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Hi all, it's been a while since I have been on the forum, but I thought I would update everyone on our efforts with the Orangebox. After our enjoyable and successful run on the Rally of The Tests last year a decision was made to have a good crack at the HRCR c/ship in 2014. Because this series has events as far apart as Yorkshire and Kent a fair bit of planning was required, no driving to and from events like in the past and the fact that Bob my navigator lives an hour and a half from me.

Slowboy has very kindly offered the loan of his trailer as he is having a year off, my employer has promised a tow vehicle, and me and Bob have two very understanding wives, two events fall on both our wedding anniversaries However the biggest development this year is proper backing from Mini Sport Padiham. They were very happy with the RoTT and this year we have extended backing and a 'works' engine for the Orangebox The faithful 997 has been given a well earned rest and after talks with Daniel Harper as to what we required a spec was decided on and we now have a 1293cc Historic Road rally spec engine to help keep on terms with the RS2000/Pinto MK1 Escorts and Porsche 911s.

Historic rallying is going to be a direction Mini Sport is going to be moving into with some very exciting plans discussed, They are well placed as the history books show they are very capable of running Minis in rallying, back in the 1970s when Cyril Bolton and Brian Harper took on the Escorts in road rallying and won in their famous car NCK453P, labelled by Triple C as the Ultimate Road Rally Mini, the 1990s with Daniel winning the Group A British c/ship with their well developed Spi Rover Cooper and latterly success with the BMW MINI.

The first round was the Tour of Cheshire on the 1st of March and I worked flat out on the car only getting it running on the Sunday before the rally and spending the week doing jobs on it and going out till the early hours of the morning to get some miles on it, complicated by a very busy 11 hour working day which included two days 'lost' going to Reading with work (460 MILE ROUND TRIP). Friday morning saw us on the rolling road, oil change etc. I made a decision to drive it to the start to get more miles on it and things went smoothly at noise and scrutinneering. Rally day saw things go pretty well, the new engine ran superb and the extra torque and power was a nice help I felt pretty rusty not having done anything for five months , and apart from having the wrong tyres and ride height for the terrain we were well pleased to finish 8th overall and best Mini and bag a chunk of points for the first round

Next round was just over a week ago and some tweaking and a new set of HS4 carbs saw us gain another 9bhp, we fitted some new Aoo8s and put the Mini Sport Ajusta Ride suspension back on that had been removed for the RoTT and we were off to Yorkshire for the second round. Bob did a fabulous job all day and the test times were good though I couldn't seem to get a proper flow, midday afternoon though we were leading with Howard Warren and Ian Tullie one second behind us in their 911. The last tests were really rough in places and very slippery, couldn't get traction, and we slipped back to 3rd with an Escort winning, Warren second, us third and the Powley's 911 behind, still a bloody remarkable result, and I reckon with our other tyres and ride height we could have held on to the lead, but that's rallying Next event again in Yorkshire is on the 13th April before we head to Wales in May then Kent in June. Will try to keep the thread updated and load some pics

Fantastic stuff Steve!

All the very best to you and Team Orangebox!

Tim

Great result Steve must make a world of difference with the extra torque of the larger engine. Still thinking about a return to rallying just need to raise the suspension and bolt the sump guard on. Good luck on the 13th

Eddie

Are we going to see you and OB at Bulee this year Steve?

Cheers. Tim

coopertim wrote:Are we going to see you and OB at Bulee this year Steve?

Cheers. Tim

Sorry no , yet again I am going to miss. Pete asked me to take the Orangebox to Blyton but the thing I found with committing to this c/ship is the lack of time between home/family life, work and arranging weekend cover and time spent preparing as most events are only three to four weeks apart Hoping to get to the Mk1 performance day as a visitor, must tell the wife I think we should go away bank holiday weekend.....

What's the spec on the new engine Steve and what carbs are you running? Niall.

cookie1071 wrote:What's the spec on the new engine Steve and what carbs are you running? Niall.

1293, Omegas, steel flywheel, Kent cam, duplex 12G940 eleven stud head, S size valves, ported and polished, 1.3 rockers, twin HS 4 1.5 carbs, CR helical box , twin pin diff and 4.1 FD.

Another from the first round

Well the third round of the c/ship has been and gone. The Orangebox ran well all day except we had a problem with the tripmeter 'freezing' , this happened three times on the first section . The upside was the tests showed the big difference our Mini Sport 1293 'Historic' spec engine has made to our tests performances. We ended the day 2nd fastest car all day, beaten by the winning MK1 RS2000, but quicker than the next man, Howard Warren/Paul Bosdet in their very healthy sounding 911

A few jobs to do before the next round on the 10th May which is based at Chepstow Racecourse. One of the jobs was a rear wheel driven drive for the trip meter, which was entrusted to Slowboy and his Dad, I would put my faith in their workmanship/ability over anyone I know, so a typical neat and well engineered job they did for us last Saturday. I too a photo while it was in their workshop with Slowboy senior next to the Orangebox as it is 50 years since it was last in that same workshop with Peter working on it, will post the pic! Cheers for now!!

One from the second round in Yorkshire, leaving a 90 left in Duncombe Park, a good day for us, 3rd overall

Great to watch you progress Steve!

The car looks great & is running better than ever.

My efforts at updating our championship progress on here have been very poor So here's an update the round in Wales which was based at Chepstow race course started really well with us leading after the first tests at Chepstow which were very fast. A mistake late in the morning was very costly dropping us to 16th With 21 tests during the day, I was at 100% for the rest of the day and good navigating saw us climb back to 6th at the finish

The next round was at the start of June with the Hughes rally in Kent a 920 mile round trip including the event . It's safe to say I enjoyed the different territory but with only 7 tests of which only 3 went well, the others I was not in 'the groove' and a couple of errors from Bob saw us finish 12th overall, not what we hoped for, the upside was I won an award for fastest on the 'grass' airfield tests

Last round was the East Anglia a few weeks back. This started really well for us, 3rd overall by mid morning we were going really well though the very hot weather and the queues at the test starts, all which were done twice so cars were leaving the start at 30 second intervals and we were catching cars on the longest tests, then the little Orangebox was running very hot. We were destined for 3rd place overall at worst when as they say we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory A 15 minute regularity on private land with 9 time controls and 8 manned passage checks on an old WW2 airfield which was basically three laps, like a night time road rally, saw Bob make a big mistake saw us starting a 4th lap instead of staying 'straight on' I was not a happy bunny, we went from 2nd to 20th just like that Flat for the rest of the day saw us pull back 8 places to finish the day 12th. It was safe to say I was gutted, anyway that's over and done with now and next weekend we are in Ross on Wye for the next round, which I will update on.

We now lead the c/ship by 31 points but over crews are going to pass us soon I fear, anyway a few more up to date pics