Is this a Sports 850 engine I see on eBay?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Mini-850-Engine-still-in-subframe_W0QQitemZ300102562828QQihZ020QQcategoryZ32072QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Nope, its just a sticker.

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[NATHAN] -- Sold everything mini related and am back in big beautiful BMWs

Well , the only difference from a standard 850 engine was the twin carbs and the rocker cover with sticker ....

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"Com'on Cushy, you know you want it" ?????
That sort of limits the market *lol*

I suppose thats right - it was only a set of twins, three branch exhaust and some stickers (on the engine). It certainly made the difference until the deluxe came along (totally ignoring the coopers etc.)

I worked with a girl in 1966, whose boyfriend had a mini 850 with a Morris 1100 motor in it with a cam, carbies and exhaust - we all thought is was super quick until we saw the first of the 1275 Cooper S's on the local streets. From that point on everything was redundant if you were interested in speed.

For many years, I had a newspaper article (test drive review) written by Donald McKay for the Daily Telegraph in 1965-66. It was a review of the Cooper S in which he described it as lethally fast and was advising parents not to let their children buy one. Its probably still still a good read if any has access to the telegragh archives.

The article was tacked up on my bedroom wall and when I was selected to represent Australia for twelve months in some asian games in 1969-70, my mother cleaned up my bedroom and the article went - sigh !!!

Obviously Mum didn't read it - she let you buy one not long after you got back.
My memory is vague, but I think she used that room as a sewing room while you were gone.
KB

Actually the bottom half of the standard manifold Mike , they were mainly only interested in doing enough to get them homologated to allow Manton and others to race mini's with twin carbs as none were for sale with twins in the country . Interesting too they used two standard 850 su's (just added another new one off the shelf basically) and didn't change the needles , they should have been running very rich from new ...

<EDIT> The advertising mentioned the sports850 having a sports exhaust , all they did was cut the bend out of the pipe under the boot just before the muffler and rejoined it so it came out straight under the center of the boot for a sporty appearance .... My info comes from someone who did their apprenticeship at P & R Williams in Sydney and it was his and another apprentices job to convert them from standard 850's , that was the technical level of the conversion ...

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KB
you were fairly young - what 5 - 6 ?????
My memoeries dim as well - I do remember that when I did come home there was an extra bedroom tacked onto the house and that that bedroom stopped my bedroom from getting the earlymorning sun.

Trivia and off topic - sorry guys.

back on Sports 850's - I didn't know it was purely for homologation purposes but regardless it did lift performance quite noticably but then we forget just how slow an 850 is.

Awww family discussion on Ausmini

It would be great to read that article you are talking about. Cooper S lethally fast I think they still are in the wrong hands

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Lillee - 1969 Morris Mini K

Peter Manton and a few others were running 850's with twin carbs and were getting disqualified under protest from other drivers because there were no twin carb models available in Australia so they applied to BMC to get coopers . BMC decided the cooper was too advanced and too expensive for such a basic market as Australia (...) so gave Manton (who then got P & R Williams in Sydney involved as well) the challenge to make a twin carb sports model that they'd authorise and cover with warranty to see if there was a market for a sporting mini in Australia . Manton and others were happy because providing they made and sold enough (whatever the magic figure was ???) they would be able to race with twins . Basically it was an experiment in market research by BMC that they could wash their hands of if it didn't work - "some dealers tried a twin carb version but it didn't sell , it wasn't us ...." . It did sell and they decided to release the cooper here .

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Funny, the seller pulled the auction early. Must have been made aware he may have something special.

Or maybe this... "We reserve the right to end this auction at any time as parts are advertised elsewhere".

Cushy probably bought it off ebay

unfortunatley no...

someone else bought it, and a bunch of other stuff..

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It's long gone.
it was in a 74 Leyland... so i doubt it was anything real special.

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Miniworx Centre 0883741299
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all 850s are special and you know it, steeeeeeve...

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Just like their owners?????

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Miniworx Centre 0883741299
Sooperdooperminicooperexpertengineering
Online BMW Mini Shop