love:mini - Issue 4

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love:mini www.love-mini.co.uk

ISSUE 4

magazine

The New MINI Specs, pics and the UK launch show

• Monte Carlo 50 • Cancun Mini Run

• Frank Stephenson • Dakar 2014

• Motorsport • Event Reviews

love:mini

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follow love:mini Keep in touch WEBSITE

www.love-mini.co.uk

The love:mini website is a one-stop resource for useful information; such as event dates, upcoming motorsport, Minis for sale, useful articles and other helpful and informative links and tools.

FACEBOOK

www.facebook.com/loveminimag

Our very popular Facebook page is where we unwind with some fun pictures and ‘Shares’. The latest news from our Blog and Twitter account is also fed into here so you won’t miss a thing.

BLOG

http://loveminimag.blogspot.co.uk

The love:mini Blog really is worth bookmarking as it is here that we look behind the headlines of a story and keep you up-to-date with the latest happenings in the Mini scene.

TWITTER

https://twitter.com/love_mini

If Twitter is your thing then you can follow us on the above link and you’ll be right in tune with updates from the Blog and Facebook too.

EMAIL

editor@love-mini.co.uk

If you want to get yourself in the magazine or want to help and contribute, then the best way to get in touch is directly through email where you’re guaranteed a personal response.

We welcome any contributions, suggestions and ideas that you think would help improve the magazine for other Mini enthusiasts, so please, get in touch.

editor@love-mini.co.uk 2

love:mini

WELCOME Blog and social media links

ISSUE 4 MAr/apr 2014

L

ittle Anekin McBeth stole the show and hearts of many at British Mini Club’s Mini Fair (pictured) as he pulled out the winning ticket for the Win A Mini for £1.

But this issue is dominated by news of the 3rd Generation MINI - the F56. With a name like a jet fighter

Copyright blurb

is has a lot to live up to.

We also took in the Wirral to Llandudno run and have announced a sponsorship deal for the two main Mini rally championships in the UK.

Copyright of all contributions remains with the original owner. love:mini produced content is copyright of love:mini. By submitting words and photos to love:mini you agree to allow us to use and reproduce this material in any way, shape or form (in a non-offensive manner) for the foreseeable future.

We do not intentionally use copyrighted material without permission, and for the most part we have been given permission to use copyrighted material. However, if you believe we have used copyrighted material without permission, we will do what we can to make amends. Reasonable attempts have been made to find and contact any copyright owner whose material may have been used.

Craig McBeth Editor editor@love-mini.co.uk

THIS ISSUE WAS MADE WITH HELP FROM:

Sammiiee Watts@Mini Madness, British Mini Club, Tony Buttigieg, Louise Inch, Norman Nelson, Clive King, Graham Reid@Heritage Garage, Jamie Lincoln Kitman, Greg Wenzlick, Mighty Mini Club Sri Lanka, Dan Anderson, Paul Lawrence, Jonatan Expósito Martín.

www.ydrolina.net

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love:mini www.love-mini.co.uk

6 On the pulse News - investigated

16 gear

Stuff for your Mini

20 Upcoming events Plan ahead!

22 Diary

Two new columnists.

28 f56 mini

Revealing the 3rd Generation MINI.

32 mini launch

See the new car first.

40 Frank Stephenson

Former MINI designer has his say...

44 My mini

Tony Buttigieg.

46 50 Years: Monte Carlo Looking back at the Mini’s famous win.

52 Panamerican challenge Mini vs Muscle cars.

60 Event reports Mini Fair, Wirral to Llandudno plus others.

76 Dakar 2014

Can MINI win again?

100 r.a.c rally

and Clive King column.

104 Workshop Fix up your car.

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What’s INSIDE

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Follow us online to get the latest news first

on the PULSE

crime

mini sport 100k robbery Leading parts supplier turned over by criminal gang who make off with £100k of loot and a Mini LE.

Padi

ham firm Mini Sport has been left “devastated” after robbers broke into the company’s premises and cleared out its stock.

A criminal gang is believed to behind the carefully orchestrated overnight raid which also saw a W-reg John Cooper Special LE, worth £8k-£10k, stolen too on the weekend of January 18-19, 2014.

Local police have released CCTV images of the suspected burglars who are believed to have used a Volkswagon Caddy van to escape. Two other gangmembers are believed to have waited in the vehicle whilst the pictured pair broke into the premises after cutting phone lines to the alarm and climbing the roof to smash an office window.

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Police say that the warehouse was thoroughly searched - with particular rooms and even units targetted - before they left via roller shutters operated from inside the premises.

PC Chris Hutchinson, of Burnley Police, said: “This is a high-value burglary that has left the company owners distraught.

“The warehouse building is down a quiet residential road on the outskirts of town and I believe the offenders have used at least one vehicle as lots of heavy and bulky tools and equipment have been taken.

“This was clearly a carefully planned burglary in which the shop has literally been emptied of almost all stock and this crime will have taken a long time to commit.

“I urge anybody who recognises the persons or the vehicle involved, or saw anything suspicious that could assist with this investigation, to contact me on 01282 472120.

Before going to press we contacted PC

Hutchinson who updated love:mini stating that two men from Blackburn had been arrested and bailed. The van used had false plates. No stolen property has been recovered yet although non-distinctive Mini parts have been found. Most surprisingly is that when the robbers made off with the Mini, they discovered it had a flat tyre and took the time to change it before driving off.

