Thought i'd post a few details up of my non-vag car... its the reason stuff on the polo takes a little longer than it should... i've gotta share the funds!

Model: Austin Mini 850

Engine: Vauxhall C20XE (Red Top) 2.0 16v on Throttle bodies. mounted in homemade front subframe

Suspension: Coilovers all round. Rear subframe replaced with lightweight beam. Rose jointed bottom arms and tie rods. All solid mounted. (you may notice that the springs changed colour in the pics... i went from 200lbs to 450lbs springs)

Brakes: Front; 10.5" Wilwood rotors w/wilwood 4 pot alloy calipers, greenstuff pads. Rear; 'MiniFin' rear drums w/standard shoes. Wilwood .75 master cylinder, Wilwood proportioning valve mounted next to gear lever.

Wheels and Tyres: Weller 13x8 et -10 all round

Exterior Styling: Debumbered, Fibreglass doors, polycarb door windows, all red rear lenses, firbreglass front end (not fitted in any pics i've got )

Interior Styling: Cut out rear seat and rear pockets, custom crossbrace which doubles as seat mounts. Seats mounted 6" further back. 'Curley' fibreglass dash board. Revotec guages. Acewell digital dash. Westfield bucket seats, Luke harnesses. 6 point bolt in roll cage.

ICE: the entertainment system...? that'll be the engine then. There's no unnecessary electrics in it.

Comments: I bought the car in Apr 06 as a bit of a rotter for £40. I spent 6 months doing the bodywork on it, it needed a multitude of new panels, all of which was done by myself. I then primed it in Sept 06 and started work on the engine conversion, i made the subframe myself with the help of my dad. I had it running for January 07, and driving in March. At this time it was running a set of twin 40s, just for the simplicity of getting it running (they'd come straigh off a 1600 8v and i didn't do ANYTHING to them).

I took it along to a drag racing day in Devon in April and had a bit of a shakedown of it all went well really so i cracked on with the build.

I finally got it painted in summer last year. And it was almost finished. I had it ready for its MOT nearly. But a trip to an RR day @ TSR in October 07 left me a little dissapointed with the carbs, i'd known they were never right and had always wanted to go to Throttle bodies, and this was just the 'kick' i needed to get the ball rolling.

The same evening i got home, the carbs were off, and the next day they were sold! More power was needed. So i set about sourcing a set of Yamaha R1 throttle bodies, and sent them off to Bogg Bros to work their magic :-)

In the mean time, i took the car to bits. there was a couple things i was never happy with and this seemed like the best time to sort them out. The engine came out, the front subframe came out, all the brake lines were removed. I stripped the subframe of all the suspension and sent it off for sandblasting (i hated the brushed on Hammerite red that didn't match anything else!).

When i got it back, i painted it VW Tornado red to match the roll cage (as a homage to my old car :-) ). I upgraded the brakes at this time, from the 8" metro items i had on there, to the 10.5" wilwoods, and fully re-assembled the frame.

This is now wrapped in bubble wrap and tucked safely in the corner of my garage while i work on other parts of the build, and other projects too... its a timeshare in my garage

Another thing i was never was totally happy with was the electrics. So i ditched the mini wiring comlpetely, and bought a custom car loom from America. its exactly the same as my brother has put in his car, so i know pretty much how it all goes. I also bought and built a MegaSquirt kit, as i wanted to do all the wiring at the same time really, inside and engine.

Onto the body. When i did it first time round, i deleted most of the extra holes in the bulkhead and painted it to match the body. But i always kicked myself for not fully smoothing it. So with the engine out i though i may as well totally smooth it. This proved to be a pain in the butt, with so many contours on it, it never looked right... but i had a plan. I bought a sheet of mirror finish stainless steel and fixed that inplace of the original steel bulkhead. Really happy with the results but i've not dared remove all the protective film yet

Thats pretty much pretty how it stands now. The body, engine and subframe are all seperate, but not for much longer (when the polo is done and usable they'll be becoming one again). I've still got some more bits i'd like to do. I'm going to fit a new black headlining, its just one of those things is never got round to doing, along with fitting a black carpet set. I'm hoping that those two things will neated up the interior ten fold, and make a little more 'friendly' in there I also need to send my dash off for flocking. I'm going to get it done in a blood red, as close a match to the cage as i can really. That'll then be the interior sorted.

My aim is to have it done for this years show season. (although i said that last year as well!) Its not looking too far off now, but as always its money. I cant really afford to insure it till after i'm 21 (June) So will miss a couple shows :(

Anyhows... let me know what you think feel free to ask any questions

(Just before i fitted the polycarb windows... good ol clear plastic was temporary!)

