Indholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2019 i Mini Magazine

Welcome to our very special Mini 60 Anniversary issue! We've added 32 extra pages which has allowed us to explore a little more of the Mini's history, not least the origins of tuning and styling. For newcomers, we also thought it was an appropriate time to include a guide to buying a Mini - despite the Mini reaching its diamond anniversary, its universal appeal never wanes, and we continue to inspire and welcome new enthusiasts to the fold. Long may it continue! Talking of inspiration, on the cover this month is Mark Burnett's wonderful historic race prepared Austin Countryman. You'll no doubt be wondering why an Estate should have been chosen as a base for a racecar, and there's a fascinating story behind it - see page 12. It's an…

The MkI Performance website hosted their 6th charity Mini track day event at Blyton Park over the 5-6 May with a stunning turnout of classic Minis and derivatives from all over Europe coming to celebrate the Minis 60th at Blyton. Nicolas Pinon took the ‘Spirit Of The Show’ award for bringing over four Minis, two of which were Neville Trickett Minisprints. This unique event organised by Mark Forster and Pete Flanagan offers a mix of on track and off track action making for a busy paddock area, with the usual variety of specially converted Minis that we only usually get to see at Blyton. Neil Preston’s tribute to Gordon Allen’s 60s twin engine racer was just one such example, an early Mini that boasts the original 1475cc Gordon Allen alloy…

25th-27th May Minis on the Prom 2019 Many choose to make this an all weekend event. Travel up in convoy from Cardiff Gate B and Q at 9:30am or just turn up on the Sunday to Aberaeron’s picturesque harbourside for the main events including show and shine, charity raffle, club events and more. www.thomasclassicandmodern.com 7-9th June Mini Barn Bash After a successful debut last year, Mini Barn Bash is back and this year the event at Stonham Barns, Suffolk will be bigger and better. Weekend entrants have full access to the campsite, as well as entry to the charity run ‘Classics on the Quay.’ With live music, club displays, show and shine and more. https://ismoc.co.uk/ 9th June MC’s National Mini Day at Beaulieu This event provides a perfect opportunity to…

Once you reach the age of retirement, life is expected to become a little easier and perhaps even relaxing. Yet for former panel beater and sprayer, David Glanfield, the thought of pottering around in his garden day in, day out or watching Pointless didn’t seem so appealing. As it turns out, he does now spend plenty of time in his garden, but that’s where his 1966 Mini Countryman project happens to be! David is certainly no stranger to taking on mammoth projects such as this Countryman. His last project was a rare 1963 Bedford CA Dormobile camper but that was sold last year and David was on the lookout for a replacement project. “I passed my driving test in a 1965 Minivan and I’ve always had a soft spot for…

Lift the bonnet of a really quick Mini and you may find that the good old A-series has been ousted in favour of a much more modern power unit. Think Honda VTEC, Toyota 4AGE, Vauxhall XE, Rover K-Series, Suzuki Swift, Nissan Micra etc, not to mention a raft of manic motorbike engines. Even if it still has the A-series, there’s the chance it’s topped off with a KAD 16v, or BMW K-series head, and it could possibly be sporting a turbocharger, or supercharger. Perhaps throttle bodies too? Mini tuning is a moveable feast it seems, and more and more owners are moving in an entirely different, very high-tech, direction. Yet, when the Mini was in its infancy, when tuners were only beginning to untap its performance potential, things were a…

Although Finlay Duncan admits that his Moke is nowhere near as practical as the 1968 MkII Mini 1000 he owns, or his early 250 bhp Mini Sport BMW MINI, or indeed the 1991 Mini Cooper he used to own, when it comes to pure unadulterated fun and for turning heads, the Moke beats them all hands down! “There is something very special about a Moke,” says Finlay laughing. “It has a quirky charm and attracts so much attention. Whenever I’m out in the Moke, people are always keen to stop and chat. Not everyone knows what it is, but everyone seems to like it.” “I wanted to personalise it, to put my spin on it so to speak” I’m not surprised that Finlay’s Moke stops people in their tracks... or…

ENGINE Secondhand engines do come up for sale, but unless you can see it running in the donor car before you buy, you may be buying something in worse condition than what you’ve already got. Prices range from £150 up, but at that price, don’t expect too much and be prepared to spend more cash freshening it up. A set of first oversize pistons will set you back anything from £180, and that’s just the start. Add in bearings and the services of machine shop, and you can see how costs rapidly escalate. Mini specialists will happily supply a half engine - block, pistons, crank, conrods, cam and followers, oil pump, timing chain and gaskets - ready to fit onto your existing gearbox and with your cylinder head. They’re a…

