> Minis will also chew up most cars in an autocross but you can't drive them
> with the top down on a nice summer day. Naturally the solution is to own
> both a sprite and a mini.
I agree
>A guy in the Mini club here wants to drag race his car and is looking for
>information on hot setups. The consensus in the club is he's going to need
>a good gearbox and a lotus 1600cc engine. Anyone have any more info? How
>about some of the crazies from OZ?
The first step would be to get David Vizard's book on the A-series engine,
from what I remember you can build a 200 HP A-series engine (probably with
lots of bucks). I would think that re-engineering a Mini to slot in a Lotus
engine is going the wrong way (why not just buy a Lotus 7 !!!).
However the A-series is such a wonderfull/flexible engine, that it can
be tuned for anything you want - plus it has 30+ years of racing hertitage
and the parts/knowledge as backup.
I visited a freiend of mine who has more than 15 Minis (plus about 10 Mini
Mokes !!), in various stages of repair. One he uses for vintage racing,
and with little preparation gets 100hp out of the engine. He also drives
a GT4 Mini in SCCA, which turns out 120HP and has gone 2 full race seasons
without disassembly. He recently broke the lap record at Bridgehampton in
this car !!!!!
BTW these cars only weigh 1300 lbs (in racing trim), after seeing his
cars, it has been awfully tempting to buy a Mini for racing - but I don't
think my wife would satnd for it .
Gerry
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