NMOC ROLLING ROAD 2013 - The Report

The date. Friday March 22nd 2013.
The occasion. The second NMOC rolling road day arranged at Wilshers Garage in Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, where we would subject our Mini’s to microscopic analysis by ace tuning wizard Peter Baldwin.
We rendezvoused at Barton Mills at 8.30am where we stuffed ourselves with sandwiches before we left.
Our entourage consisted of Caroline Cousins, who must be credited with organising the whole show, yours truly, Ian Nicholls, with Harry Harrison in the passenger seat acting as club cameraman, Matty Gordon, Dan Studd, Ben Porter and Iain Dix.
We travelled on to Wilshers Garage at Wimpole arriving at 9.30am. This time all of us arrived together, unlike the previous year!
Peter Baldwin turned up at about 10.10am and the tuning began. During the day we were joined by two more cars, those of John Burton and Saud Ben Saud.

H559WAM - The first on the rollers was the black and white Mini owned by Becky Featherstone, and driven on this occasion by Dan Studd.
H559WAM was a 998cc Mini fitted with a stage 1 kit.
The car had already been sold on because of alleged unreliability problems. Peter Baldwin was about to fix those.
On it first run H559WAM achieved 52 bhp.
Peter Baldwin had gadgetry that enabled him to check a cars fuelling and timing.
Peter started fiddling with the car including a carburettor needle change.
With these changes H559WAM had a second power run achieving the following results.

51 bhp at 4000 rpm
55 bhp at 4500 rpm
56 bhp at 5000 rpm
54 bhp at 5500 rpm

Dan then took H559WAM for a test run. He said;
“Had a great day, Becky's car ran a lot better on the way home”!

F402ORV – Next up was another 998cc Mini with a stage 1 kit. This was F402ORV,’as seen on TV’, and owned by Ben Porter. This very Mini was seen on the TV series ‘Wheeler Dealers’ back in 2009, when it was restored by Edd China and Mike Brewer.
Now this actual car was on the actual Peter Baldwin rollers.
During its first run it achieved 55 bhp. After some tinkering and a needle change F402ORV was ready for its second run. This run resulted in the following.

55 bhp at 4000 rpm
61 bhp at 4500 rpm
62 bhp at 5000 rpm
63 bhp at 5500 rpm


AWU559K – Next up was John Burton AKA Burt with AWU559K, an early Mk3 Mini fitted with an MG Metro engine with a Maniflow twin box system.
On its first run the car achieved;

70 bhp at 4000 rpm
81 bhp at 5000 rpm
81 bhp at 6000 rpm

Peter again fiddled with the engine, possibly changing a needle, although I’m sure Burt will correct me on that. On the second run AWU559K achieved;

74 bhp at 4000 rpm
82 bhp at 4500 rpm
86 bhp at 5000 rpm
87 bhp at 5500 rpm
84 bhp at 6000 rpm

What is more, with 10 inch wheels and 3.44 to 1 final drive, Burt had the gearing to use this power to the full.


LCK716H – Next up was Caroline Cousins in LCK716H, an early Mini Clubman saloon and the oldest car on the rollers today.
Elsie, as the car is named, now had a modified twin carburettor MG Metro unit in its engine bay.
On its first run Elsie achieved 84 bhp.
Two sets of needles changes were needed before Peter was satisfied that Elsie could be unleashed. On its second run Elsie achieved;

74 bhp at 4000 rpm
82 bhp at 4500 rpm
87 bhp at 5000 rpm
89 bhp at 5500 rpm
86 bhp at 6000 rpm


H53FKK – Now it was the turn of another 998cc with a stage 1 kit, owned by Ian Dix.
Unfortunately the most that could be extracted from the car was 53 bhp at 4800 rpm.
With peak power on the standard factory cars arriving at 5000 rpm, this suggested that something was wrong with the camshaft or the timing chain was stretched.
Would it be easier for Iain to source another 998 cc engine, than bother with taking the engine apart?
However the lack of top end power did not seem to bother Iain on the long journey home. With his gearing, to achieve 4800 rpm in 4th gear would require him to attain 92 mph.

