Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2021 i Mini Magazine

You can probably tell from the fact that I'd recently had a haircut, my editorial picture this month was taken pre-Covid. I have two reasons for using it - in the picture I'm driving Mike Brewer's Cooper S (aka Project Frankie) en route to Mini In The Park 2019. So it's both yet another of my Mini memories, and also this month, we see PF come to an end. Turn to page 28 and you see a delighted Mike welcoming his Cooper S back into his garage. It's a stunning build, and credit must be given to everyone involved with the project, in particular Andy 'Ace' Harrison and the team at Acespeed. We're delighted to see car and owner reunited. I wanted to share another of my Mini memories with…

• Supporting disadvantaged children, the Italian Job motoring events are a worthwhile way to have fun with your Mini! On Sunday 23 May, the team behind the Italian Job events are organising a Mile of Minis attempt at Gaydon. The day involves a treasure hunt which will unfold along a leisurely navigational route starting at the MINI plant in Oxford. The day will commence with a welcome breakfast, photos and speeches before the driving adventure kicks off at around 10.30. Each team is asked to raise as much money as possible for Buttle UK, who are providing urgent support to families in crisis due to the pandemic. A contribution of at least £40 per team is expected. The event will adhere strictly to current Covid-19 regulations. If you have previously…

Manor Park Classics have an impressive array of cars coming up for auciton, including five striking Minis. Their Spring 2021 Classic car Auction takes place on Tuesday 27th April at 1pm. The cars in question include a 1959 Morris Mini Minor Deluxe, a 1966 Austin Mini Cooper S 1275, a 1966 Austin Mini Countryman, a 1991 Rover Mini 1000 City E and a 2000 Rover Mini Cooper Sport. Manor Park Classics launches the North West’s only permanent fixed venue classic vehicle auction. Based at their purpose designed 30,000 square foot premises in Cheshire. This will be a classic vehicle sale with a difference. Addressing the widely held frustrations with the traditional auction process, Manor Park Classics have set out to reduce the risk and anxiety for buyers and sellers alike…

There can’t be many people under 30 out there who’ve been tackling a Mini restoration for seventeen years. Work out the maths and that takes the origins back to barely starting at high school. Joe Hipkins bought his 1972 Mini Estate when he was the tender age of 12, inspired by his family’s Longbridge connections and after browsing through a copy of Mini Magazine no less. “My family has a long history of restoring and running classic cars, so it was no surprise I was likely to follow in their footsteps and a Mini seemed the perfect candidate,” Joe laughs. “I wanted an Estate as there’s more load space than in a Saloon and at 12 years old, I found myself purchasing this wreck of a Clubman Estate.” Joe’s Mum,…

Mo Ovenden and her family run a tipper/haulage business, and it was whilst at a construction site, driving a tipper, that Mo first spotted this 1977 Mini Pickup. It wasn’t in prime condition. Far from it. Even so, Mo was smitten. “This was back in 1996,” she recalls. “When I drove onto the site I noticed that Gary Norton, who’s a really nice man, had turned up for work in a Mini Pickup. I’m a classic Mini fan. I’d previously owned two Minis, and they got driven a lot. I went to plenty of shows too, even getting the ‘Furthest Travelled’ award at one. Pickups are rare though, even at shows. Despite this one being so tatty, it really appealed.” Indeed, Mo was so keen, she asked Gary that if…

On later models there is a lower engine steady bar which is designed to limit engine movement under acceleration. It’s attached to the subframe via a small folded bracket that, at the factory, was probably spot welded in place. We’ve seen these repaired on a number of cars as over time rust and fatigue, especially from cars with uprated engine performance can break the welds. When stripping this subframe for a recent shell restoration, the bracket attached to the subframe simply snapped off. A combination of corrosion and fatigue had caused it to snap off and as there was evidence of some previous remedial welding, this was obviously a problem that had happened before. Rather than simply add some more weld to the old parts we decided to fabricate a…

“As a result, the uneven pressure exerted by the cap had caused a tight spot” After the Downton had at last got to the point where we were ready to fire up the engine, failure to produce and hold any oil pressure had us running for cover after a major loss of heart. The car was despatched to BHPerformance in the West Midlands where owner, Ben, quickly diagnosed the problem, and then followed that up by finding a list of maladies within the engine which would need to be sorted – it certainly looked as if the lack of oil pressure was a blessing in disguise. As we revealed in the last instalment, the inability to pump oil was down to the fact that somehow, even though the engine had…

