Mini Turbo Racecar (R56- OJ)

[vw76]

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!!

[vw76]

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]

Thanks. Yes I think I've hurt my eyes looking at all the MINI websites haha. I have some more radical ideas though haha he who dares wins... I hope!

[vw76]

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!

[vw76]

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!

[vw76]

So now car has come back from paint, wheel studs fitted and few other things. Here is the car now...

[vw76]

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!!

[vw76]

paulrandall said:

Loving the progress.

Had you considered changing the dash clock backgrounds?

Cheers. It's not anything I've thought about yet, however I have made a custom racedash to use on my tablet which I'm hoping to try out soon.

[vw76]

CHARLESBERG said:

Brilliant stuff. What series are you planning on racing in, is it the Castle Combe series mentioned above?

In the long term Castle Combe saloons, however the cars there (even being FWD) are running 4-600 hp, so for now I will be running it in other series such as CSCC New millennium, amongst other series of which the car is eligible.

[vw76]

RS Grant said:

I'm still reading it when I get a chance, just caught up with it all and I'm enjoying the progress!!

Being nosey, but what exhaust company do you work for?


Cheers,
Grant

Thanks.
I work for Janspeed in Salisbury. We aren't the same company we were a few years ago running racecars and making aftermarket exhausts, we now specialise in High Quality OEM Performance exhausts.

[vw76]

steve-5snwi said:

will you be going for one of these ?

http://www.hardmotorsport.com/mini/

keep the updates coming, us mini owners love minis. Is 400bhp a little bit too much for one though ? surely the benefit is the chassis and too much power might corrupt it ?

Not just yet, the feel of the standard setup isn't too bad for now. They will quite easily handle 400 hp, they are a great chassis, however that's not to say a lot of handling trickery won't be completed first to cope with the power! I do however anymore (if even possible) would be rather pointless in the chassis as you say!

[vw76]

steve-5snwi said:

Out of interest, the Golf, do you still have it ? Its just I've seen one very similar with the same windscreen shade and built by Jabba.

I do still have the White class B 8v car as per the photo, it was my first car so can't bring myself to sell it. My 16v racecar has now sold. All of the production GTI cars must run the Teekay Visor as they are the headline sponsor of the series. Jabba have built many cars of the series, they are one of the main teams in the series along with Saxon

[vw76]

So Engine is back from build.
Now received coolant hoses and intercooler so ready to put it back in the car next week!

[vw76]

Hi Yeah, we were at combe in the golf, albeit it quite a short amount of time due to a broken diff Not lapping very well with unpredictable terminal understeer!

The mini really hasn't gone very far due to numerous issues with the clutch. I won't go into the full details as it would be a long story, however a new clutch due to finally arrive this week, meaning the engine can soon go in and progress can be made. I've also had a recent boost in funds (sold my cooper s daily and bought a mk2 gti for daily use-- hmm maybe I should start a thread on that?) so have ordered brakes and an extinguisher kit!

Will keep you posted!!

[vw76]

So another update. After having numerous clutch issues, the engine is finally in -wooo! Front end is on, bonnet pins fitted etc. A few modifications have been made for everything to fit, but once I have brakes and have bled the clutch, hopefully she'll run! A few other small jobs being done now include an aux fusebox for extinguisher, rainlight, gopro etc, directly from the battery.

Other than the clutch, other delays have been me getting a mk2 golf gti to daily, which has now become project (maybe thread worthy?) and causing me to buy a winter shed, a £900 r50 mini Cooper. No progess will be made this weekend, as I will be racing a classic mini at spa for 24hours... wish me luck!!

Edited by vw76 on Monday 16th October 18:40

[vw76]

andy97 said:

Hope the Spa 24 hours with the Citroens goes well.

Have you seen that CSCC have launched a new series for FWD Turbo Tin Tops only? Ideal for this car I'd have thought.

Thanks! It went pretty well, the mini lasted 24hours with only a lights failure (during my stint), fanbelt snap (also during my stint) and a run out of fuel (it was the first time the car was run with 1275 and had no fuel gauge!). Ultimately we could have won our class if we hadn't run out of fuel! Immenes through Eau Rouge flat in the night though!



Yes I have seen that, I might well look into that, should suit the car perfectly providing they have the same class structure (upto 1.6 turbo).

[vw76]

dazzx10r said:

Wow, that Mk2 looks stunning I'm on the look out for something similar myself, well either a mk2 or a Corrado. The Mini is coming on well now, loving the build keep it coming.

Cheers, it's not so good up close sadly. Also considering how solid it looked, its frustrating as I just keep finding more rust. Also the thing has decided to not start now its at the paint shop! Hopefully I'll regain the love for it soon!
Just get the most solid shell you can find would be my advise, if there's surface rust, it's likely there's more rust!

Thanks, hopefully will start it sometime this month!

[vw76]

MattyKHZ said:

Any more details on engine spec? My car same year has been off road for 3 years now and thinking of getting it back on the road proper with Mahle forget pistons, forged K1 rods and head work when I find someone to do all the engine work.

What remapper you thinking of using. Not sure if most use canned tunes these days rather than live mapping.

Engine is just basically just rebuilt after the chain snapped with uprated valves and guides and some headwork, forging was not in my budget. I have been advised against so called "cheese" Wossner pistons, apparently weaker then OEM! I'm not sure about Mahle, I'd imagine they're pretty good!

I use West Tuning, best in the business imo, all mapping is car specific and he is a real perfectionist!

[vw76]

So a few things have happened!

BIG BRAKES ARRIVED EARLY- WOOO!
Fitted and look really good! If they work as good as they look qualitywise, they should be really good!



Here's the big one, the engine has finally been started for the first time!

https://youtu.be/NJrVJtD7mIg -engine start

Edited by vw76 on Thursday 7th December 17:06

[vw76]

So it’s been a while, but I’m finally ready for my first trackday- Combe tomorrow for running in. Here she- oh and the mk2 golf has gone and been replaced with 3.0 Z 😬 is

Edited by vw76 on Friday 8th June 19:07

Edited by vw76 on Friday 8th June 19:08