In which Teal, the Mini, is prepared for a mighty journey to Orkney, the Hebrides, Mull and back.
With the Thistle Rally cancelled we are taking the Mini touring. We have cars better suited to touring but the Mini is just more fun once on the roads we expect to find or indeed seek out with mischief aforethought. We are prepared to sacrifice practicality for the tingle of a mini adventure.
Our Mini is called Teal because he is Teal Blue and our friend has a Mini with number plate NEAxxxL. Teal has an Old English White roof. He is a 1974 Mk3 Austin Mini 1000 set up to do almost anything, though I suppose he would not make a very good wedding car. But he can do full on forest stage rallies, Targas, road and regularity rallies, sprints, hill-climbs and Sid now finds there is a race series where this sturdy build (730kgs) would not be much of a disadvantage.
He was built by Owen Turner at Complete Rally Services from a new shell which appears to have manufacturing tolerances no better than the Austin originals. Teal has a full FIA cage, seats, belts, extinguishers. On the nav’s side are the Brantz time and distance clocks. For the go along, a Metro 1275 motor is bored out to 1,293cc, a Kent 266 cam (which pulls from nothing) and twin 1 1/2 ” SU carbs (which maybe should have been 1 1/4″s). Just now he is on electronic ignition and puts out 87 storming bhp and 91lb ft of torque. The recent mapping with electronic ignition was done by the renowned Mini racer Peter Baldwin, after our experience with wobbly Aldon distributors gave us such a hard time on the 2020 Winter Rally (where even so we took the First Mixed Crew Trophy).
Putting this power to the road we have 10″ wheels with Yokohama 008s, so I am not looking for snow on this trip.We have all helical gears (as it is noisy enough not to want screaming straight cuts too) with the Mini Spares strong gear kit giving a rather high ratio first gear at 2.6, then 1.6, 1.25 and direct top. Sid hates one wheel drive so we have the MED torque biasing LSD. Once under way it is very gentle and pulls you into the corner under power. It should be nice on snow and ice. However, do not give it welly away from a T junction unless you are holding on really tight. Just saying.
Frankly a fifth gear would be good too and late Minis did have them but are not reckoned very strong. Another way to reduce the rev count when cruising would be a taller final drive ratio than our 3.44, as used in the original Cooper S. We need 4,200 rpm to get 70 mph. You can nearly hear yourself speak, so just speak more loudly or put the Peltor headsets on. Besides acceleration is modest enough by modern standards.
In historic form we are allowed ride height adjusters (Hi-Los, which we have) but not adjustable bottom arms. Unfortunately the tolerances in the shell, sub-frames and suspension components that the lucky parts bin has dealt us gave unwanted positive camber and far from symmetrical toe and castor. Now we have put on adjustables front and rear and asked Lee Deegan at Regency Autos to use his racing knowledge and spiffy equipment to set all the angles. Our trip to Millbrook proving ground showed this to be a very benign set up.
As an aside, what the Historic competitors do is set up their suspension angles as they want them and then weld up the holes in the front bottom arms and redrill them to give the desired angles. The parts look standard but have cost much more than having adjustables. Thank you to the guardians of historic authenticity for that one.
Since we came back from Millbrook Sid has done the full set of checks that Owen wrote out when we set off on the Sahara Challenge,Teal’s first event. Grease oozes from every nipple, nuts are torqued. The favourite oil is to hand. We are not short of glass cleaner. Or spares.
Here is a picture: Hoses for water, clutch and brakes. Distributor, coil, cap, leads, plugs. Drive shaft CV and bottom arm joints. Wheel bearings. Fuel and water pumps. A full gasket set. A box of miscellaneous switches, fuses, nuts and bolts. Tapes. This is heavy and not very accessible behind the driver’s seat. (When we go away in the VW Golf I generally just make sure it has glass cleaner.) Mostly I hope not to need any of those bits and just do the checks using the tools in the boot and the fluids in the back.
Minis hate water. The distributor, coil and alternator all face the rain and have no water radiator to shield them, as that is on the right side of the engine bay. We have a rubber glove from Mr Heath Robinson such that the wrist sleeve covers the body of the distributor and the palm, fingers and thumb shield the top of the distributor cap with a coil or plug wire coming from each digit. We have a plastic shield behind the grille, and a tin of WD40 by the driver’s seat.
The first day of our trip is a long drag up the A1, the Great North Road, to get to lovely Northumberland and Hadrian’s Wall. The forecast shows rain all day, it shows 100% chance of rain. I will put a waterproof jacket in the car. Wish us all luck.