“The good old Halogen bulb has been ousted as the king of the road...” Like so many cars of the era, the original Minis were fitted with 7 inch sealed beam headlight units. Manufactured as bulb, reflector and lens in one unit, when an element burns out, the whole thing is scrapped. These may well have been as good as it got when it came to seeing the road after dark in the 60s and 70s but they certainly don’t cut it on an everyday car in 2019. As auto technologies have progressed and the roads have become so much busier, the need to see and be seen has become much greater, especially when the car you’re driving is dwarfed by virtually every other vehicle on the road. Halogen headlight…

I have always been a car an unashamed car anorak. By the age of 5, I could tell which car was coming up the road by the sound of the engine, “Ford Cortina!” I’d exclaim to my bemused mother. Sure enough, said ‘tina would trundle past a few seconds later. My older sister became the proud owner of a 1971 Mini 1000, which I used to wash and attempt to maintain for her. As a reward she offered to take me to the Mini’s 30th Birthday party at Silverstone in August 1989. That event cemented my decision for a first car - it had to be a Mini! Over the years I have owned an assortment of Minis as have most of my friends who were always trying to make…

It goes really well. It’s mental. It’s mega!” Mark Burnett laughs. This time last year, the racing driver and MD of Burlen Ltd had no plans to build and race a 1964 Mini Countryman... but with the first race under his belt he’s unstoppable. “In some ways, the first race at Goodwood Members Meeting was a bit of a test. I was shocked that it went as well as it did. Knowing the calibre of people that I was up against I really didn’t expect to get into the final, but we did! We didn’t finish but it didn’t matter. That’s racing!” So the real question has to be, why choose to race a Countryman? “I’ve always made no secret of liking the odd stuff. I like to be different,”…

Four action-packed races and record speeds injected much-needed ‘heat’ into a numbingly-cold meeting in North Yorkshire on 13-14 April, as the 2019 National Mini Challenges got underway on the newly resurfaced Croft circuit. First off on the Saturday afternoon were the Se7en/S-Class cars. Through it all Thompson kept a cool head to hold off Jeff Smith in second. Andrew Deviny pipped Dom Burger for the third podium spot once Spencer Wanstall’s engine lost its water a couple of laps from home. From the ‘B grid’, reigning S-Class champion Scott Kendall led from the start to rise to sixth overall, with Jo Polley taking second in class three places further back. Novice Jack Shearing got the better of Stuart Gilby for third in class, the pair having a great duel dodging…

Some families grow up with generations of teachers, ballroom dancers or orchid cultivators. But for the Bloms in The Netherlands restoring cars has been in the blood almost since the invention of the motorcar itself. Jelle Blom’s great-granddad was a pioneering lorry driver who needed to be a mechanic as well, constantly putting out carburettor fires and changing tyres on his journeys across the country. His granddad was a mechanic who became a classic car restorer in the early 1970s and was a keen Mini driver too. His dad, born in 1959, is still a mechanic who’s been working on Minis as long as he can remember. And so it was just a matter of time for Jelle to get involved in the restoration of Minis. And although he is…

As happens today, back in the 1960s and 1970s, the tuning parts that were utilised on the race tracks and rally stages, would often later be adopted, and adapted, for road cars. FORD For a time, in saloon car racing, the Mini’s main class competitor was the Ford Anglia. Although they struggled in the early years, the Superspeed-prepared Anglias (with 1.3-litre engines producing 136bhp) came good and had the beating of the works Minis in 1966. As did the Broadspeed Anglias. At the end of the 1965 season, having lost BMC factory support, Ralph Broad severed all links with BMC and switched to Ford. In his Broadspeed Anglia (997cc and 115bhp), John Fitzpatrick, who’d begun his racing career with Broadspeed and raced their Minis, won his class eight times and…

If the 1960’s Mini scene was mostly about performance modifications aimed at making your car go faster, then the 1970s tended to be about making it look good. It’s not just a Mini thing of course. Neither is it a modern phenomenon. Ever since the dawn of motoring, many owners have wanted to put their own stamp on things. The key word was personalisation. And it really started to gather pace in the 1970s. In fact, long before you’d signed on the dotted line, the dealer would have ensured that you were made well aware of the options list. And with good reason. Whilst the profit margin on a new car is rather small; when it comes to extras it’s a whole different ball game. The ‘mark up’ on such…

