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We are in the process of constructing two Ogle Mini race cars.

The first is the re-construction of an existing well known racer bought off eBay a little while ago. The other is a complete recreation. That being said, for economic reasons and quality of finish, both feature complete new floor pans with new body shells sourced from Nostalgia Cars.

Currently the floor pans are both finished and the T45 tube for both roll cages is being formed currently and will be welded in ready for painting at the end of this month. The bodies will be painted after fitment to the pre-painted chassis.

Both cars will feature new 1380cc engines on dog boxes. The engine fitted to the car we bought is an MED 1380cc unit and I will be offering that for sale shortly as we wished to start with all new components.

Current progress here......

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_youle ... 992870721/

Stunning!

interesting pics , great project,

Mike wrote:
We are in the process of constructing two Ogle Mini race cars.

The other is a complete recreation

Hi Mike, nice work, but why didnt you buy this = http://maximummini.blogspot.dk/search/l ... e%20SX1000

It was already setup for race, and located in USA.


Jens Christian

Well, sort of inherited the original car we have.....long story....and a friend wanted another.

We often find when you buy something already "done" it invariably turns out not to be as we would want.

Mike wrote:Well, sort of inherited the original car we have.....long story....and a friend wanted another.

We often find when you buy something already "done" it invariably turns out not to be as we would want.

I see, and hear you.
its just that sometimes a built car, can be cheaper, even if you want to change the engine/box or something.

keep posting pics, of the projects

It'll be nice to see these out racing, liked your Olympic aswell that I saw at Oulton last year.

WOW. What an interesting project/s.
Showing some fantastic metalwork skills there.

Had some interest from someone who always wanted an Ogle road car, so got us thinking about us building one racer and one road car.

I want to clear out a lot of stuff accumulated over the years so this will be the specification: -

1460cc, fuel injected, BMW headed, 16 valve twin cam on full management.
4 pot front calipers, rear KAD disc set up.
Rear beam with Aldon cast aluminium trailing arms.
Front suspension as per our Arden 8 port racer.
Coils all round.
T45 rear cage.
Full trim, glass, chrome trims and original badges, all from original car.

Should make a mega quick and interesting road car.

Cages to both cars completed next week then chassis off to the paint shop. Will update photographs on Flickr in due course.

Just uploaded some additional photographs here....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_youle ... 992870721/

John, our fabricator is in the process of manufacturing and installing the T45 cage in the racer. As we are now building the other car for road use it will only have a main hoop and rear supports as opposed to the racer's full cage. John is adept at getting the cage close to the contours of the body and as the glassfibre body will provide little torsional rigidity it is essential the welded in cage and the additional strengtheners we have installed in the sills keep the chassis as stiff as possible.

Due to the cage stays having to stop on the top of the wheel arches, as dictated by the regulations, we cannot continue them down to the rear mounts of the rear subframe as we would have wished.

On the original Ogle, a heavy square section frame supported the rear boot floor instead of the steel outer wings of the standard Mini. We don't want to install this frame so have installed braces to prevent flexing of the boot floor around these subframe mounts. We will also install thick wall, tubular strengtheners around the tops of the rear damper mounts up to the cage supports.

We will provide some form of crash bar near the rear of the boot floor to support the small vertical bumpers and offer some protection of the tank in the event of a rear shunt.

Progress is pretty rapid despite the fact we also have two Tornado Talisman's in the workshop for major suspension re-fabrication and the complete build of a 1958 VW Beetle and 1962 TVR Grantura race cars!

ah, you bought Gordon Leich's old car. Watched it race many times at Knockhill. In fact, a year or 2 back I was driving to work in cenrtal Edinurgh, and followed it for quite a way in the rush hour, so the cooling system seems to work too!

Did you see the other cars he's built? I think he still has a nice alloy bodied, front engined (Lotus Twin-cam) spaceframed special he has also raced for years.

Al

Hi Al,

Apologies for the delay in responding, just getting back into things after a spell of illness.

Yes, we have George's car, which we are re-building as a fast road car with 1460cc engine. The floor pan needed a fair amount of repair so we decided to construct a complete new chassis and fit with a Nostalgia new body.

Alongside, we are building a second car as a racer, also on a new chassis with new body. The racer has a full cage in T45, "George's old car" will have just a main hoop and rear crash bar for safety reasons.

The full cage is now finished and the chassis is off to the paint shop next week. Once returned the new glassfibre body will be fitted and the pre-completed subframes installed and fit out begins.

Latest cage photographs here......

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_youle ... 992870721/

Completed chassis unit back from painters, trial fit of bulkhead panels prior to leather cloth paint finish. Dash and centre panel trial fit prior to trimming.

Painted body shell due to be returned next week.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_youle ... 992870721/