Lauded for the excellence of its Land Rover Defender builds, Landroid, a visionary company, where renovation meets innovation, melds the very highest levels of quality, creativity, and engineering. In doing so, it puts its clients behind the wheel of very special, very personal... and unique vehicles. And, whereas the legendary Defender remains at the very core of Landroid’s business, running parallel to this is the company’s Special Projects division. Robin, Director of Landroid, takes up the story. “In addition to our Defender builds, we have a nine-strong Special Project team tasked with undertaking unique restoration and modification projects, creating ultimate ‘one-off’ vehicles built exactly to our clients’ specifications,” he enthuses. “Although the special project cars are, typically, very different to the Defender. So far, we’ve done TVRs, a Lada Niva…

We are always on the look out for half finished projects for our On The Job feature, so if your Mini is part way through a restoration then drop us a line. We love shooting these features as your workshops always make such an interesting backdrop, packed full of tools, parts and plans... but we’re not the only ones who go a bit funny around an interesting workshop or garage... Machine Mart are on the lookout for dream workshops packed with tools, big or large, messy or immaculate! The first video in the new series from Machine Mart is now live with dedicated Clarke enthusiast Ant showing off his impressive workshop and collection of products. You can watch for yourself at: www.machinemart.co.uk/ dream-workshops/ Do you have a garage or workshop…

• Trent Valley Mini Owners Club has two events coming up (Covid allowing). The Mini, Moggy and Classic Car Day Gathering will take place on Sunday 23 May from 10am-4pm. The event has been organised in association with North Lincs Morris Minor Owner’s Club and will be held at The Retford and Gainsborough Garden Centre, DN22 9EU. There will be a presentation for best car of the show for Minis, Morris Minors and Classics. The garden centre will be open, offering an array of plants, garden pieces and gifts. The Citrus Café on site also offer great food at reasonable prices, including their infamous Sunday roast. The Mini and Classic Cars Day will take place on Sunday 20 June from 10am-4pm at the 7 Lakes Country Park Crowle, North Lincolnshire.…

In August 2019, we had a call from Mike Brewer – TV’s Wheeler Dealer and dyed in the wool car nut. He was bursting with the news that he’d just managed to bag his dream car, a 1964 Cooper S. Spotted in an auction, Mike had sent a friend along on his behalf and the bids had gone his way. Mike couldn’t have been happier. A couple of weeks later, on one of the hottest days of the year, we met up with Mike and the car, by now dubbed ‘Frankie’. The Cooper had clearly seen a bit of life, was a little scruffy but oozed character and Mike was clearly smitten. Part of the Cooper’s charm was that it wore its age openly, and gave a nod to those…

If you’ve taken a quick glance at the pictures of David Stuart’s super clean Cooper Sport, you could be forgiven for jumping to conclusions. We’d guess first impressions say pampered, original example of the last Minis. We wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people believe that this is factory in every way. The last thing we’d expect you to be thinking – especially if you haven’t taken a sneaky look under the bonnet – that here is one seriously powerful Mini… This isn’t David’s first Mini, and his relationship with them had something of an unusual start. “Random first car choice,” he says with a laugh. “I was 19, I’d passed my test but never had a car. I was driving my Mum’s Rover 200. I was going to…

The front tie bars control the fore-and-aft movement of the front suspension arms and their condition plays a direct part in how your Mini will handle. The rear of the bar is solid mounted to the lower suspension arm so this very rarely causes any problems, although you should check for a worn bolt or elongated holes. “Replacing the bushes is very simple and should take no more than an hour” The major problem area is the front mount which uses rubber bushes sandwiched either side of the subframe bracket. When these bushes become worn or damaged the suspension arms are able to move, thus upsetting the front steering and suspension geometry. Replacing the bushes is very simple and should take no more than an hour to do both sides,…

“Just be very careful on sizing and the distance you leave between accelerator and brake pedals” DROPPED GEAR Q My 1995 Cooper has started making some horrendous noises. It started while I was standing in traffic. The car was in neutral and it just started making a terrible grinding noise. I stopped the engine immediately. When the traffic started moving, I tried starting the car and it sounded OK when I put it into first gear, the noise returned. It got progressively quitter through the gears – fourth was OK. I decided that it was clearly a problem with the gearbox, so I had a local garage fit a guaranteed reconditioned one. The car was delivered back to me, and on the first run out, the grinding noise has returned.…

