Mini Cooper Day Beaulieu

[Pete.]

Today I have been mostly in a field of Minis. Having got the Elf through it's MOT it was great to spend four hours cleaning and polishing it only for it to p**s down all day. Never mind it did stop at lunch time for a couple of hours so I was able to take a few pics.















Yes that is a Ford Zetec engine - First conversion I've seen.






More pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/peejays...7630033660397/

[Christopher.]

Nice pictures Pete, Looks like a good day

[Fletcher]

Looks like a good meet. Shame about the weather mate.

[marc1330]

Good pics pete.
Always a good day at beaulieu havent made it last couple of years a long way for me and the 'S' if the weather is s***e. Nice to see marc le maitre's yellow race mini is still about used to be a big giant killer round the combe a few years back!

[Daniel]

I can hear them rusting from here!

[TimR26]

Nice pics Pete.

Glad you got the Elf through the MOT ok.

[Ash']

I'd love an old mini so much character!

[toomer]

I thought I saw lots of minis around today lol. Good pics

[JackJack]

The red #98 is an epic car.

[CIW]

Looks like a good turnout.

For all you mini fans, don't forget the mini festival on at Brands this coming weekend:

http://www.mini-festival.co.uk/

[Chip-mk1]

Looks like it was a good one despite the weather.

I think the classic mini will always be one of my favourite ever cars, properly iconic

[DaveDreads]

The two cars I want most in the world are an old Land Rover and a Mini, some of the wide arch ones are amazing.

I'd really like to have one as a project and spend my spare time doing a ground up restoration.

[Chip-mk1]

The two cars I want most in the world are an old Land Rover and a Mini, some of the wide arch ones are amazing.

I'd really like to have one as a project and spend my spare time doing a ground up restoration.

Ive got one part built with a vauxhall engine, I got the engine into it in the late 90s and its just sat around ever since, will definately finnish it off at some point though.

I'd like to go with the fortech arches but its probably going to be a clubman front so I might just go with some large miglia style arches instead.

[DaveDreads]

Do the axles have to be extended to fit the wide arches, or is there some kind of Cooper conversion that gets done?

Noob questions, as I have no clue about Minis,
I just want one at some point so I can learn car mechanics and build something cool.

[Chip-mk1]

From the factory the wide arched models simply run a wider wheel that sticks out further due to a different offset.

[DaveDreads]

So could I take any old Mini and make a wide arch model by adding bigger wheels,
or does it have to be one to begin with?

[Chip-mk1]

So could I take any old Mini and make a wide arch model by adding bigger wheels,
or does it have to be one to begin with?

You could mate yes, although you ideally need to fit the rack from a sportspack as well as its got reduced travel to stop the tyres touching the inner arches.

For example these are a couple of my old minis that started out as a base model:

[DaveDreads]

They're so cool, I really want one now,
it must be amazing to drive around in something you've built yourself.

[Chip-mk1]

They're so cool, I really want one now,
it must be amazing to drive around in something you've built yourself.

Yeah, it means you have a better chance of fixing it when it goes wrong, lol

This is the engine I built and put in the cabrio, 1380cc with a 276 cam

[DaveDreads]

Jesus, you couldn't cram any more engine in there if you tried!!! lol