Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2022 i Mini Magazine

Racing is a serious business, there’s no doubt about it. The amount of research and development that goes into building and campaigning a successful race car (not to mention the cost) can be pretty eye-watering – but with the requisite elbow grease, the results speak for themselves. You’ll probably be familiar with Swiftune’s ability to put together fiercely effective drivetrains, chassis setups and, of course, entire cars – and with the affable and engaging Nick Swift behind the wheel, these things are damn near unstoppable. However, it’s not all serious-face, as this month’s cover car demonstrates: with a livery designed by an 8-year-old and a hilarious rear wing, this is a laser-focused race Mini with a supremely silly side. Elsewhere in the mag, we’ve got a diverse board of fare…

The 2022 event line-up is starting to fill up, isn’t it? There are shows all across the UK to be inked onto the calendar – and don’t let those ongoing concerns about international travel worry you, as it’ll still be possible to cruise down to the riviera. No, not Monaco, forget those hackneyed clichés – we’re talking about the Riviera Run organised by the Cornish Mini Club. The event will be celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, with an action-packed programme running through April 30th to May 2nd, departing from Pentewan Sands Holiday Park, St Austell. You can expect to see demonstrations of engine tuning, vinyl wrapping and car detailing, as well as over forty traders including Minis R Us, AC Dodd, Guessworks, Smiffy’s Bits, Kernow Spares, Selective Mini Spares,…

PLANET GIRTH Name: Ukyo (aka @evorange) Car: 1996 Mayfair Location: Ibaraki, Japan ■ There’s something simple and yet supremely beguiling about Ukyo’s Mayfair that we just can’t get enough of – and we’re not the only ones, as this perky ’96 has quite a following online. Hailing from Ibaraki on the Pacific coast of Japan, Ukyo has owned this car for about five years and it’s been steadily evolving throughout. Underneath the bonnet is the original 1275 in standard tune, but this project’s hook is all about the aesthetics. Those chunky curves come courtesy of a Beans bodykit; the car sits menacingly low and the arches have been savaged to allow the fitment of some chunky 7”-wide RAYS Volk mesh wheels in an aggressive-15 off-set. It all adds up to…

Finding the time to spend on a project can be almost impossible for a lot of people. Between work and family life, it can be tricky to dedicate the hours needed to transform something down-at-heel into a head turner. Ciaran Hennessy, who hails from Co Carlow in southeast Ireland, had been working on this stunning retro saloon, on and off, since 2014. But the Covid-19 pandemic proved to be the proverbial cloud with the silver lining, allowing him to spend lockdown in the lockup… The story starts in 2014, when without even seeing pictures of the car, Ciaran and his good friend and fellow Mini fanatic, Ray Mullen, set off on a three-hour drive to Co Louth. “We rocked up, and saw this British Racing Green 1971 Mini with all…

While it might be argued that Saab invented the concept of the rally superstar for the showroom, it’s fair to say that BMC took the ball and ran with it, making the Mini’s Monte Carlo victories a huge part of its commercial appeal. For decades, the idea of an iconic rallying legend, whether that’s Burns, McRae, Loeb or Ogier, has seemed like a part of the motorsport landscape. Manufacturers have long since worked out that taking a talented wheelman and co-driver, sticking them in something that resembles a showroom product, and then winning gruelling rallies with it, is a tried-and-tested formula for selling the more vanilla showroom fare. Saab’s charismatic Eric Carlsson set the template, winning the Monte Carlo rally in ’62 – and catapulting the weird little FWD Swedish…

YOUR EXCLUSIVE SUBSCRIPTION OFFERS TO OFFER 1. DIGITAL EDITION 13 ISSUES FOR ?37.99 SINGLE ISSUE ONLY £5.50 TO SUBSCRIBE DIGITALLY VISIT SHOP.KELSEY.CO.UK/MMG2022 OFFER 2. UK PRINT EDITION 6 ISSUES JUST ?21.99* VISIT SHOP.KELSEY.CO.UK/MMG2022 OR CALL OUR SUBSCRIPTION TEAM ON 01959 543 747 & QUOTE OFFER CODE MMG2022 HOTLINE OPEN: MON - FRI 8.30AM - 5.30PM Calls charged at your standard network rate. *UK Direct Debit Print offer only available to new UK subscribers. PLEASE SEND COMPLETED FORM TO: Subscriptions, Kelsey Publishing Ltd, The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding, Maidstone, Kent, ME18 6AL PHONE TOLL FREE FROM USA:1-888-777-0275 (7am-3pm EST) INTERNATIONAL ONLY PLEASE CALL: 0044 (0)1959 543 747 Here at Kelsey Publishing we take your privacy seriously and will only use your personal information to administer…