In my last update I spoke about not being able to afford to buy my old Mini back and plans of making new memories with my children. This led to a late Sunday evening trip to Stow-on-the-Wold to view a potential new Mini to the family and having a good look around it, a deal was made. The following weekend I picked the car up. I bought it as a non runner, and didn’t waste any time. All the basics were done like clean the plugs, points, carb, some fresh fuel and a new battery. It was running within the hour and sounding very nice to be honest. The next day the interior was stripped out, cleaned and put away for a later date as I knew there would be…

• The 60th anniversary of the Mini Cooper will be celebrated alongside the Jaguar E-type at Shelsley Walsh Hillclimb, Worcestershire 12-13 June. The weekend will pay tribute to both iconic British cars. Mini enthusiasts can expect exciting racing action, star cars, demonstrations and movie-scene reenactments to music, op art, films, fashion and more! Philip Porter said: ‘We are delighted that rallying legend Paddy Hopkirk will be joining us along with former racer John Fitzpatrick. The E-type 60 weekend will celebrate both the Mini and the Jaguar E-type anniversaries with a super display of historic and special cars. Add to that some great 60s music from tribute band The High Tones, hillclimb action on both days, Mods and Rockers scooter fun, top-notch specialist exhibitors, fashion, dancing and much more… we are…

RESTORED Name: Sharon Ekin Car: 1973 Clubman Location: Stoke-on-Trent • Sharon bought her Mini from a local garage in September 2015, after seeing it by chance. The owner who bought it from new in 1973, had passed away and his son wanted to sell the Mini to fund another project so the Mini was brought up from London to sell. It had been garaged for about 15 years or so, possibly longer. The car is largely original including the engine, interior and body panels. There are just a few period features that were added by the original owner in the 70s and the paint has also been freshened up. It only took Sharon a month to get ‘Lily’ back on the road. She loves driving the car, describing Lily as…

Like so many of us, 36-year-old Shaun Fisher has always had a love for the classic Mini, but it wasn’t until he took a trip to The Donington Classic event with his mate, Andy Varley in 2010 that he began to seriously consider buying one himself. “There were loads of classics there that day as you’d expect, but one car really stood out – a 1960’s Mini Cooper,” Shaun remembers, “It was a thing of beauty. Fortunately I had access to the paddock area that day and managed to get a closer look.” Shaun even went one step further and tracked down the owner to ask him a few questions about his car, “Among other things, I discovered the car’s colours were Tweed Grey with an Old English White roof,”…

CONNECT WORKSHOP CONSUMABLES AUTOMOTIVE PAINT POLISHING PADS From £14.50 Connect Workshop Consumables are proud to launch a new range of paint polishing, finishing, and cutting consumables. This new comprehensive range of foam pads have been designed for both restoration and daily maintenance. As well as the traditional and ball series foam heads, there are also three different 150mm diameter Velcro backed pads: flat, flat bevel, and corrugated flat, all available in cutting, polishing, and finishing variants. • 01926 815000 • www.connect-consumables.co.uk MINI SPARES RIGHT HAND FUEL TANK £333.24 Mini Spares has just announced an exact replica Cooper S Right Hand Tank made from brand new tooling. The new tank is faithful to the original shape and dimensions making it a perfect fit; unlike other tanks on the market it uses…

If you’re going to have a silly car it makes sense to have silly ideas. I decided to give us a deadline for getting the Biota on the road again. First of all, it was going to be for Harewood Classic and Vintage Hillclimb meeting at the beginning of June. On my only previous experience there, it rained for three quarters of the day so it shows how good a hill and meeting it was that I want to go back. This was the site of the Championship win in 1972 with the “Works” Biota, so my idea was to have a practice run in preparation for the 50th anniversary in 2022. Then the Prescott Mini Festival was announced two weeks before, and being only 45 minutes away, I had…

I start this report with sincerest apologies, folks. Although work continued on the Clubby Estate for a while, I have had no time to write up the efforts. Despite the ‘plague’ issue, Damico had been flat out since we all returned at the end of April 2020. It would appear the time given to many when furloughed saw a monumental increase in folks busily getting on with their projects. Kinda weird, as it stopped me getting on with mine! Continuing the front suspension and brakes complete refurb, and having sorted out the problems detailed in the last report, it was obvious that all parts would need close scrutiny. So many issues discovered when driving the car on only two occasions. Suspension and hubs done and dusted, next up were the…