The Lowly Gentlemen 1974 Austin Mini

[Minuki]

Rad! The Impul's are so cool. What sort of power are you expecting from the head swap?

[ChristopherJason]

I'm in love with this little mini, looks amazing and i cant think of very many 10' wheels but i don't think anything else would suit it

[notabmw1]

Next thing you know you'll be adding a supercharger to it, lol. SC has some great stuff, hoping to use there 5 port injection setup this year. Good luck with your Mini, I am almost done fabbing the air ride on mine. Wife and kid are going to Germany the next 2 weeks.... so that means lots of Mini time! Time to get it done and back on the road.

[RayBoogs]

Haha as cheesy as it sounds, the car really does bring a smile to your face with each drive.

The Minis are odd with their suspension. They use rubber cones rather than springs. I'll be upgrading to new stiffer rubber cones and installing Hi-Lo adjusters so I can begin tweaking the ride height.

You can run coilovers on them too, but I think this ruins the ride for me, takes away the crazyily bumpy ride.

I've got some quick updates for the build progress.

I worked with Mastermind to bring over some Impul wheels that I found for sale in Japan on their Yahoo auctions. There's a huge selection of unique old wheels on those auctions pages and the guys at Mastermind bring over containers from Japan rather regularly. It was a simple process and I'm really pleased with the outcome so far.

10x4 Impul Pro Mesh Group-C Jr.



My other auction win was a complete engine from a 1995 BMW K1100. The plan is to integrate the head with the standard Mini 1275 A Series engine to build a 'fast road' engine for the Mini. Cylinder head swaps have always been part of the Mini's history since its inception. It wasn't uncommon for race teams to adapt twin cam heads for their builds.





The BMC A Series engine is a fantastic little engine, but having started out its life at just 803cc, it has its limitations. By the end of it's production, it was being produced at 1275cc and many bored them out to 1380, but you begin to find those limits of airflow with the standard head. They used a 5 port construction to save on space, but the siamese intake ports aren't ideal when searching for power. So, the BMW Twin Cam head will convert the engine away from a 5 port pushrod setup to a Twin cam belt driven powerplant along with ITBs and a more modern design. The result is a more powerful, higher revving engine which ought to be perfect for this little racer build.

This past weekend, while we were all hanging around the StanceWorks garage and working on various projects, Byron and I began to tear into the K1100LT engine. We got the head off and I couldn't resist the urge just to set the head on the block to test fit its future home.

You probably already know, but KAD and Specialist Components have history in "Twin-camming" A-series engines and it might be useful to check those guys out for pointers.

I'm looking forward to following this, the colour is so nice!

[Rally]

Rad! The Impul's are so cool. What sort of power are you expecting from the head swap?

Depending on how much I decided to build out the internals and bore out the block, they generally produce about 108hp-130hp. My car is about 34hp at the moment

Next thing you know you'll be adding a supercharger to it, lol. SC has some great stuff, hoping to use there 5 port injection setup this year. Good luck with your Mini, I am almost done fabbing the air ride on mine. Wife and kid are going to Germany the next 2 weeks.... so that means lots of Mini time! Time to get it done and back on the road.

Nice! Really looking forward to the progress.

You can run coilovers on them too, but I think this ruins the ride for me, takes away the crazyily bumpy ride.

I agree. There's something enjoyable about the simple (albeit bouncy) nature of the odd rubber cone setup.

You probably already know, but KAD and Specialist Components have history in "Twin-camming" A-series engines and it might be useful to check those guys out for pointers.

I'm looking forward to following this, the colour is so nice!

Yeah, both companies make some high quality products for the A-series. I'll be using the SC parts for my conversion.

[anth]

I get lost in your pictures, not to be cheesy but they always take me on a journey. That head and intake setup is gorgeous (new wheels are great too), this thing is really going to come together perfectly.

[Rally]

I get lost in your pictures, not to be cheesy but they always take me on a journey. That head and intake setup is gorgeous (new wheels are great too), this thing is really going to come together perfectly.

Thanks Build thread photos are some of my favorites for that very reason.

[oprahhwinfreyy]

I feel like I'm in a dream every time I look at this thread. I love it. Are you shooting in film on these or is it just a filter on digital.

[Rally]

I feel like I'm in a dream every time I look at this thread. I love it. Are you shooting in film on these or is it just a filter on digital.

These are digital. I apply a quick set of actions that I put together so I can keep a consistent aesthetic for the build thread without spending time on editing.

[Rally]

As mentioned previously, the sills and front floor pans suffer from a bit of rust as a result of a poor patch job by a previous owner. In preparation for the repair, I removed the interior and carpeting. It looks like the front 10% of the floor pan has seen better days, but I was pleased to find that the rest looked decent.







I also removed the cheesy Alpine stereo setup. As you can see by the rear parcel shelf, it was installed by talented professionals. This will need addressing too....though I have not found a good source for speakerless parcel shelf replacement panels.

[Raarasutra]

This is going to be awesome in so many ways

[montgomery]

Oh my gosh hurry up and get this running!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[CubbyChowder]

This build is so awesome

[notabmw1]

I would contact M-Machine for the rear parcel shelf:

http://www.m-machine.co.uk/

I have also not ever seen a repro/original parcel shelf with no speaker holes in it. I've always seen the rover typical panel:

Mini Spares Rear Parcel Shelf

Good luck, my air sleeves arrived today, so I will be fabricating the front's on my Mini tonight, fun times!

[Rally]

I have also not ever seen a repro/original parcel shelf with no speaker holes in it. I've always seen the rover typical panel:

I believe early models didn't have speaker holes, but no one produces them any longer so it's either speaker repros, sourcing one from an early parts car, or fabricating one.