VERY broken Mini Cooper S Works

[runrowsam]

Found out a few weeks ago that my Mini's not only a very nice one with lots of goodies, but it's actually an S Works, hand built to the specification desired by the late John Cooper himself. Only 300 were ever made for the road and I have one. That makes it worth about 7 grand if not more to a collector. Not bad.

But a couple of weeks ago I was out driving in the rain, was 200M away from home, and crashed it. Doing 20mph round a roundabout, I was distracted by a yellow Saxo rapidly appearing in my mirror, and caught the edge of a brick in the road. Sent the arse out, which slithered around until I went perfectly sideways into a lamppost. Managed to scrabble far enough away that the post didn't come through the drivers door and kill me, but instead it hit dead centre on the right front wheel. Energy went straight through to the chassis so EVERYTHING is bent out by about 3 inches. Bought a donor car for it's front subframe and floorpan, and now the rest of my car is being stripped down and fitted to that. It's going to take until the end of September, and cost a minimum of 4 grand. Could only afford third pirty fire and theft too, so that's out of my pocket! Going to have to fix it then sell it straight away, as I just can't afford that kinda money.

Absolutely gutted. My pride and joy. Worst part is everyone thinks it's because I was driving like a nutcase. Have a witness (the Saxoman), but he's conveniently on holiday for a while, so for now I'm being cursed by my parents and putting up with constant abuse! Apparently I can't drive. I only crash when I drive gently, so from now on it's blast time!

Rock on
Sam [img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img]

[toasty]

Could have been worse mate [img]images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

But still gutting nonetheless.

[JohnW]

How old is/was your mini ??

What was it - a 997, 998 or 1071 ?

Dual tanks ?
lcb manifold with single box exhaust ???

[img]images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

minis were the car to have when I left school. 1275gt engine taken out to 1340 or 1370, with full race everything. Easily leave escort mexicos' etc behind.

Hope you get it sorted mate. Be aware that there are some subtle bodywork differences with the genuine coopers. Find an expert and they will know what to do to make it right.

Cheers,
John.

btw my mate once hit the roundabout outside Thorpe park at >70 ! Made a nasty mess of his steering rack and front suspension, but was fixed for under 100 quid. There used to be loads of parts about with lots of specialists (most of whom sprung up out of the rallycross scene).

[ianw]

sorry to hear about the car.

a friend had one in the seventies and can remember four of us going down to south wales for a beer or two, kept on groundig over every little bump.

I also remember around that time a mini which had been fitted with the lotus cortina twin cam engine doing quite well at loton park mind you there was also a morris 1000 with a jag engine IIRC

[JohnH]

Had a 1966 Austin Mini Cooper 1275 S. Old English White with a black roof. Lovely car. Slow by todays standards but you could really chuck it around the country roads.

[runrowsam]

Mine is a 1275cc A series, hand built at the John Cooper Garage down on the coast. Bought it from him as well, shook his hand and promised I'd look after it [img]images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img] How bad do I feel now?!

Trouble is I bent ALL of the front end, basically in front of the windscreen. That massive weld from the roof to the floor has to be cut, the front end removed, my existing engine put into a new subframe, and a few bits of new bodywork added to the new frame, along with all my lights and gadgets of course. My floorpan's also coming out, and the quarter panels, replaced with new ones. It's a MASSIVE job, but the guy doing it is a real legend. He wants to pull out my injectors and put a pair of 44 carburetters in there. Madness.

It does go pretty well though. 91hp isn't bad going at all I don't think! Trouble's the transmission really, as it's the original 4 speed unit, as the 5 speed actually slows the bugger down. But my transmission loss is something like 8%, compared to you S4 chaps with around 30%!!! Not bad I say. It's the handling that's REALLY sorted though. All Mini's go around corners, Coopers a bit faster than anything else, but mine's got that little bit extra. Koni shocks and dampers set up perfectly for a smooth dry track. Tail comes out if you push it far enough. I even put Yokohama's on the front and left old Dunlops on the rear to help the tail drift nicely. It really is just like driving an Evo 6, just with a lot less power! But with the cornering ability I normally manage to keep in front of most people, short of Scooby's and proper things like that. I've never driven anything, or come accross anything that will get round a smooth corner any faster than my mini.

For anyone interested there's some pictures of it in the gallery. Thanks everybody for your concern. It'll be fixed, just a matter of paying for it [img]images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img] £4,000+ is a lot of money to a totally self-funded uni student with 3 years left of their course.

Rock on
Sam [img]images/graemlins/thumbs.gif[/img]