- Boosting Mini Performance -

20-January-2006

Well now now the mini has been on the road for a year it's unfortunately time to take it off again! It's gotten a bit rusty and i'd imagine getting it through another MoT test would be a challenge so it's time it has some tlc.

22-February-2005

Spent a bit of time fitting the new wheels and arches, its amazing how much this lifts the look of the car. You can see them in the updated picture gallery. Even though its hardly had any use the oil pressure gauge has failed, we went out and it was working fine but on the way home we noticed we had 100+psi of oil pressure, even when the engine was switched off! I also installed a relay to cut off the ignition supply as well should the inertia switch cut off, now in the event of a crash the engine and fuel pump will stop - before there was a danger the engine could keep running on the fuel left in the carb.

We can now start thinking about future plans, these are mainly related to tidying the bodywork. It really needs a new front end both doors and the boot lid replacing, however I think we'll get some use out of it and maybe do the bodywork later in the year.

11-February-2005

At very long last the turbo mini is finally fit for the road! Since the last MoT failure we changed the rear brake cylinders for new ones and fitted braided brake hoses at the same time. Also noticed that one rear radius arm had lots of play in the bearing so this was changed also Amazingly the MoT tester hadn't noticed it.

I also thought what the heck and cut off the rear valence, it was so rusty that it had split almost in half and the last MoT tester didn't like the look of it. I had to do several repairs to the body corners, boot floor and valence closure panels and then fitted up the new panel.

I also did a bit of rewiring - the new electronic ignition had mistakenly been wired to the old ballast ignition system so that was completely bypassed by a good 12v from the fuse box - when the car was out on the road this completely solved the misfire that had started about 2500rpm.

Yesterday we took the mini to the rolling road to be tuned and to have its emissions sorted, after much fiddling it was all done. However it failed its MoT again! One of the old metal brake pipes on the radius arm obviously couldn't stand being taken off twice and had a slight leak and one of the headlamp bulbs had blown, it was all sorted quickly though.

The next job is to fit the new wheels we have. Currently the car is still fitted with its 12 inch 145 type 'ditchfinder' tyres, the new wheels have the much better 165 Yoko tyres, unfortunately I need to modify the front arches slightly as they just catch - but at least we're now road worthy!

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