One of the most annoying things about being a grown-up is the necessity to make boring decisions. Life is jam-packed with them, each more granular and mind-numbing than the last – should you change energy provider, and if so which one’s offering the best rates; should you bin that half-empty bag of rocket-and-watercress that’s languishing in the bottom of the fridge or give it a free pass for another day; what colour should you paint the bathroom to cover up that drab magnolia? It’s endless. Things were far simpler when we were kids. We were much freer to act on impulse, follow our whims, ignore the conventions of reality and let our dreams flourish. “I’ve been modifying cars - especially this one - since I was a teenager” Perhaps, then,…

MiniRunUK’s annual Remembrance Run was a wonderful success, with hundreds of Mini owners coming from all over the UK to attend the remembrance service at the National Memorial Arboretum. Assorted Minis were beautifully decorated in poppies as a mark of respect, and the run started from Tamworth services where hundreds of cars convoyed down the A5. The route was lined with spectators standing across the bridges, cheering and waving them on. Funds raised from the run were donated to the upkeep of the Arboretum, and the MiniRunUK team would like to thank every single Mini owner who attended the event for their support. This year’s drive will take place on November 13th.…

The Scramble events at Bicester Heritage have been growing in stature, displaying a wide variety of desirable classics within beautiful and striking environs. January 16th will see the event return for 2022 – and as part of the Scramblers display taking over parts of the Technical Site from 1-5pm, they’re pulling together a line-up of the many varied machines that were powered by an A-Series engine, from stock Minis to wild specials and everything in between, to create an ‘A-Series Avenue’. Get your tickets at bicesterheritage.co.uk, we’ll see you there!…

Due to the uncertainty surrounding Covid, please be aware that events are subject to change. Keep an eye on the organisers’ websites to stay up to date with any developments. ■ 13th-16th January 2022 Autosport International The almighty motorsport colossus return to the Birmingham NEC, which promises to offer a huge amount of variety among its many halls www.autosportinternational.com ■ 30th January Mini Fair Fantastic event at Bingley Hall, Staffordshire County Showground. Perfect shopping day out for Mini fans due to the large amount of Mini-specific traders and auto-jumblers. Plus, club stands and British Mini Club’s Show ‘n’ Shine and Premier Concours final. www.britishminiclub.co.uk ■ 17th February Brooklands – An Evening with Paddy Hopkirk The iconic motorsport venue will host an evening with the archetypal Mini legend – get your…

Frank Iszard is, like most of us, a petrolhead perfectionist who has a deep love for Minis. One particular thing Frank has to his advantage is that he’s a full-time mechanic, and his attention to detail is on another level. We met at a Mini show back in the summer of 2019. I saw the 1988 Mayfair and said to Frank that it would be prime for a feature in the mag; he mentioned that it wasn’t perfect and over the winter he’d be treating some visible rust on the outside. In his words not long after, “I’ll be honest, it’s going to be a while, as there’s a lot more rust than I thought!” We stayed in touch, and pre-pandemic Frank had stripped the car down to a bare…

The Members’ Meeting has been a spectacular highlight of the Goodwood calendar since 2014, serving to rekindle a name from the annals of history: the first 71 meetings took place in the 1950s and ’60s. Think of it as a Revivalesque event with a broader timescale; whereas the Revival focuses on the period 1948-66, the MM spans a greater timeline, allowing the inclusion of such thrilling genres as the turbocharged Formula One cars of the 1980s, Group B rally cars and much more besides – and all with smaller crowds so there’s more elbow room. The race card for the 78th Members’ Meeting was pleasingly eclectic: there was the S.F. Edge Trophy for pre-1923 Edwardian specials, the Pierpoint Cup for V8 brutes such as Mustangs and Galaxies, the Ronnie Hoare…

