Innehållsförteckning för July 2017 från Mini Magazine

The Mini is a great way to put the fun into driving and meet new people, but it can also provide an excellent platform for realising even the loftiest of ambitions. In this month’s issue we’ve got several inspirational tales where people have done just that, from a fundraising rally team through to a man who just wanted to make his Mini as fast and as light as possible! Our cover car is a great example of achieving your goals. Brothers Raman and Amreet Singh Notay had no previous experience before taking on their challenging Mini turbo project, yet learnt to weld, build alignment jigs, lead load, create wiring looms and a whole lot more as they went. The results are stunning – witness them from page 50. Elsewhere you’ll…

• Visitors to the Mini Cooper Register’s National Mini Day at Beaulieu on June 11 can expect to see plenty of famous motoring celebrities, with everyone from legendary Works drivers to TV personalities set to attend. Rally legend Paddy Hopkirk will be joined by his many-time co-driver Ron Crellin, while BMC Competitions Department managers and mechanics Stuart Turner, Bill Price and Dudley Pike will also be present, as will former Works driver and navigator Paul Easter. 1960s race and rally star Christabel Carlisle will be at Beaulieu to sign copies of her new book, and there will also be appearances from hugely successful touring car driver Gordon Spice and the evergreen Peter Baldwin. Last but by no means least, Car SOS master mechanic Fuzz Townshend is also on the guest…

With clear blue skies and the sun shining, it all came together for British Mini Club’s annual Mini Day at Himley Hall. May is an incredibly busy time for Mini fans with events left, right and centre competing for attention, but that couldn’t prevent a very strong turn-out at this picturesque location. Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised – BMC has proven time and time again that it knows how to put on a cracking show, with plenty of traders, club stands and some top-class Minis. This year’s event had an extra special feel about it. The weather seemed to put everyone in high spirits, and there was plenty to see and do. Himley was the first round of the BMC’s prestigious Premier Concours, and we were wowed by the…

May 25-29 IMM 2017 Ireland The International Mini Meeting returns to Ireland, with the Irish Mini Owners Club hosting the event 20 years after it last did so in 1997. The location for 2017 is Westport, County Mayo. www.imm2017.ie June 4 National Metro and Mini Show Activity-packed event at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon, catering for Metros and Minis. Includes camping, a glow show, a concours, ‘noncours’, traders, clubs and more. www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/events/national-metro-and-mini-show June 4 Mods ‘n’ Minis Rallye West Country Mini Scene’s summer gathering in Teignmouth, featuring Minis, MINIs and classic scooters. Runs from 10am-4pm. www.wcminiscene.co.uk June 11 National Mini Cooper Day The Mini Cooper Register’s flagship event, bringing together Mini Coopers and Minis of every age and derivative at the Beaulieu National Motor Museum. Includes traders, autojumble, concours and…

Broadly speaking, inexperience leads to two main approaches with car projects. You either do your homework, consider every choice extremely carefully and plan ahead, or go in all guns blazing and pull out the novice card when it all goes wrong. Thankfully, Rai Bahadur Raman Singh Notay and his younger bother Amreet clearly chose the former route for their Mini turbo build. With a meticulous approach that’s almost bordered on paranoid at times, their stunning Ferrari Red creation puts many a professional build to shame. Amazingly, the brothers had never owned a project car before picking up the basis for this one in October 2010. In fact, they’d never owned a classic Mini at all. “Our mum had an R50 MINI that Dad had bought for her as a silver…

The Mini’s story in rallying is the stuff of legends, with its astounding giant-killing antics in the ‘60s propelling it into international superstardom and making household names of its drivers. Even before these halcyon days the Mini was making its mark on club rallying all over the world, and continues to do so to this day. But the exploits of pioneers like Pat Moss aside, this long and varied tale is almost entirely male-orientated. Until now, that is. There are an astonishing 30 crews registered for this season’s Mini Sport Mini Cup, which runs under the umbrella of the HRCR Old Stager Historic Asphalt Stage Rally Championship. That surely makes it the biggest single-marque rally championship anywhere in the world, but just one of the crews has an all-female cast.…