#

(the stickers in the rear side window are all gone now, didn't look as good as i'd hoped )

(kept this sticker tho )

(these were LHD wipers... since replaced with correct parking RHD ones)

(the interior... picture it with black carpets, beige instead of red on the wheel, and a dark red flocked dash )

(on the rollers @ TSR)

(then i did this)

(Bogg Bros manifold)

(fully re-assebled subframe, with new brakes)

(the stainless bulkhead. [note the wipers ] )

(the TB's mounted to the engine, i also customised a spark plug cover to better suit the colour scheme)

(american wiring loom)

(megasquirt kit)

(fully assembled)

and thats where its at now. Wont be long till its a car again however

Edited 1 March, 200818 yr by Joel

Great build man.

What sort of BHP will the red top make with the TB's?

My mate has an Astra GSI and that goes well, god knows what it would be like in a mini!

Love it.

cheers dude!

From talking to people in the 16v Mini Club who are running very similar setups, i should be pushing 200bhp. Going to get some cams to try and break that barrier

Yeah, its pretty good fun in a mini which weighs 600kgs

Woow 200bhp lol

Must be mental!

You will have to get some vids up when its done.

Edited 16 February, 200818 yr by carver

i've got a couple vids of it already. i'll put some links up...

here is the full build diary, its 21 pages long and seriously picture heavy so dont go near it if your 56k its updated pretty regularly

Build diary @ 16vMiniClub.com

some vids,

Before it was driving, this was just before i bent all the valves due to the cam timing being out (how i wished i'd not said "sounds better!" :( )

The first time i drove it. Didn't know it at the time, but my gearlinkage was on the piss and i was only able to get 1st and 4th... so what i thought was 2nd was actually 4th! haha

(the smoke at the end is the fresh heat-wrap on the exhaust

on the rollers @ TSR

here's a short video of it going down the 1/8th mile last year,

Drag strip

Hopefully it'll be on the road for the 2008 drag season, so plenty of vids to come including some in car ones from a roll cage mounted camera!

torque steer? my brother had a mini built to miglia race spec, and he said that was wild (about 130bhp) 200bhp must be severe!

yeah it torque steer'd massively I'm gonna sign up to a gym to get a tad more strength in my arms! Gotta be really careful NOT to floor it unless the tyres are warm, the road is dry and there is nothing within a cars wdith either side! haha

got it back together now yesterday...

i've gone soft and fitted carpet in it. makes it much more pleasant inside now. oh, and this is the wiring i'm sorting out today!

this mini is fucking sweet and it is gonna shift lol cant wait to see it all put together

did you have to do any work to the bodywork to fit that redtop in? cos i know you have to do something to the 1600 vtech in

Edited 24 February, 200818 yr by mk3_nath

cheers! and yeah it should go pretty well! i'll be competing in drags in April, then its off to a show for the start of May! so need to get a wriggle on with it! damn wiring :(

with regards to the body work, aside from cutting out the inner wings, and having to use a removable front end, the only other modification is a whole in the bulkhead for the gear linkage to clear, you can see it in the first pic, the rectangular hole in the lower section of the bulkhead

Here is a pic of the car when i bought it...

Edited 24 February, 200818 yr by Joel

Great project mate

love it

OMFG that is going to be absolutely insane!

fantastic mate! i i had the know how and moey i would be doing something very similar it loooks like too much fun to drive!

proper rude

this picture is wicked

how much did the redtop block and box set you back pal, proper sweet piece of work, hopefully youll be able to get it to santa pod, would love to watch it run

Bugger me, that must be fast. Quite a little death trap! haha Its cool

Thats well cool mate!

you are completely off your fucking rocker. I love it. absolutely brilliant

that is fucking ace mate

top notch

Awsome bit of kit there!!!!!

haha cheers guys :p hoping to surprise a few peeple on the roads

grungeisdead: I bought the whole front end of a calibra for £350. That included the brakes and subframe and which i ditched. I've still got all the standard injection manifold etc sat in my garage which needs either selling or ditching, depending what i can be bothered to do.

Its been tucked away under a cover in my garage for a couple weeks now while i get the polo ready for an RR day at TSR next weekend. Two project cars is never a good idea!

cheers again tho dudes. If anyone is bored for a while then my complete build diary is on the 16v mini club website here : http://www.16vminiclub.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6984 (my name on there is XEValver)

There are some even more nuts mini's on that site too (user MikeR33 has a clubman estate with TWO redtops in it, both running QED throttle bodies, THATS proper crazy! )

two redtops awesome will check that out!

do you still have the brakes mate, were they 256mm?

if youve still got the calipers id take em off your hands

which brakes do you mean?

I've had several sets for various cars for sale recently

The wilwood 4 pots are gone i'm afraid. but they weren't make/model specific, they were for anything that you adapted them to fit. i think they are going on a chevette now :S

my brothers car... my car...

Edited 31 March, 200818 yr by Joel

I thought the mini was very kool.

Till I saw your bro's car, that looks awesome, and more details/pics?

This car is amazing!!!

Is it hard to do the subframe conversion and flip front?