COST From £100 TOOLS REQUIRED Sockets, spanners, screwdrivers, hammer, cutting tool TIME TAKEN Under an hour DIFFICULTY An aftermarket exhaust system is one of the simplest and most effective bolt-on mods that can be made to any engine, and in the case of the A-series there’s a reason why so many enthusiasts get on the blower to Maniflow – these are good-looking systems with excellent construction and proven performance. My Mini previously had a centre-exit exhaust fitted, so in theory this should be a simple case of removing the old one and bolting in the new. (The rear mountings are already in place for a centre-exit – if you’re fitting one to a car that has a conventional exit, it’s just one extra simple step: square block mounting at the…

As car shows go, the Classic Motor Show is a biggie. The event takes over several halls at Birmingham’s NEC, and the scale for 2021 was astounding. There was a massive turnout from clubs and businesses, with truly impressive visitor numbers. Covid checks were taken at the door, and once inside it was almost like… well, being back to normal. There were so many highlights for Mini fans to enjoy too. Our buddies at Bomber County Minis had a sizeable stand with a large variety of minty-fresh builds, and just across the way from them we found a pair of ‘Twini’ twin-engined Minis. The Discovery+ live stage featured all sorts of entertaining insights from the likes of Mike Brewer, Ant Anstead and Jimmy de Ville, plus our regular columnists Helen…

There’s a certain look to the race Minis you find in the paddocks at the Goodwood Revival. A signature uniform, if you like. A solid and period-correct paint colour, race roundels, team-appropriate side-stripes… it’s all very classic, very clean. So you can imagine the amount of double-takes this raucous little tearaway was generating as the Swiftune guys slipped the covers off at the 2021 event. Looking like it’s been coloured in with crayons and poster paint, and sporting a frankly colossal rear wing, it looks more like the kind of thing a child would scrawl in a sketch book than something you’d expect to see on a historic race grid. And that’s because, really, it is. Nick Swift and his merry band of enthusiast-experts have always taken a tongue-in-cheek approach,…

All of my mates are into the classics, we’re always tinkering and playing around with them.” Mike Robinson’s story is a very relatable one, and it keeps getting better the more we learn. Having spotted his Russet Brown 998 at Himley Hall, we knew it was something special – but we didn’t realise how deep the rabbit-hole went. He’s owned it since he was 15 and, now 26, reckons he’s replaced every single nut and bolt at least twice. “I originally got into classic Minis because of my dad,” Mike explains. “He has a 1976 Mini, and watching him work on the car over the years really gave me the bug. I wanted nothing more than to go to shows and go out with him in it.” This brown Mini…

WELL OILED MACHINE Q My 1098 is generally a very reliable and dependable runner, but lately I’ve noticed a fair amount of oil down the front of the engine, and the source of it appears to be the dipstick hole. It’s a low-mileage engine that doesn’t use excessive oil and isn’t a heavy breather – so why could this be? What’s causing the oil to escape? Barrie F A This isn’t uncommon, and you’ll probably find that it’s simply being caused by the dipstick rattling around in the tube. It’s down to degradation of the rubber grommet on the dipstick, which hardens and becomes less able to do its job. There are two ways you can sort this: option A is to buy an aftermarket dipstick that has two O-rings…

Cast your mind back to 1984. George Orwell’s seminal work had proven not to have totally come true (although some would argue it wasn’t far from the mark), and the world was instead cheerfully tilting in a new and joyful direction. This was the time when Frankie Goes to Hollywood were encouraging us to relax, Cyndi Lauper was vibrantly espousing girls’ keenness for just having fun, and Ghostbusters and Gremlins were duking it out with Splash and The Karate Kid at the box office. Things were equally rosy at Longbridge, where a fresh new special edition was unveiled to mark a quarter-century of continuous production of the Mini. The appropriately-titled Mini 25 was a shimmering vision in Silver Leaf Metallic, with tasteful red and grey coachlines incorporating a ‘25’ logo.…

It was a freezing cold January day when we last saw Matti White and his ’87 Mayfair. Yet another depressing lockdown was looming, but he remained in high spirits as progress of his project continued. Some of you may recall Matti’s ‘On The Job’ feature of last year, with just a bare painted shell and most of the intended mods waiting patiently in the wings – we were confident this project was bound to be a stunner. When we received a call to say his Mayfair was back on the road, we had to take another look and it certainly didn’t disappoint! Despite being just 20 years of age, Matti’s been a fan of the iconic British classic for as long as he can remember. “I’ve always loved how they…