There’s something about a Mini Pick-up that does funny things to a Mini enthusiast. Whereas a saloon often reaches a point where it’s deemed unviable to repair, we’ve seen people save Pick-ups so festooned with rust that they’ve fallen into two halves. And even if you’ve got another Mini build on the home straight, the merest sniff of a dilapidated Mini commercial can cause a seismic shift in project plans. A bit like it did for Thorsten Retzlaff... The man from Aachen in Germany already had a long-running Clubman Estate project on the go, but in 2009 he got wind of a local Pick-up for sale. “I share my garage with another guy,” he explains, “and his mother’s friend had a son who had a Pick-up in the garage. I…

• Minis came from far and wide as the Lincoln BIG Mini Show took place on Easter Sunday. Organised by the Trent Valley MOC for the 10th consecutive year, it always makes for a popular early-season gathering. Despite the threat of rain, over 150 Minis gathered alongside the city’s Brayford Waterfront. The show is free to enter, but donations to the club’s designated charities, LIVES and the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance, are encouraged. Next up is the club’s Gainsborough Minis and Classics show on June 18. See www.trentvalleymoc.co.uk…

Some of the projects that appear amongst these pages represent endless hours of obsessing over period brochures, articles and part number listings to pinpoint the correct age-appropriate trim embellishments, screws, flanges and brackets. This particular Mini, however, is not one of those cars. In fact, it’s just about as far removed as it’s possible to be from that concept without going full circle, transcending time itself, refracting reality through a dark mirror and ending up stock again. The lairy, boisterous Estate you see before you is just about the most bonkers, ludicrous creation we’ve happened upon in some time. And for that reason, we’re utterly besotted. “In recent years we’ve been more involved in producing racing parts...” As you might imagine, this hasn’t been crafted by some mad hatter who…

COST H4 restoration including ‘Superdry’ jet seals and bearings and ‘StayUp’ float - £330 per carb. Twin carb manifold restoration - £174. ‘Superdry’ jet bearing and seal conversion kit for H type carbs - £27.50 per carb. StayUp’ foam float for H4 carbs - £27.46 each. Brass fittings charged extra as per customer requirements. CONTACT 01722 412500, www.burlen.co.uk Many alternatives have been produced over the years, but the Mini and the SU carburettor are indelibly intertwined. That distinctive SU dashpot just looks right under the bonnet, and where one is good, two are even better. Performance is excellent and they don’t require bodywork mods, so it’s little wonder they are still so popular. Twin 1.25-inch HS2 carbs were fitted to Cooper and Cooper S models as standard, but 1.5-inch H4s…

“The surprise to me was that there are still folk fitting components in this way...” While overseas recently in a very hot, far away place, a discussion concerning the possible cause for a sticky inlet valve in a race head threw up something that I don’t ever recall covering in the past – valve guides. Specifically, their fitment, processing, material specs, the problems with some types, and which material specs to use with which valves. After some deliberation with said enquirer, it turned out he had fitted his new bronze valves guides into place using a hammer, then had not resized the guide bores. Consequently the guide was grabbing the valve through insufficient clearance when it heated up and expanded under protracted full-load running. The surprise for me was that…

Jeff Ruggles Editor MINI LIFE I’ll run out of fingers and toes if I try and count all the Minis I’ve had. I love to spend all my spare time working on them, although progress can be tricky as I have far too many. MINI SPEC I currently own seven Minis in various states of repair. Currently only a couple are road legal, although I’m working hard to change all that! MINIS OWNED 1971 Mini 850 1972 Mini 1275 GT 1972 Innocenti Mini 1001 1991 Mini Mayfair 1994 Mini Mayfair To do list 1. New subframe mounts on grey Mayfair. 2. Fit a new exhaust system to both the red and cars. grey 3. Service the grey car. The DVLA’s MoT test history thing is invaluable when sizing up old…

