Practically Classics Forum

I was reading about this the other day,a shame it didn't go into depth about the technology.

Any Mini fans out there who are clued up on the technology?
Bizarrely,I do and I don't like Minis. I think I'll have try one,it's the bobbing up and down that I see that the drivers are experiencing,that doesn't appeal to me. I do like the early type,a proper Mini

Try one, they're addictive. If you like a mini but don't like rust, then you need one like this:




On the 9X, I have a book somewhere that provides detailed techie info about it. Now where in the name of the flying spaghetti monster did I last see that?

Everybody should own a mini at some point in their life. I have had a few and they were all good fun in a gocart sort of way. Not really practical every day transport though, especially if you need to use a motorway.

TerryG wrote:Everybody should own a mini at some point in their life. I have had a few and they were all good fun in a gocart sort of way. Not really practical every day transport though, especially if you need to use a motorway.

I've had three of them (All used daily) and if I "Won the lottery", thus enabling me to buy more garage space, a Mini Cooper (1275) S would be on my shopping list. My last Mini (My only new car) was a City, with a 998 cc engine, disc brakes and taller gearing than the previous two. That one was OK on motorways but the other two got a bit buzzy over a sustained 60mph. The paintwork was not up to much on that car and the paint itself was poor. Being a white car (Not my first choice but it was in stock and I was just looking for a runabout), I was moved to ask Austin/Rover whether they had used Tippex instead of paint. I managed to keep on top of it and the car was pumped full of Waxoyl from new (Despite the five year corrosion warranty; I couldn't see how this was meant to work in practice); having had a old one, I knew where to put it. My cousin had the car off me and when he sold it, I suggested he show prospective buyers inside the rear pockets etc. Apparently the person who bought it was sold when he saw the Waxoyl and absense of rust

I never had an estate, though had they been available, when I had the new one or had there been any about, when I bourght the second Mini (That was the one that saved the Midget from daily use), I'd have gone for a Clubman Estate. Indeed when my father sold the last Countryman, he traded it in for a then new Escort estate and although the Escort was a bigger car, he found that the Mini was a better shape and made better use of it's space (Wasn't as rust prone as the Escort either).

My parents had a total of five Minis, from a Downton tuned 1959, a supercharged 850 Countryman (My mother took her test in that one), an 850 Hornet (The first car I ever went in and indeed my earliest memory is riding in this car, in the snow, with my grandfather catching us up on his BSA), a standard Countryman (The first one I remember properly) and later, as a second car, a standard Mk2 850.

As to 9X, this was an Issigonis project and I seem to recall that it's covered in some detail in http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/I ... edir_esc=y. I will have to have a look when I go home

Here are my last two Minis.

This was my mini (until I crashed it and lost confidence then parked it up and forgot about it). I used it a lot but never "daily" as it would do 80 but doing it with a 3.44 diff and 10" wheels it SCREAMED.
1293 turbo, 10" wheels hiding 7.5" cooper disc brakes. No roof, Yokohama a008 tyres, custom made dashboard, 90s cooper seats, nightfire red paint, etc, etc. I had a couple of others including a mini30 and a mary quant one but don't have pics to hand.

That looks a nice example; was the turbo a Metro (Janspeed developed) system

Here is my father's supercharged Mini (I think this was before he fitted the blower; it had to be run in first) at Le Mans in 1961. The supercharger gave it low down grunt, which was useful for towing his Cooper Mk 8.

It was indeed. The engine itself was from a MG-Metro then re-bored out to 1293, the turbo and bits to plumb it in came from a metro turbo which had been stolen and ragged until it blew up. Fortunately although the engine was seized the turbo was fine
I crashed it sliding down a hill in the pouring rain in to a parked car (I was 18 at the time) and after that I had it repaired but never really drove it. It sat on the drive for YEARS before a friend bought it from me then promptly put it under a bus. Yoko 008 tyres are amazing in the dry but in the wet they make every road feel like sheet ice!

I would love a woody like that. I had a thing for minor travellers so a mini traveller would look good next to one. Definitely lottery win required to round up all the cars I would like to have and a warehouse to keep them in!

As I mentioned in the Minor V Herald thread, I think a Metro Turbo set up would work well in a Minor, not that I feel I will ever get around to it.

The woody Mini, that I remember, was a similar blue to my teal blue Minor Traveller. At the same time, two doors down, was a Minor Traveller in almond green (An Addis rep had it) and even as a toddler, I realised that they were similar.....apart from the wood on the Mini being there purely for decoration.

Back to the red Mini pictured and it seems someone else wanted it, as when my parents were in Paris, a note was left on the windscreen, enquiring as to whether they would be prepared to sell it. That was in stark contrast to the people who stole the blue one in Cardiff . Luckilly it was found not far away, with no more damage than a flat battery (Lights left on) and a forced drivers door handle. Thereafter if we went to Cardiff, it (And those that followed) was parked at Castle Garage, who offered secure parking.

I checked the aforementioned book and there were about seven pages devoted to the 9X. It seems it began in 1968 and was aimed to replace the Mini and the 1100/1300. There was to be a Mini replacement, with in the region of a 700 - 1000cc engine and the bigger cars were to have OHC in line sixes, of between 1200 and 1500cc. Central to the project, were the engines and Issigonis drew inpiration from the pre war Austin 7, with it's aluminium alloy crankcase, short iron cylinder block and aluminium alloy head. It seems that BL wanted pension Issigonis off (Problems with the early Landcrabs, which actually had a very good and strong monocoque and Maxi were used as excuses). It also mentioned that labour relations within BL would have hampered a projected 1971 launch.

I have also come up with http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/concept ... ts-bmc-9x/.