Mini Turbo Racecar (R56- OJ)
Discussion
So, a little introduction. I'm Dean and I have been racing karts and cars since age 8. Having left the massively expensive world of Kart national and club racing (I find car racing cheaper!), I bought a 1990 8v Mk2 Golf GTI Racecar in which to compete with (Production GTI, a great series by the way!!).
After a few years with good success in this I bought a 16v racecar, which I had some really good results in, with only 2 outings, however I really didn't take to the car, and it got me thinking about building my own car, my way.... but what car??
Well having driven numerous MINI's and loving the handling, body strength and compact dimensions, it was a car I had always wanted to build, albeit an R53... However I was later persuaded by my engine builder to go for the later R56 turbo, as it is a lot easier to extract the power from the Turbo instead of the SC.
Now the task was set to find the correct car to start the build.
Having trawled the bay of E and a few salvage sites, I came across the car I have now named OJ (due to the no. plate), of which was a low mileage, high specc'd, laser blue R56 Cooper S, with one small problem.. the timing chain had snapped. This proved to be the perfect car, as the engine was going to require rebuilding anyway due to the extra strain of racing. Having had this engine damage, the car was bought for a very good price (virtually free after selling the interior!). The engine was sent to an engine builder to be repaired and modified (forged rods, baffled sump and few other tweeks).
Once the car was in my possession, I had a mechanic friend strip the engine out, whilst my father and I striped the interior
After a lot of scraping and sanding the car required a roll cage, a good one with the power targets in mind for the future. With this in mind the car was taken to DV8 motorsport for a fully welded and bespoke cage using both CDS and T45. The cage is great, however it was noted that because these cars have such a rigid shell from factory, it is far more a safety benefit than performance! Sorry for the terrible photos, more will be taken soon!
Having received the car back from having its cage fitted, my father and I set about a few jobs up front, including refurbing the hubs, fitting new bearings, adjustable drop links amongst other thing. The rear was then attended to with adjustable control arms, new bearings and good clean up.
This is pretty much as far as the car has got for now, but the near future has a few things lined up
-Interior Paint
-Dash to be flocked and fitted
-Big Brake Conversion (front)
-Race coilover suspension
-Stud conversion (M14-M12) allowing wheels to be fitted
-Engine Being received and then fitted shortly after
-Rear brake refurb
-Fuse box relocation (due to cage)
Watch this space!!
After a few years with good success in this I bought a 16v racecar, which I had some really good results in, with only 2 outings, however I really didn't take to the car, and it got me thinking about building my own car, my way.... but what car??
Well having driven numerous MINI's and loving the handling, body strength and compact dimensions, it was a car I had always wanted to build, albeit an R53... However I was later persuaded by my engine builder to go for the later R56 turbo, as it is a lot easier to extract the power from the Turbo instead of the SC.
Now the task was set to find the correct car to start the build.
Having trawled the bay of E and a few salvage sites, I came across the car I have now named OJ (due to the no. plate), of which was a low mileage, high specc'd, laser blue R56 Cooper S, with one small problem.. the timing chain had snapped. This proved to be the perfect car, as the engine was going to require rebuilding anyway due to the extra strain of racing. Having had this engine damage, the car was bought for a very good price (virtually free after selling the interior!). The engine was sent to an engine builder to be repaired and modified (forged rods, baffled sump and few other tweeks).
Once the car was in my possession, I had a mechanic friend strip the engine out, whilst my father and I striped the interior
After a lot of scraping and sanding the car required a roll cage, a good one with the power targets in mind for the future. With this in mind the car was taken to DV8 motorsport for a fully welded and bespoke cage using both CDS and T45. The cage is great, however it was noted that because these cars have such a rigid shell from factory, it is far more a safety benefit than performance! Sorry for the terrible photos, more will be taken soon!
Having received the car back from having its cage fitted, my father and I set about a few jobs up front, including refurbing the hubs, fitting new bearings, adjustable drop links amongst other thing. The rear was then attended to with adjustable control arms, new bearings and good clean up.
This is pretty much as far as the car has got for now, but the near future has a few things lined up
-Interior Paint
-Dash to be flocked and fitted
-Big Brake Conversion (front)
-Race coilover suspension
-Stud conversion (M14-M12) allowing wheels to be fitted
-Engine Being received and then fitted shortly after
-Rear brake refurb
-Fuse box relocation (due to cage)
Watch this space!!