• The Kent Region of the Mini Cooper Register marked St. George’s Day by organising its first road run of 2017 on April 23. An impressive 28 teams took part, meeting at the Airport Café in Sellinge just outside Folkestone where many tucked into a full English breakfast to set themselves up for the day. With run packs handed out, rally plates affixed and navigators briefed on the joys of Tulip navigation, the route took the participants through some of Kent’s finest lanes and a few in need of repair (the pot holes were clearly marked on the road book!). The Minis headed out on the Kent marshes and came back inland via the scenic villages of Ham Street and Appledore before a coffee stop in High Halden. The convoy…

To kick off the start of the Mini season in style, Edinburgh-based specialists The Mini Works held a Spring Run across the highlands and the Isle of Skye over the Easter weekend. The touring assembly covered 600 miles across three days, starting at Fort William in the Highlands. Six cars came along to participate, from as far as Monmouthshire in Wales, Somerset, and Wick in the uppermost northeast corner of Scotland! Overall, the touring assembly included a variety of competition and rally cars, including Simon Drew’s ex-Special Tuning 1969 1275 GT, SOH 956H. This was a Longbridge press launch car, and was the first GT to be road tested by Auto Car magazine. Also in attendance was The Mini Works’ latest nut-and-bolt resto, HNH 702F, which is an ex-Comps prepared…

GET FEATURED Send photos of your project to minimag.ed@kelsey.co.uk or visit our website www.minimag.co.uk PROJECT PROFILE THE OWNER NAME: John Sibson AGE: 45 OCCUPATION: Environmental health officer LOCATION: London THE CAR: CAR: 1973 Mini Clubman Estate START CONDITION: Non runner with bad paint CONDITION NOW: Nearly running TIME TAKEN SO FAR: Seven weeks ESTIMATED TIME OF COMPLETION: Shortly before the mag comes out! “John is well-versed in building cars to a strict deadline...” The annual International Mini Meeting is a great thing for so many reasons. There’s the chance to visit various far-flung destinations, mingle with fellow Mini fans from all over the world, don fancy dress, party and – should you wish – drink yourself silly. But not only that, for it also gives many of us a target…

Yes, Alec Issigonis was undoubtedly autocratic and eccentric, but he was also a pioneering and inventive genius who somehow managed to squeeze the proverbial quart into a pint pot. He frowned on frivolity, despised luxuries and a had a missionary zeal for minimalism, which meant that the Mini was uncompromisingly simplistic in an effort to maximise interior space. Despite this lack of creature comforts however, the Mini had a few more aces up its sleeve. Not least that it was a hoot to drive with terrific cornering ability, and trendy too. As a result, this nimble, cute, and above all ‘classless’ car became the unlikely beneficiary of many celebrity endorsements. A host of glitterati including film idols, pop stars and even royalty all found favour with the Mini, making Issigonis’…

JACKING POINTS A Can you offer up any advice on jacking points and where to place axle stands? I’ve invested in a decent aluminium trolley jack, and though my mechanical knowledge is limited, I’m sure that I’ve read somewhere before that you shouldn’t use the jacking points on the bodyshell. I’m wanting to raise the car so I can clean and rustproof it underneath as best as I can. Marie A By ‘jacking points’ I take it you are referring to the four small protruding plates at each corner of the bodyshell. These are not jacking points, but fixtures for fitting the bodyshell to the track on the production line. The areas around them are not strengthened sufficiently to make then useful as jacking points. The best places to position…

Tim Harber Contributor www.minimail.co.uk MINI LIFE Driven them since 1967 and started a business around them in London in 1977. Moved to the countryside in 1989 to allow more space to fit cars and family in. Started racing in 2002 (aged 52). Have raced Mighty Minis but now concentrating on Historics since 2010. MINI SPEC 1961 Racer is re-shelled test bed-cum-toy (last out with a seven-port motor). 1965 1293 Racer is built to FIA Appendix K Historic regulations. 1967 Woody was wife’s daily driver for seven years, now resting. 1974 Mini Marcos is waiting for everything to be restored. 1992 Rover Cooper is a fuel-injected Super Mighty Minis race car. MINIS OWNED 1961 Racer 1965 FIA spec racer 1967 Woody Estate 1974 Mini Marcos 1992 Rover Cooper To do list…