Minis

The first car I ever bought with my own money was a Mini 1275GT - new in May 1970. After driving it for about 60,000 miles I had a problem with the differential and took it to a local garage to be repared. I didn't know it at the time, but the garage owner was Richard Longman - British Saloon Car winner in the 1970s. He suggested we do a few modifications to the engine before putting it back in the car. So I ended up with a Longman cylinder head, a 567 camshaft, twin 1.5" SU carburreters, and as much performance as I could handle! Unfortunately the mini had to go when our first child arrived - it just wasn't big enough.

In 1996 I decided I just had to have a mini again - once bitten you can't get them out of your system. So I asked John Adair who trades under the old Speedwell name to build a mini to my specification. He started with a new Rover shell and put in an engine with a good road specification:1293cc, MG Metro camshaft, 10.5:1 compression ratio, 1.75" SU Carb, LCB manifold, RC40 exhaust etc. After Pete Baldwin had set it up on his rolling road it produced 83 bhp - enough to be enjoyable!

Sadly, when we moved to our new bungalow there was no room to garage the mini, and so it (he) was sold in the summer of 2006. However I kept all my specialist mini tools just in case the bug bites again .....