Like so many others I wish I'd never sold my Cooper S. In the late sixties I had an ex BVRT Grey with white roof Cooper RUC295E. I'd be so pleased if anyone has a photo of BVRT cars with my old car.
I bought it from Sid at MerseySpeed (Aintree) and he said it was Hill climbed or sprinted by BVRT. It had some great mods and it would have been an amazing car to have today. I don't even have a photo.
Any info about what it did or where it competed would be great to have.
The men who may be able to help are Pete on here & my mate Paul who you can contact through his excellent "Mountgreen" web site, dedicated to all things British Vita.
Vehicle details
Vehicle make :AUSTIN
Date of first registration :01 January 1967
Cylinder capacity (cc) :998cc
CO₂Emissions :Not available
Fuel type :PETROL
Vehicle status :Not taxed
Vehicle colour :GREY
Vehicle type approval :Not available
Wheelplan :2 AXLE RIGID BODY
Revenue weight :Not available
In my village pub, there was a local chap called Mike Holmes. He was into racing minis with his brother "back in the day". If I recall correctly, they had a road mini they used to use for work and it had a whole different front subframe for racing. The engine had such a high compression, they had trouble starting it. He said it was all good fun and then the likes of British Vita got involved and started spending "thousands" on an engine (adjusted for today's prices) and he said that ruined it. It's where the shed tinkerers doing their David Vizard tuning stuff were utterly blown out of the water by big money.
I wonder if any of you lot remember Mike. He probably has some photos. Sadly, since the village pub has been bought by an essex wideboy intent on developing it into housing, I rarely see him.
I think they also mentioned something about having (someone else perhaps) having a kenlowe fan and rad mounted in the passenger door, and then another one with the weber trumpets stuck out of the dashboard "you could lose your cigarette in there"
They ALL started off tinkering in their sheds but managed to make a bloody good business out of what they were doing because they were amongst the very best who were doing it.
Harry will always be the very best of the A Series tuner ever in my eyes & a bloody nice bloke to boot.
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Last edited by trevorhp on Fri Dec 11, 2015 4:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Ambition: the first step on the road to disappointment" Homer. J. Simpson
"Disappointment: the first step on the road to enlightenment" Buddha
"Enlightenment: the first step on the road to ambition" Dalai Lama
No point in hoping to go to Heaven...... I won't know anyone there.
KDK 320F
HDK 443E
DJJ 226H
TFD 47G
PKV 375
I x 1967 originally Red since 1968 Blue,Ex-Race Cooper S Bodyshell only have Commission plate as ID.
1 x chassis 007 1967 Cox GTM
mk1 wrote:I must stand up for Harry & the BVRT boys.
They ALL started off tinkering in their sheds but managed to make a bloody good business out of what they were doing because they were amongst the very best who were doing it.
Harry will always be the very best of the A Series tuner ever in my eyes & a bloody nice bloke to boot.
M
Quite right. Jim Whitehouse at Arden didn't exactly run his business from high-spec premises either.......
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mk1 wrote:I must stand up for Harry & the BVRT boys.
They ALL started off tinkering in their sheds but managed to make a bloody good business out of what they were doing because they were amongst the very best who were doing it.
Harry will always be the very best of the A Series tuner ever in my eyes & a bloody nice bloke to boot.
M
Quite right. Jim Whitehouse at Arden didn't exactly run his business from high-spec premises either.......
looks like his premises was haunted as well.......
mk1 wrote:
They ALL started off tinkering in their sheds but managed to make a bloody good business out of what they were doing
Great things from little sheds, I don't think Ralph Broad's premises was anything to shout about either and nor were any of these businesses rolling in it. Ralph lost a lot of money with the bare minimum of support from BMC and BVRT were far from profit motivated to say the least! Both Steve Neal and John Rhodes put a lot into business ideas and neither were particularly successful financially. Harry wasn't interested in money at all, but they could have made a mint had he/they been. Most of these guys were just interested in the engineering and proving it worked on the track, not business people which when you consider the amount of business there was in Minis in the 60s and 70s is quite a contrast to today's market. The only ones in the Mini tuning/accessory market I can think of that did make it big financially were the Richmonds of course, Paddy Hopkirk and Gordon Spice.
Oh wow. Had a look on the Mountgreen Vita site and was thrilled when I spotted 1275 UP. My nan lived in Cheadle when I was a boy and I used to hanker after this car as it was always parked outside with another red Mk1 or 2 Cooper with plenty of 70s upgrades. At 12 years old I used to go to the shops to catch a glimpse. Didn't recall being such a Mini geek till just nowI even did a registration search recently to see if it still survived. Brilliant! Didn't realise it had such a great history behind it.
mk1 wrote:Hi Brian,
The men who may be able to help are Pete on here & my mate Paul who you can contact through his excellent "Mountgreen" web site, dedicated to all things British Vita.
Not the same team but Joey Greenan owns a dark green Cooper Team car. The late Glyn Swift rebuilt the engine about ten years ago. It is now a LHD car for some reason. Anyone know it?
Supersonic wrote:Not the same team but Joey Greenan owns a dark green Cooper Team car. The late Glyn Swift rebuilt the engine about ten years ago. It is now a LHD car for some reason. Anyone know it?
Alan
I remember watching Joey race when I was a short pants, he was a fantastic driver and mad as a box of frogs!
Supersonic wrote:Not the same team but Joey Greenan owns a dark green Cooper Team car. The late Glyn Swift rebuilt the engine about ten years ago. It is now a LHD car for some reason. Anyone know it?
Alan
I remember watching Joey race when I was a short pants, he was a fantastic driver and mad as a box of frogs!
Nev, he is still mad trust me. You are right, Joey was a fantastic driver, seen him beat Alec Poole, Archie Phillips, Jim McClements and Freddy Heaney at Bishopscourt plenty of times. He still has some nice stuff about him
