mk1-forum.net

Reading these posts reminded me that as a 9 year old i had a ride on the backseat in my very first Mini "White with Red trim" ..it was a new delivered car and i still remember the smell of the trim or was it the glue?.. what seemed odd at the time was just the one single gauge in the middle of the dash & we seemed to be bouncing along the roads..this was in 1959 at Abingdon & we went to look at the RAF Beverly Transport Aircraft .. how time flys.

I can see why you could tire of a loud fast performing Mini, particularly if it is usually driven relativity sedately. However, there is no need for a modified car to be loud or badly behaved.

Why not go for the best of both worlds, a sensibly modified car.

No Mini has ever not benefited from the fitting of a stage 1 head, this will only improve things, quieter, faster less fuel consumption, a decent exhaust manifold & why not leave the 1 1/2" carbs on, but fit a decent air filter, possibly using a modified standard air box. The standard cam is pretty poor, giving a good tickover, but not really offering much more, fit a 997 Cooper cam, an SW% or a Minispares high torque. None of these will make your engine misbehave, all offer advantages & will make your car nicer than standard.

For example look at a Downton No5 Touring Conversion, this made a Cooper S better in every department;

http://mk1-performance-conversions.co.uk/dtn_45.pdf

A car modified in this way was a great improvement, not only in performance but manners too.

Don't get me wrong, I like standard cars, but a well modified car will always be preferable in my eyes.

As far as value is concerned, I honestly don't think there is any difference between a well modified car & a standard one.

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Mark F
I am not a number, but you can get me on 0800-555-555

100% agree with this Mark and both my minis are testament to it!

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Mk2 Cooper
Mk1 project

I did much the same except I fitted K&N pancakes inside the standard airbox.

The spec of my S engine seems to be similar to that quoted by Beatlejohn when kicking off this thread so you might wonder how I have been able to run twin 1.5" SUs using a standard airbox? A bit of luck really. During the 1970s Longmans were selling a larger version of the elbow which then allowed the standard airbox to mate up to the 1.5"SU. I seem to recall that they had had 100 pairs cast for homologation purposes in preparing their 1275GT race cars. Would that be right? It's a tight fit but the airbox will go in. Getting the box to fit was a bit of a problem as originally it wouldn't clear the two upright locating bolts and was fouling the scuttle. I solved that by carefully unscrewing the bolts from the elbows then Araldited the butterfly nut to the the top of the bolt. Now when I unscrew the butterfly nut the bolt comes out too. The box and lid now fit easily before screwing in the combined butterfly nut and bolt units. A bit of a fiddle (what isn't on a Mini?!!) but it will go.

Here's a couple of photos to show the whole set up:



I've never seen any of the special elbows since. Has anyone else seen any?

Graham

I have achieved the same by modifying the elbow & filter box.

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Mark F
I am not a number, but you can get me on 0800-555-555

..exactly I,m 66 !!! and I had mk 2 and 3 Coopers and S types from the 1970,s onwards.. uprated carbs,cams,cranks,wheels,cyl head mods...any period mods 1960,s thru to early 70,s.. the golden years of Mini-ing.. foxy52

I think it is definitely worth exploring the options, free flow air filters in a standard air box should quieten things down a bit with out robbing to much power.

I came across this article about it while I was looking at the carb options for my small bore unit..

https://www.minimania.com/Air_filtratio ... test__1288

According to Keith it's quiet on part throttle but sounds nice when you give it the beans, and actually showed an improvement in power and more stable fuel delivery over a cone type filter. I will be using this set up along side a Maniflow 3 into 1 and an RC40, hopefully it should be reasonably civilised

Hi Mark
I would be pleased to know what modifications you made to your air filter box and the elbows to enable them to connect to the 1.5 inch carburettors .I have such a box and would like to se if I can utilise it on my car.

It is quite easy:

Elbows.
You need to grind the mounting holes out a bit so they line up with the mounting holes on the carb, the main hole should also be matched up to the carb inlet. I can't honestly remember how much if any material I took off as I did this car about 12 years ago.

Filterbox:
You just need to make the 2 small cuts in the front of the box (that you can see in the picture) to allow the filter to clamp down properly on the elbows.

That's it. It is a really easy effective mod to allow you to run Hs4's with a standard filter box.

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Mark F
I am not a number, but you can get me on 0800-555-555