Mini talk.

[DavidA]

I was so close to buying a Mighty Mini race car when I got divorced, and I've been driven around Castle Combe in both a Mighty and an Extreme Mighty Mini...couldn't stop grinning afterwards.

I was totally gutted when I sold my last one. Especially when the bloke who bought her then unceremoniously stripped her and sold off all the bits !

[bashbarnard]

I used to race my last one and I have friends that done mini stocks too. I love the little things. Buzzing to work on it again

[daddyfixit]

had 2;
a genuine rose metallic clubman ---gt 1/2 race engine, factory webasto roof, on 12" wheels

a 1340 s; twin tanks, rear cage, servo, 10" cosmic alloys, front/rear nudge bars------------sold as scrap during divorce settlement 25 years ago................would be worth a bit if I still had it now ??

would like to have a go at another but no time/money/space any more !!

[DavidA]

Dribble...

It's space in waiting for at the moment, mine have lived outside in the past but I'd like to keep this next one warm and dry in the garage to keep her as long as possible.

[bashbarnard]

Ours is in garage atm. The parts one we got cheap got stored outside though. It was beyond repair even by me. Needed everything including a new shell. Had food running gear though so couldnt turn her down. Ended up cutting in half for a guy that wanted a trailer for his one in return his spraying ours on the cheap

[DavidA]

That's handy. I bought one off eBay going back about 10 years that we thought was a bargain - 1275GT for £160 - and it wasn't until we got it home that we found Fred Flintstone had obviously been driving it (floor pans totally rusted through) and the brake pads were under the passenger seat !

Engine went in my other Mini at the time, interior went to a friend and the rest went for scrap. Serves me right for collecting in the pouring rain !

[bashbarnard]

Its always the same my mrs bought this one four years ago because she liked the look of it drove it round for a month blew the headgasket. Thats how it sat for a few months untill I got to look at it for mot and it was buggerd so lots of welding later and an engine rebuild still to do we should have a working functinal mini

[DavidA]

There's always something isn't there...they're never quite finished.

[bashbarnard]

True my last one had a list and when I got one thing done another thing broke, I was forever having fueling issues on mine and my coilpacks always burnt out as they weren't man enough for the high compression mine ran

[DavidA]

I've only ever had carb models, never ventured into the world of SPi or MPi...so heavy rain on the Avonmouth bridge heading home from work stopped me briefly. Decent squirt of WD40 around the dizzy and I was back on my way again.

[ozonehostile]

Ah I miss the mornings of playing "will the mini start or not today" haha

On the rust front though, my sister has only ever driven minis since she passed her test, so first, second and third cars have all been different mini models haha.

Anyway, she picked up a '94 spi with 23k on the clock from new off this old lady, one owner and garaged from day one, so as you suspect it was mint.

14 months of daily driving and it it started to rust everywhere, despite having a thorough clean most weekends. It's the blue one you might have seen in the background of some of my project threads haha.

Just about to go back on the road actually the engine died last summer when it overheated in traffic, all rust sorted and repainted but still, it's insane how badly the later minis rot compared to a mk1 or 2

[DavidA]

It's the same with everything - they don't make them like they used to ! Cost down = reduced quality.