Buying your first Mini can be fraught with potential problems, and if you’re not completely familiar with them, it’s easy to miss the warning signs. The fact that the Mini has always been popular is a double edged sword - true, on the plus side there’s still plenty to choose from even though the last classic Mini rolled off the line almost two decades ago, spares and tuning parts are widely available and are for the most part very affordable, and the specialist backup is second to none. On the minus side, again being as the Mini has been around for such a long time, the unscrupulous out there have had plenty of time to develop dodgy fixes and bodges to hide even the worst faults. You need to know…

I have often wondered what the very first Mini based car was. Generally, two designs are credited: the rear engined Deep Sanderson 301 and the front-engined Butterfield Musketeer, both launched on the last days of 1961 at the Racing Car Show in London’s Royal Horticultural Halls. Neither of the prototypes survive, but the question is if these two really were the first of the many Mini based specials. They weren’t. As a matter of fact, a few very early Minis were turned into Specials long before those at the Racing Car Show made it to the scene. Some were rather professional, too. There was the Mini Gatto, designed by the Italian coachbuilder Zagato, launched at Earl’s Court in October ‘61 and axed by BMC straight away. Also, British designer David…

“Until you’ve actually tried your chosen wheel/tyre combination, there’s little chance of knowing...” UNDER THE ARCHES Q I have just bought an N-reg Sidewalk. It needs a little bit of work on the bodywork but as yet, I haven’t made any modifications. I want to give the Mini a meaner, more chunky look. My friends have suggested Sportspack arches as they will cover 13 inch wheels and are guaranteed to fit, but I’d like something different, especially as I want to fit wide ten inch alloys. I’m thinking of Group 5 or Miglia arches - would these look too wide with 6 inch wheels and, if so, do you have any suggestions on how I can achieve the look I’m after? Lauren A The problem with fitting wheel arches is…

That’ll teach me to suggest to the MM team that a look back at our collective Mini owning experience would be good thing to do in the Anniversary year - I’ve just lost the best part of a morning trawling through old albums and packets of photos. The conclusions I have come to are a) I’ve owned some pretty rough and ready Minis over the years and b) considering what I do for a living, photography of my own cars leaves a lot to be desired. The Minis were always there, and as much as I loved the them, they were part of my life as opposed to being my life - hence when they do appear in photos, they’re rarely the star. My first Mini was a black MkI…

Wow, 60 years of the Mini! When I think of all the generations who’ve driven, enjoyed and probably broken down in Minis over the years, I still feel like a newcomer. But Minis have shaped the last 18 years of my life, so almost a third of that 60 years. Editor Gez requested some old pics from our years with the Mini for this special issue, the more embarrassing the better, so here’s some publishable highlights. Admittedly I was never a Mini fan growing up, Dad raced on Spedeworth and SEGTO oval tracks since before my time, so for me it was National Hot Rods - wide-arched Toyota Starlets, Peugeot 205s and the like. But every oval racer starts out in Minis, or at least they did, so for me…

• Mini Cooper Register will be supporting the British Motor Museum’s National Metro & Mini Show, on Sunday 4 August at Gaydon in Warwickshire. MCR’s Warwickshire region will be displaying up to 20 cars from an early MkI Cooper to a current MINI to showcase the variety of models owned by members. The Museum is home to an array of historic Minis dating back to 621 AOK, the very first produced in 1959. Also on display will be X411 JOP, the last ever to come off the Longbridge production line in 2000. Regular visitors will be familiar with the permanent display of the Monte Carlo Rally winning cars of 1964, 1965 and 1967 and the interesting Minis in the Mezzanine Exhibition Gallery. www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/ events/national-metro-and-mini-show…

Round 2 of the 2019 HRCR Mini Sport Cup, Dixies Historic Challenge run by Forresters Car Club is a firm favourite with our Mini crews - despite the notoriously challenging conditions - and usually equally as challenging weather! With 17 Minis on the entry list, we were treated to dry and clear conditions, making the Epynt ranges particularly quick for our crews where there’s 45 miles to cover, over 10 Stages. Hot off the back of their utter domination at the AGBO Stages, father and son crew, John and Martin Cressey, set off steady away for Stage 1. Luck was not on their side though: a broken throttle cable forced retirement. Despite the fluke incident bringing the rally to an untimely close for the Cresseys, John was still in good…

