Portugal 1972 Group 5 Mini Prototype - any more info ?? , I have only found this grainy photo , I,ve tried a few different European photo blogs but turned up zip, nada , nothing ( yes I know its a bit fugly but its interesting )



.

_________________

A bit fugly? The fugliest thing I have seen lately next to St Kilda football players

Don't look any further, it can only get worse.

_________________
1964 Cooper UK 970 S 'CZ 4289'

Our Portuguese member `lmbm' might know something of it...

_________________
DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

I have to assume that the shape of the front is either for a supercharger or an injected 8 port , I,m still trying to figure out how many pieces the front is made from 3, 4 ? , if its 4 then the front unclips from the bonnet/ guards , the bonnet unclips from the guards , guards unclip from the body , fiberglass certainly

The big question is , was this a development from Authi, private project or a test mule from BLMC England ?
.

_________________

Group 5 was for very modified cars. (Look up Porsche 935)
That car has had the roof chopped and that was not allowed in Group 5.

So the answer is, I don't know!

Hi 74Snail,

check this link although there's not much info on the car.

http://teammini.blogspot.com/2010/03/mario-goncalves-um-dos-melhores-de.html

It was owned / raced by Mario Gonçalves, known Portuguese mini racer,
car was used just a few times in 72 and apparently had not much success because of bad handling,
i'll try to get more details on it, the website owner is a friend of mine and he knows a lot of mini history and mini facts in Portugal
I suppose this was a private project using a UK made 1380 engine , this guy Mario/hid dad was BLMC dealer and lived in UK for a while.

there are some other nice minis in this blog.

Cheers.
Luis

Thanks Luis , I came across the photo and a brief description from a very similar blog , there certainly is a good database of Mini blogs out there with all sorts of great cars and history

Any more information on Mario Gonçalves and the Mini Prototype would be great !!!!
.

_________________

I think that blog is saying the car was a Group 5 and turned into the Mini Prototype. Which would make sense as Group 6 was known as "Prototype racing" and Group 6 allowed a lot more body freedoms.

From the windscreen back it looks very similar to the chop tops that were raced here at Mallalla Raceway in the mid 1960's that were build by Vimy Ridge Service Station (Jarrett Brothers). Even the flares look much the same.

There were at least two burgundy examples that raced (and I believe they're still around but not racing of course - one sporting my ex Mawer mags of my old Mk1 Cooper S that was restored and painted black by ex BL employee Kym Gartner in 1976-7).

The other one was bought by Neil Turner and used as a road car for a while. IIRC It pulled 13.8 down the quarter at one club event.

But the front on the Portuguese car is something else that I've never seen before.

_________________
Slide
1965 Mini Van (1360)
1970 Mk2 Cooper S (1310)
1978 Rover SD1 V8 (4.6)
1996 Land Rover Discovery V8 (4.0)