I have personally been on one of these Bashes for the "Endevour Foundation" It was a great experience. I did not go in a Mini I just went with a group of friends in a specially prepared Ford XE Station wagon. Believe you me these bashes go to places you would not even think they existed. The terrain they go through is more or less Four wheel drive tracks. The car I was in had extra ground clearence and ran Mud and Snow tyres. Also had specially prepared suspension and the whole body was seam welded and re enforsed in many places. It also Ran on Auto Gas and we had 2 big Cylinders mounted in the bach of the Wagon. In these bashes you do about 6,000 Km in about 10 days. We drove approximately 600Km every day. My personal openion would be that Minis are not suited for this type of work without many major modifications. Ground clearence is a great issue and also the fact that they are front wheel drive does not help. The gradients we had to climb a mini will not do unless it was jacked up with about a foot of ground clearence and will probably need to be 4 wheel drive. The other thing is you have to carry so many spares (Boxes of beer) and camping gear that a Mini will suffer from being over weight. Also most of these bashes are held in winter so take good warm cloths, you will need them on 24 hours a day. Remember they do not drive on Bitumen. These rallys go through private properties of all sorts. Mind you they are well organised and and there is always 4X4 recovery wehicles on hand at all the hard spots. I did think of building a Mini to take on these bashes but after having been on one I changed my mind. It will be utter punnishment on the poor Brick. It is not impossible to do but it would take a lot of preparation to build a Mini for this task. What I would suggest is go with someone else on a Bash first to get an Idea what will need to be done. Like I said some of the tracks they use are worse than what we see at 4 wheel drive tracks and you would not even dream of taking a 2 wheel drive car through. Great fun though and I would recommend it to any one for the experience.

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DID I MENTION THAT I AM THE BEST SUPPLIER FOR MINI ELECTRICAL PARTS AND REPAIRS?
"Let us remove your "SHORTS"

I was chatting to a guy down the road who has done like 20 bashes. He was saying they are tuff on vehicles, due to where you are driving, the road conditions and plenty of unformed tracks. HE said you would be well respected if you complete the bash but doubted it could be done due to the lack of ground clearance in a mini. He snapped his chassis in half last year, he said it was a rough course they put on but he is currently rebuilding the car for another go at it.
As stated some bashes you can have a support crew whist others you cant. So would have to carry all beer, camping gear, spares spares and more spares.......... And car would need to be well prepered,.................... MMMMMMMMMMMMM........................... Can it be done, it is a challenge and I love challenges.............

i HAVE JUST BOUGHT A MINI SHELL FOR THE BASH CAR.....I THINK ITS A GOER......I MIGHT BUILD UP THE CAR THEN WORK OUT WHAT BASH I AM GOING TO ENTER AND GO FROM THERE. PREDICTION IS AUGUST 2009 VARIETY BASH. BUT ITS EARLY DAYS YET.ITS A ROUNDY.... YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Plan to build to car to compete in a number of bashes, mini bashes (Not full length bashes usually only a couple of days long), classic rallies and so on. Car will need to be built strong, but need to be able to be road registered as per NSW registration rules, laws and so on. Does anyone know if you can register a car in nsw with a full roll cage?? ie 12 point cage, I wil bend and cut the materials myself but have a mate who is a certified welder do all the final fitting and welding. I have done a thread search but cant find anything.
What donk should I run...... ok have had a few big bore donks in the past and have all let me down big time..... Where do I begin.... Have had two large journal cranks snap in half and as a result motor, box and diff became fish food / boat anchor. THese cranks were crack tested and nitrated before being used. I want reliability and not have to sell my Kidneys to pay for the parts so am considering just building up a 1100 donk. Cranks are easy to get.... Whats everyones opinion. Brakes will be Cooper S disks at this stage but will be dependant on what wheels I wil run. It has been mentioned I should run Moke 13inch rims to help with ground clearance with fully adjustable suspension If I was to choose this option, should I stick with Cooper S disks or go with later models brake disk set ie, 8.4" disks. Gotta point out one thing, variety bash stated that car must be original as possible exept where safety has been improved. Im sure I could get away with the moke rims and its improving ride hight. Most people upgrade their suspension and springs to get extra clearance anyway.
What diff ratio should I run. I am aiming at endurance over speed considering could be doing 600km plus a day.
I think everything else is horses for courses, twin tanks, whether I locate a cooper S tank, or have a new fabricated.
Pleae keep ideas coming, its been very helpfull
J

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Mini, its in my blood........

I think that running an 1100 motor would be a good idea seeing as you are not going for outright speed. We had a full race 1275 which was great fun to drive but we snapped a crank the night before the Rally and again in Brisbane .
Also probably worth spending some money on a Limited Slip diff. - gives you heaps more traction. I don't remember ever getting stuck anywere.