It's a mini adventure - UKGTL Fun Race - 22nd Dec

[fozzmeister]

Quite interested Gerald, Thanks. Can I ask, how you'd change gear in such a car, or any other race cars you've been in/worked on.

Fozz

Hi all I would like to point out that its almost impossible to get a racing mini or any other gear box of the A series into first whilst moving owing to the design.If one even grates the change it damages the engagement dogs and after that its had it. If any one was down in ist it is not very realistic. In my opinion the car does not drive anything like a race mini . The ones I drove and fiesta's come to that if the power is taken off in a corner they spin like a top . I was crap the car is nothing like I expected so will leave it alone.merry seasons wishes. gerald

[silver53]

Hi Mate the ford bullet box has syncro on first so you can get that gear as per a modern car. The really powerfull Aseries cars with an 8 port head were somtimes fitted with a toyota gearbox as a coversion bell houseing was available. The old mini , midget , sprite, A series engines were a long stroke engine giving loads of tourque at moderate revs. The mini in GT tune probably had to use a fairly standard crank and rods and would have pulled from about 2,000 rpm up to 6,800 ,owing to its poor breathing with siameesed inlet and centre exhaust port it just cannot move enough air or get really big valves in the combustion chambers due to their bath tub design.My own A series as per the midget on my web site is a different case as it was not controlled by any homologation contsraints. The block was an end of production Ital selected for its cylinder wall thickness by my engine building mate so it could be bored out big to get 1400cc .the cam is timed at differnt open and shut timing for each cylinder to allow for the porting.The chain drive was binned and belt timing fitted. The cylinder head would take about a fortnight to prepare as the valves are offset to get big inlets in. the ports are bored out entirely round, any holes being brazed up or a sleeve fitted. the push rod holes drilled at different angles as are the block. It has a steel crank with steel rods but this has a shorter stroke as per the 1071 cooper s .The engine is dry sumped with massive oil cooling (something of a weaknes on the mini as the egine and gearbox use the same oil). My midget put out 140 bhp at the wheels( so I dont belive the GTL 140 bhp) it pulled from 3.500revs up to 10,000 . It would run on to 11,000 but no extra power. In short we had to alter the gear ratio to suit the track as first was not an option for tight corners. It would spin 10" wide slicks in 3rd as it only wieghed 8cwt so going round druids at brands was 2nd gear, I needed the top end at the end of the straight going into paddock as well as big b**lls.The whole point of my gripe is that the mini in gtl drives like a road car on 5.20 *10 crossplies and it would not like being crammed into 1st. If the clutch was used there was a good chance of that blowing up as they are marginal on the mini anyway.bye for now. gerald

[fozzmeister]

Thanks Gerald, I'll re-read that all later with plenty of googling every few sentances :-)

Anyway I only came to get a beer and got distracted!

Thanks again

Foz

[Jamera]

Gerald, you said you had an end of line Ital engine. I take it you mean the Ital that took over from the Marina. That being the case my first car was an end of line Marina that was fitted with the "new" Ital 1700 as they had ran out of the Marina engines by that point. For the record that used to go quite well, for its day.

[silver53]

Yes that was the ohc engine  of bl's later series of cars before honda.That engine was quite good but got a bad reputation pulling the sherpa along.

[Jamera]

Yes, found it didn't like getting over heated though, had to have mine skimmed in the end

P.S. the marina was absolutely terrible for prop slap, could hear me engage 1st from 200 yrds lol

[silver53]

They used the triumph hearald gearbox on the marina. The first production cars all shear the reverse selctor pin within a week and had to be modded. We did not use this box as it was to heavy compared to the all ally A series box . I was very sad when the allegro sd1 marina ital etc left the world as we made good money repairing them. bye for now gerald

[Jamera]

You know something Gerald? It's only now thinking back I realise how good that Marina/Ital engine was for it's day, used to be able to leave most of my mates in their  mk II escorts for dead from a standing start