H829FLE – Now it was the turn of yours truly, Ian Nicholls, with H829FLE, the ‘Super Cooper’. Well it must be super, it is on its third bodyshell in 23 years!
H829FLE has a TMW Engineering built 1293cc engine, a Swiftune SW5 cam, hi-lift rockers, Maniflow exhaust and 123 distributor.
The last time H829FLE had been on Peter Baldwin’s rollers was in 2009 when achieved 103 bhp at 5800 rpm. Then it was fitted with a 2 inch Maniflow exhaust.
Since then there had been a regrettable incident with some loose chippings, a nut behind the wheel and some Lama’s resulting in H829FLE having to be rebuilt.
The 2 inch exhaust then expired and Maniflow recommended fitting a 1 7/8 inch system in its place. I also fitted an MED twin SU induction kit.
So the Super Cooper went on the rollers with Dan Studd at the controls and on its first run achieved 103 bhp again.
I attribute this figure to the 123 distributor, it maintained its settings and did not go out of tune.
Peter decided the existing carburettor needles needed modifying rather than replacing.
This done H829FLE had a second run.

80 bhp at 4000 rpm
94 bhp at 4500 rpm
100 bhp at 5000 rpm
106 bhp at 5500 bhp
107 bhp at 6000 bhp

H829FLE had the same gearing as the old BMC ADO16 1300 saloons, 12 inch wheels and a 3.65 final drive, to enable it to use its power.
With 4 more bhp, I was happy.

LLM230D – Then it was the turn of Saud Ben Saud with his Mini fitted with an Spi 1275cc engine converted to carburettor spec.
Last year he achieved 70 bhp. This year he arrived with a modified cylinder head.
On its first run LLM230D achieved 80 bhp. As it turned out Saud had correctly guessed the carburettor needle he needed. On his second run LLM230D achieved the following.

72 bhp at 4000 rpm
80 bhp at 4500 rpm
83 bhp at 5000 rpm
83 bhp at 5500 rpm
79 bhp at 6000 rpm

During the day Saud also helped out in dismantling other peoples carburettors, so big thanks there.

K674ALS – Finally it was the return of Matty Gordon to the rollers, for he had been on earlier when it was discovered that there were various problems with his carburettor, which he spent a long time taking apart and then putting together again.
K674ALS was perhaps the smartest car on the day, red with a white roof and white alloy wheels. This was another 998cc with a stage 1 kit.
This car produced 57 bhp at 5500 rpm.
Peter mentioned to Matty that later Mini’s had such high gearing that that they were incapable of reaching the rev range where the peak power was in 4th gear.
The post 1984 12 inch wheel Mini’s had gearing of 19.53 mph per 1000 rpm, which meant to reach the standard cars peak power at 5000rpm in top gear, the Mini would be going at 96.44 mph. The best any roadtest achieved was 81 mph, which equates as 4200 rpm.
For maximum performance, one has to look at the 1960’s factory gearing of not more than 17 mph per 1000 rpm.
For a car with 10 inch wheels this would be a 3.44 final drive ratio, 12 inch wheels, 3.65 and 13 inch wheels, 3.65 to 3.765 final drive.


By now it was 6.30pm and it was time to go, and those of us who had stayed on to the end paid Peter and set out into the night for the long journey home.
Harry summed up the day best.

“I would totally recommend anyone with a carb to do this as it was amazing to see how Peter could boost quite a few more horses into the Mini's just by twiddling a few screws and changing the needles.”
I led the way for the return journey. We seemed to lose Caroline early on in the darkness and as we neared Barton Mills, Matty, Iain and Dan overtook us.
Dan later explained why he overtook me;
“I only had an hour left on the insurance and had to get home before it ran out!”
After the Elveden bottleneck we watched Matty and Iain entertainingly swap places before they left us at the Thickthorn roundabout.
We got back to my place at 8.30pm, but Harry still had to drive home from there in his Mini.

An excellent report as usual Ian. I'll put it in the newsletter if that's ok with you?

No problem. I got fed up waiting for Harry to post some pics, so I posted the article.

Well done Ian, a brilliant write up and some great technical data.

Harry's put some pictures on that there Facebook - I'll put them in amongst your words.

Keith I have some pics too, but an inability to upload them to either the forum or the gmail site without some assistance. I'll put them on the skydrive and e-mail it to the gmail account.

Keith wrote:Harry's put some pictures on that there Facebook - I'll put them in amongst your words.

I'm proud to say I'm not on Facebook!

I will get there with a video and pics soon

Great report, I would recommend Peter Baldwin's rolling road to anyone with a carb engine