H829FLE is back

I've just come back from a run in my Mini. It was great, despite having to take it gently on a rebuilt engine.
Will post pics when I can be bothered !

Thats great news mate.

Looking forward to seeing the pics

Shaun
How did you fare in the MITP concours ?

My very first large show win

Thanks to everyone who has given me support.

well done on the win Shaun. i have a couple of pics of the chop. just need to upload them.

More news on H829FLE.
On Tuesday 23/09/08 I went to Willshers Garage at Wimpole in Cambridgeshire, home to Peter Baldwins rolling road. Wingnut came with me. When we got there this very nice Triumph 2000 MK 2 was on the rollers.



The great thing about Peter Baldwin's place is that it attracts like minded enthusiasts, and the Triumph owner was no exception. As you can see it has revoloution wheels and lowered suspension. Surprisingly the owner had decided to tune the 2 litre 6 pot engine instead of the larger 2-5 litre engine. The engine had all the usual stage 3 stuff done to it and attained 160 bhp on the rollers, 180 bhp minus the air filters. The gearbox was 4 speed plus overdrive on 2nd, 3rd and 4th gears which in effect gave it 7 gears.

The son of Mr Willsher has just bought this MK2 Mini Cooper 1275S

Also outside was this Austin Allegro.

By now the timetable was behind schedule so Wingnut and I went to a very good cafe down the road as recomended by Mr Baldwin. We both had a "Big Breakfast" !
Next on the rollers was this Morgan fitted with the iconic Rover V8, this one being of the 3-5 litre variety.






Peter Baldwin specialises in carburettor cars up to 300 bhp.
The Morgan started out at 240 bhp and through needle changes power was increased to 276 bhp.

At last it wuz our turn.
This time I elected to watch the dials, so I let Wingnut sit in the driving seat. Last time the car was in twin carb form it had the usual Maniflow 1 7/8 inch exhaust with a Swiftune SW5 cam and got 98 bhp at 5500 rpm.
The main difference this time was the fitment of a 2 inch Maniflow exhaust, a legacy from the supercharger saga, and a 123 distributor with a choice of 14 settings.
Some pics.
















The end result was 103 bhp at 5800 rpm. It reached 6500 rpm in 4th gear on the way home, I won't mention in public what speed it reached !

Next car on the rollers was this racing MG Midget 1275 owned by Bury St Edmunds classic car restorer Tony Davis. He knows many in the Bury Mini club and is currently restoring a woody for R. Mortlock esq.






Note the longer inlet manifold for the Weber carb that the extra space in the Spridget engine bay allows.

The next stage was to deal with the seat conundrum. The current Metro GS seats I have come from a 5 door Metro, which in my haste to obtain them, I forgot that they don't tilt forward. Goodbye rear seat access......

I rejected the idea of buying some recliners at Stanford Hall for cost reasons. £428 for a Cobra seat package.
The next idea was to buy some used Mini MPi seats. Again the insane prices asked by vendors killed that idea off. I saw on Ebay some MPi seats with a £500 asking price.
So I thought I would use the BL/Rover anorak side of my nature. Of course the MPi seats were not exclusive to the Mini, the same basic design was used for more mundane Rover cars, albeit with less plush upholstery. A trip to Rover Spares Norfolk at Brooke was in order.
On arrival there I was greeted by a bewildering array of derelict Rover's and MG's. The likely donor would be a Rover Metro/100 and Rover 200/25/MG ZR, all 3 door models.
From what I saw I deduced that Mini MPi seats first appeared in the Rover 100 in January 1995, which was a lightly facelifted K-series Metro. The seats were next used in the Rover R3 200 (bubble shape) launched in November 1995. I elected to go for some Rover 100 seats, I pick up a pair for all of £30 !




In 1998 the Rover 100 ceased production, and in November 1999 the Rover R3 200 was revised to become the Rover 25. The seat design was changed to a more comfortable looking design. Below the seats in a Rover 25.




This design particuarly when in MG ZR form looks very nice, but will they fit in a Mini ? Has anyone tried it ?

I picked up the seats in a real Rover, my fathers SD1 Vitesse.

The seats now fitted in the Mini, one with a seat cover.

The brilliant Trevor Whybrow of TMW engineering, who built my engine as well as those for 2008 Mini 7 and Miglia racewinners.