Hi guys,

I was taking some photos of MadMatt's BMW twinky conversion for him on Saturday and made the comment that I had never actually driven a Mini before.

30secs later, he had me in the front seat of "New Blew" with the 1330 road/rally engine warming up. He has a set of 13x7's on it I think and the tyres look similar to Yoko AquaTusks. They looked sticky as!

She has a remote change box with a KAD quick shifter. I put her into first and could not believe the almost negligible amount of travel there was. I looked at Matt and he says "Short eh?" "Now don't be scared of her and feel free to take her to 7 grand, just don't be scared of her" he says with a big grin.

So I carefully went of down the road to get a feel for the gearbox, brakes, etc, and head over to a nice little industrial estate that is all but dead on the weekends. Lots of round abouts, teardrops, cul-de-sacs, etc. Bare in mind that my normal ride is a Suzuki Sv1000S 1000cc fuel injected v-twin.

OK, time to put her through her paces...WOW, that little 1330 has some go! She lights up in first and I flat shift her to second and she keeps frying the bags. With the tyres up to operating temp I proceed to fly through corners and round abouts, put her into beautiful OL drifts around the tear drops and exit them with the wheels laying down some nice strips on the power. It was like a high powered go kart with a gearbox. I could have happily spent hours there doing laps, but alas, I didn't want to take back the car with bald tyres and no fuel.

So it's back of to Matt's. I was surprised that she was only doing a bit over 2,500rpm in 4th at around 70kph and all I had to do was put my foot down for her to take off. The torque from 2,500rpm all the way to 7,000rpm was amazing. I drift her through the last corner into his street and pull up out front. Got out of the car and walked down to Matt shaking with the adrenaline coursing through my veins. Matt says "So what'd'ya think?" with that cheeky grin of his knowing what my response was going to be... My response was nothing but a huge grin from ear-to-ear.

I can't wait to get my Mini finished and see how the road/rally 1360 with Weber 45 Matt is building for me goes.

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Morphias.
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If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space...

so you are building one, but you have never driven one?

Hmmmmm I'm just wondering what your definition of drift is

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Bob Slattery
Duffman Says A Lot of Things - OH YEAH!!

Well I've in the same boat. My mini wasn't going when I got it, so I didn't bother putting the few little bits back together to try it, so out everything came. And as yet, I'm yet to drive a mini
So, hopefully I can get a hold of some money now, and get stuck into getting mine on the road.

hehe i feel the same as u..
never driven a registered (at least NSW) mini
hehe driven the van to get inspections and work..(totally legal )
and the k around the block...
ah *sigh* to see our minis registered and on the road..
hehe glad u had fun!!
but i know what u mean..minimechanics mini wen he got it wasnt workin, rather than looking to fix, it all came out for a rebuild..cept by the look of things, his stuff might actually go bak in there this century..
hehe new motor for the vanny soon! then..mayb..it will go somewhere!!!

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kaz
hey mate, looks like your cars only running on three cylinders!
haha..funny that..

'89 toyota cressida
'71 morris mini k
66 morris van

First time I ever rode in a mini was only this year, in a 100hp clubby. Awesome!
First car I drove was in about March, wasn't impressed at all.
It was slow, had crap steering and crap brakes.
Then it was into the 1.3i, beautiful car to drive that was, and I'll get something like it eventually, and then the car I next drove was the one I bought.

That's right.

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Morphias.
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If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space...

I thought 'drift' is pretty self explanatory, but anyway... Going around a curve with the back end kicked out and the steering turned in the oposite direction to which you are cornering.

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Morphias.
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If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space...

i currently have 3 mini's, and the only time i have ever driven a mini(other than around the back yard) was the 200m drive from where i bought one of them, its very sad and i'm itchen to get one back on the road!!

You poor lost soul's who have never driven one

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Starlet Conversion:
http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15484

The reason I ask is that "drift" usually refers to power oversteer, and is usually something to do with "Fully Sik" rear wheel drive Jap cars. Apparently they call it a sport now

Are you referring to ripping the handbrake on around a corner??
Just wondering

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Bob Slattery
Duffman Says A Lot of Things - OH YEAH!!

ripping the handbrake in a corner to kick the rear end out.. or rear wheel drive power over steer... the car is still drifting.. same thing if you ask me

i saw matts new engine twin cam bmw 16v turbo yesterday as well Yummmmy
i cant wait to see how it goes looks sweet as
i think it will suprise a few guys around and is another alternative i think for those thinking of toyota and suzy engines

Either is drifting in my book, but you don't need to rip on the handbrake (or use it at all for that matter) to get a Mini or any other from wheel drive car to drift. All you need to do is a little swedish flick like I do in my Forester XT (AWD 2.5 turbo) and voila! You are drifting.

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Morphias.
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If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space...

It definitely gets the "FULLY SIK" and "P-H PHat" titles.

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Morphias.
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If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space...