Thanks. Well in the short term only 250-260, long term 400ish, once the chassis and drive chain has been developed to take it. It's the sort of power required for castle combe saloons, which is where it will be raced long term. I'm trying to do as much myself as possible with my fathers help, so should be a great learning curve!
vw76 said:
Thanks. Well in the short term only 250-260, long term 400ish, once the chassis and drive chain has been developed to take it. It's the sort of power required for castle combe saloons, which is where it will be raced long term. I'm trying to do as much myself as possible with my fathers help, so should be a great learning curve!
Nice project. If you haven't already found the font of knowledge for all things modern Mini, have a look at the Lohen webpage as they seem to know what's what 
haha he who dares wins... I hope!Just a small update showing the new hub/bearing, cleaned trailing arm, cleaned and painted caliper bracket and caliper, new EBC Braided lines/disks and pads and new custom made adjustable drop links at the rear. I have also been working on relocating the fuse box as the cage is in the way, so it has required a custom bracket. The dash has been sent to be flocked and I have a stud conversion on order!
So another small update.
Fuse box relocation, Rear boot brackets installed and rear tow straps. Both jobs that would seemingly look like they took 5 minutes, yet take about a day.
So first of all, I made a custom fuse box holder to mount the fusebox under the dash, as it no longer fitted in the footwell. This was probably the most straightforward part of the weekend as I had already fabricated a metal bracket to hold the fusebox in the week (it is quite handy working in a well known exhaust company!) THis was simply a case of bolting everything up.
So the next task was installing the new style metal tow straps. This firstly involved removing the bumper, a fairly simply job on these cars. I then drilled some holes in the chassis rails bolted them up and fed them through the fog light holes. Thanks for putting those holes there MINI!
So the final job of the weekend was installing the boot clips, this involved a lot of cutting, drilling, measuring,and more drilling! The drilling was mostly down to me bringing some high grade stainless steel from work. The stuff is a pain to drill and really requires some drill bits, or a lot of patience and dead drill bits!
So all in all another good weekend, with more tasks completed, despite the virtually freezing temperatures!
Paint next!
Fuse box relocation, Rear boot brackets installed and rear tow straps. Both jobs that would seemingly look like they took 5 minutes, yet take about a day.
So first of all, I made a custom fuse box holder to mount the fusebox under the dash, as it no longer fitted in the footwell. This was probably the most straightforward part of the weekend as I had already fabricated a metal bracket to hold the fusebox in the week (it is quite handy working in a well known exhaust company!) THis was simply a case of bolting everything up.
So the next task was installing the new style metal tow straps. This firstly involved removing the bumper, a fairly simply job on these cars. I then drilled some holes in the chassis rails bolted them up and fed them through the fog light holes. Thanks for putting those holes there MINI!
So the final job of the weekend was installing the boot clips, this involved a lot of cutting, drilling, measuring,and more drilling! The drilling was mostly down to me bringing some high grade stainless steel from work. The stuff is a pain to drill and really requires some drill bits, or a lot of patience and dead drill bits!
So all in all another good weekend, with more tasks completed, despite the virtually freezing temperatures!
Paint next!
Not sure if anybody is reading this thread? But thought I'd update. Recently received flocked dash back from NADUK who made an excellent job and who I would advice anyone to use! After eventually working out where the loom had to be rooted regarding the heater box, metal dash, dash skin and then dash panels, I managed to fit dash (the top dash is not yet positioned correctly as I require wiring to be run under it).
Dash upon Arrival
Modified metal dash structure
Dash fitted an 90% wired
MSA Spec interior brake light fitted into redundant glovebox release
It's nice to see the inside finally resembling something like a car rather than a shell!
Next up is to wire kill switches, custom door cards,extinguisher, fit seat, BBK and engine.....
Might just be able to use this thing one day!!
Dash upon Arrival
Modified metal dash structure
Dash fitted an 90% wired
MSA Spec interior brake light fitted into redundant glovebox release
It's nice to see the inside finally resembling something like a car rather than a shell!
Next up is to wire kill switches, custom door cards,extinguisher, fit seat, BBK and engine.....
Might just be able to use this thing one day!!
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