For the 27th year, the British Mini Club hosted one of the most important events on the Mini calendar. Like everyone else, we were working frantically to get our Mini on the road ready for the big day. This meant sorting out the suspension and brakes on our MkIII Riley Elf... and more importantly kitting it out with brand new carpets (which you can read all about in the tech pages of the next issue!) The drive to Himley was glorious, it was the Elf’s first proper trip out since 2007 (aside from driving it home from the lockup the night before the show!) and it ran beautifully. We were grinning like idiots and admiring that distinctive silhouette in every reflective surface we passed. On reaching Himley, the car park…

It’s no understatement to say that the Mini’s design team under the leadership of Sir Alec Issigonis came up with a revolutionary step forward in motor vehicle design. It was so revolutionary that, at first, the motoring public were unsure of its capabilities. “Was it just another version of the micro car? Could it really replace the traditional rear wheel drive small family saloon? With such a quirky appearance should it be taken seriously?” One group of motorists who quickly realised that BMC had created something special was the racing fraternity. While considering an appropriate engine for the Mini, the design team tried out the 948cc version but found it too fast for production and settled on a more modest 848cc with a useful 34 bhp and a lively but…

The 1970s also witnessed a boom in the kit car market. And the Mini, with its compact, reliable, and affordable power train, played its part. If you wanted to remain faithful to the A-Series, but desired to leave the mainstream behind, there were plenty of Mini ‘alternatives’ to choose from. Here’s a selection: STIMSON The prodigious Barrie Stimson’s first kit car was the Mini Bug 1, a buggy based on Mini components... a world first it was claimed. Kits cost just £170. The headlight pods were reputedly moulded from a bra... very 1970’s! The Mini Bug 2 quickly followed, then came the CS+1 and the CS +2. In 1972, Stimson introduced the Safari Six. If the Safari Six was a tad weird, the three-wheeled Scorcher was utterly bonkers. Even so,…

The car is called Dug, because we had to dig him out,” laughs Kevin Palmer. We’re chatting about how he came to unearth and buy his early Morris Mini Minor, and once you hear a little more, the name fits perfectly. Kevin is well known to Mini enthusiasts as he’s the man behind Palmer Works S in Maidstone, and there’s not much he doesn’t know about Minis, both new and old. It’s no surprise that he meets some interesting people in his line of work. “I had an elderly gentleman who was introduced to me by another customer. He had loads of classic cars - MGs, even a replica Brooklands racing car,” he explains. “We got talking and he told me that he also had a lot of Minis, which…

We’ve been steadily working through our Riley Elf with the aim of returning it to the road for this summer’s Mini 60 celebrations. Breathing life back into a car can be a very satisfying experience but one area that should be given full attention is the safety critical areas, not least of which the brakes. Sadly, some owners feel the annual MoT test and the brake test element of that is enough to prove that the braking system is fit for service, and will be continue to be for the next twelve months. And with the increasing number of MoT exempt Minis on the roads, the period between any meaningful check of the system being fit for purpose could be far longer. But there is no element of the MoT…

I had 56 days' notice before Goodwood. I bought two fresh standard blocks and sent them off for boring - the original unit got built with cheaper components, the new unit from Neil took longer as he does a more pro job. The crank/flywheel assembly went off for balancing, he machined the top of the block to the nth degree and all the little detail things got done properly. Day 33: Car comes back from bodyshop. The anti-roll bar arrived and got fitted but fouled the rear tyres (sorted by fitting anti-droop bumpstops). Day 36: Idler gear bearing comes through side of housing on assembly (welded by our mate Bob). Day 38: Fitted power unit. Day 39: 30 minute road run. Day 48: Scrutineer Paul came and did the FIA…

I have to make a confession here - I am not a very good car owner. There was a time when I owned four or five at the same time, but I must admit that these cars weren’t particularly well off in my hands. I lived in Amsterdam and except for the one used as a daily driver, they were scattered around free parking spaces on the city’s outskirts. They weren’t used much, they rusted and rotted. It was a good decision to stop my multiple car ownership some years ago and focus on writing about them and researching their histories instead. Well, only until the Mini Marcos project came along and I simply couldn’t resist. After all, this was a car that I’d been seeking for such a long…