhp when run on methanol. There had been concerns about the quality of the salt surface at Bonneville following the cancellation of last year’s Speed Week. However, the organisers recently announced that there is enough quality salt surface to open three tracks at Bonneville Speedway in August, proving the team with all the encouragement it needed to have another go. The Project 64 Cooper has been in storage in California since last year’s cancellation, so when the New Zealand-based team arrive in LA during…

• Mini Löwen Braunschweig’s popular annual camping weekender, Braunschweiger Mini Tage, took place on July 1-3, held at the Nord-Elm campsite near the old East German border. This fun and friendly event attracted over 200 Minis and 350 people from Poland, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and Holland. The event is well-known for its relaxed atmosphere, with attractions including a tombola, a beer and sausage stall, free home-made cakes and more. The ‘Unplugged’ theme saw live music in the evening, and there was also a screen for the football-loving locals to watch Germany in action. A decent number of traders had pitched up too, including one cheeky specialist offering special ‘Brexit’ discounts following the recent drop in the value of the pound!…

• After a failed attempt in 2015 due to French industrial action, the Kent Region of the Mini Cooper Register finally made it to the picturesque Champagne Region for its Champagne Run on July 2-3. An impressive 28 cars set off with traditional Tulip-style maps, heading for Reims via Arras for lunch. Ending the first day at the Reims circuit, the cars made their way to a local hotel for a group meal and an overnight stay. On Sunday they visited the Vranken Pommery Champagne house for a tour and tasting, and then it was back to Blighty with gold in the boot (the liquid type of course)! The trip covered 450 miles, and the Minis were all impeccably reliable. It’s currently a very busy period for the MCR Kent…

The National Mini Cooper Day at Beaulieu Motor Museum is the one event on the calender where a healthy turnout of the rarest and most significant Minis is virtually guaranteed. However, this year’s occasion on June 12 saw foreboding skies over the New Forest venue, with a steady drizzle and boggy pathways greeting visitors as they made their way on site. Fortunately the skies soon cleared and allowed this excellent show to continue in the manner we’ve become accustomed to, with some great cars, top Mini personalities and visitors from as far afield as Hong Kong! The weather forecast cut down the concours entrants somewhat, but we still saw some fantastic cars, including Andy Nash’s box-fresh MkI ‘Woody’ Traveller and Oli Graves’ street racer-themed build. The main arena also played…

The second May Bank Holiday saw the 12th Saint Goueno Masters Hillclimb event take place in the picturesque Brittany countryside, with 85 drivers from Britain and Ireland invited to pit their wits against the winding 3.2-kilometre public road course. With the top French championship taking place on the same weekend, the venue was awash with fully-equipped articulated trucks and some serious exotica, yet the atmosphere remained friendly and everyone mixed together. It was almost like a French Goodwood festival! An impressive amount of Minis made the trip this year, with most put in the 1300cc-1600cc category and hence against several larger-engined cars. Last year Bob Bennetts had given the modified MINI of Jeff Bruce a real scare in Pete Crewes’ seven-port Britax screamer, but with Pete back in full health,…

Name: Shaun Tarlton Model: Mini Se7en S Class Location: Northamptonshire • This is my dream Mini, which I bought in 2013 having sold my green turbo Mini that once featured in the magazine. She’s been racing as far as I know since the early ‘90s and I've spent many fun hours rebuilding her. She's currently running a 1293cc engine with a Piper cam, Weber carb and a front-mounted radiator. Inside is a full MSA rollcage, and with fully-adjustable suspension and a rear anti-roll bar, it's awesome fun to drive. I compete with the Mini Se7en S Class, which is essentially a budget entry-level series using a lightly-modified 1275 engine and some of the same running gear as a regular Mini Se7en. It means you can buy a used race car…

1. Rover’s Mini Hot Rod, December 1997 Bankrolled to the tune of 50 grand, lined with alloy panelling and pushing out 160bhp from its Jack Knight 16-valve engine, this was simply the ultimate Rover-commissioned Mini. See YouTube for a video of Clarkson giving it the beans. 2. Auto BMC’s Shorting Break, November 2008 Some cars just cause a real stir when launched, and French specialist Auto BMC certainly managed that with its supercharged ‘Shorting Break’. Featuring twin opening rear doors, it was something new and fresh more than eight years after Mini production ended. 3. First Zeemax Mini, August 1998 You either love or hate bodykits, but they’ve have been a big part of Mini modifying since ’96. The best has to be the Zeemax kit, which has appeared on…

Whoever you speak to will give you a different set of options they believe are the best ways to improve your Mini. I don’t claim to know exactly what is best for everybody, but after some 35 years of playing with everything from bog standard 850s to fire-breathing racers, here is my personal selection. And in those 35-odd years of fettling them, nothing has shaken my original feelings of what a Mini is all about – twisty bits. Driving fast in a straight line may float some folks’ boat, but a Mini is all about its ability to scoot round corners. It’s that which induces the big grin factor. Minis do not ‘handle’ well as standard; their cornering ability comes from the suspension design developing prodigious grip. A car that…

The modern world is a pretty complicated place. The Mini harks back to a simpler age, a time of wholesome family pursuits, Living Doll, clinking milk bottles, Ronnie Scott’s and Astérix comics. But in 2016, we inhabit a world where most of the news and information that’s ever existed is less than a decade old. From the dawn of humanity until 2003, five exabytes of data were created; we’re now creating five exabytes every two days. In the time it’s taken you to glance over the photos and read this far, 2,800,000 pieces of content were shared on Facebook, and 250,000 photos were posted on Instagram. It’s exhausting just thinking about it… While there will always be room in the Mini scene for purists and traditionalists, there’s also a lot…

Outwardly this could be an Innocenti Mini like any other, but tap its wings and there’s not the typical clank of metal, but a muted thud of plastic – 8mm-thick professionally laminated fibreglass to be precise. We’re told there may have been 10 fibreglass cars like this built, although no one seems able to confirm, and this is the first we’ve seen in the plastic, so to speak. So let’s start with Tinka van den Berg, a Dutch project leader who was gifted the Mini by her husband, Tim, back in 2001. “I remember one of my class mates being picked up in a Mini by her mum and I loved it,” she says. “From then I knew it would be my first car; I bought one for 700 Guilders…

MODIFIED HEAD Q I’m thinking about buying a bespoke cylinder head for my road Mini. I’m using this car frequently on long trips, so reliability is essential. If I’m right the modifications on these heads include narrowing the valve seats for better flow. Does this mean the head needs to be removed frequently and have the seats re-lapped? Jorge A Fitting a modified cylinder head should not affect the reliability of the car in any way providing your chosen vendor sells you a suitable specification head for your application. The valve seats tend to be made narrower than the mile-wide standard ones, but this does not make them any less durable. They only need to be as wide as the seat on the valve, or maybe a smidgen wider. Having…

Never make promises you can't keep, so the old adage goes. I'm a big fan of the Balkan Mini Day in Serbia, and have been a part of every single event with the exception of the very first in 2009. But this year, the date clashed with a mate's wedding and I didn't think I'd make it. So you can imagine my delight when I heard the date had been pushed back a week to the beginning of July, and keen to make the most of it, I promised the organisers that I'd get a Mini there for the first time since 2012. The obvious candidate was the blue Sprite, but I fancied a change having journeyed to the recent IMM in that one. So that left my recently-purchased Japanese…