Mini Sport boss, Chris Harper, said: “I hope they catch this scum as we wouldn’t want anybody else to go through what we have had to.”

News in Brief Stay up-to-date with our Blog and social media links

Taking place a week before the IMM on the weekend of The Bideford Bumbles is JULY 25-27, organisers are a new Mini club based offering the chance to stay in North Devon. Ashleigh for the week at an amazing Bowyer has started the new £2 per person per night at club to help raise money Marley Eternity Social Club, for the Children’s Hospice Meldreth, Hertfordshire.

South West through various Cheap camping with events. fellow Mini owners? It’s Contact the club on 07722 got to be done. Plus, they’re 605226 or email: lilylou16@ also looking to have a yahoo.co.uk big Mini convoy to the IMM showground on the Thursday. The main event is just £5, with barbeques and live music with proceeds going to charity.

Trent Valley MOC has Contact Trevor on announced that their annual 07852 198529 or email: Normanby Hall event, schedulsed for June 15, this knowles.madhouse@virgin. net year, has been cancelled.

New Club

watchdog bans ad Marketing Week has reported that an outdoor billboard advert for MINI UK has been banned by the Advertising Standards Agency.

The advertising watchdog suggested the use of blurred lines trailing from behind the featured car could be seen to encourage dangerous driving.

The location-specific advert displayed a Mini Countryman with what we would call go-faster lines, emphasising speed as you would do in a drawing. It read: “The A532. It’s miles more fun in a MINI.” Mini brand owner BMW said the use of the coloured lines referred to the distance that could be driven by the car, while the word ‘fun’ referenced MINI’s brand

values and how it felt to drive one of its MINIs. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the large number of lines in different colours would give those who saw the ad the impression of a fast-moving vehicle - an impression exaggerated by the wide format of the poster.

The regulator also said the use of the word ‘fun’ in conjunction with the imagery of a vehicle moving at ‘excessive speed’ in a builtup environment was likely to encourage dangerous driving and ruled the ad was “irresponsible”. www.marketingweek. co.uk/sectors/automotive/ news/mini-ad-banned-forencouraging-dangerousdriving/4008930.article

Free MINI when you buy a house... in dubai In Dubai property developer has adopted a novel way to sell luxury property units - by handing out a Lamborghini, BMW or MINI with purchases.

The Khaleej Times reported that buyers of Damac Properties’ penthouse will be given a Lamborghini Aventador roadster, whilst others will receive either a BMW or MINI Cooper, depending on the size of the unit purchased.

“Damac Properties’ DSF promotion is always highly anticipated and we see some of the best results of the year during this time,” said Niall McLoughlin, senior vicepresident, Damac Properties.

“Guaranteeing a brand new 2014 Lamborghini, BMW or Mini Cooper with purchases in select units is an exciting incentive which many international visitors to Dubai really appreciate,” he said.

Normanby hall 2014 cancelled

club Venue change Trent Valley MOC has moved its regular monthly meetings on the first Friday of month from Caenby Corner to The Red Lion in Redbourne, DN21 4QR. All Mini owners welcome.

bogus bros at imm IMM2014 organisers, the Southern Mini Owners’ Club has announced Saturday night’s main act as The Bogus Brothers.

The five-piece ensemble state they are “one of the best and most entertaining party bands in Europe.” www.bogusbrothers.info www.imm2014.co.uk

Mini production vid If you love robots then you’ll love this. It’s an 11-minute video of the new 2014 MINI being built from start to finish, almost fully automated. It’s very cool to watch and see how human some of the robots look. www.youtube.com/ watch?v=wXe-4kbrAXA

PRE IMM CHILLOUT Fancy extending your IMM partying for a week? Then the Cambridge Mini Chill may be of interest to you and many overseas visitors.

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on the PULSE

love:mini seals double sponsorship deal with leading Mini rally championships for 2014. www.hrcr.co.uk www.racrallychamp.org

Raci

ng fans are set for a real treat this season after love:mini magazine agreed a deal to support both the 2014 Mintex MSA British Historic Championship’s Mini Cup and the Aldon Automotive Mini and Imp Cup within the West Wales Rally Spares R.A.C. Rally Championship for 2014.

The double swoop reaffirms love:mini’s determination to become the forefront provider of Mini motorsport, with more deals to come. love:mini had supported Mini rallying and other forms of Mini motorsport and will continue in this vein as we think it is a highly entertaining sport and a great way to enjoy spirited driving. love:mini Editor Craig McBeth said, “The cup is one of the premier opportunities to become involved in motorsport and as one of the most established mini competitons out there it’s a great opportunity for love:mini and the BHRC to work together to help

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promote Minis in rallying.”

BHRC Secretary John Hunt said, “It’s brilliant to see such high profile support for the Mini Cup. Love: Mini have been excellent supporters of the BHRC and it is fantastic to have them onboard for 2014.”

AC Schnitzer opens MINI shop

German performance firm, AC Schnitzer, has announced the launch of its new online shop with a brand new MINI section allowing you to see for the first time the full range of AC Schnitzer upgrades for every modern MINI. All models from the original R50 up to the R58 Coupé and R60 Countryman are catered for. http://shop.ac-schnitzer.co.uk/mini-25-c.asp

the world of minis Tell us what’s going on in your part of the world editor@love-mini.co.uk

AUSTRALIA

by Tony Buttigieg

Rare last of minis for sale Mini fans are being offered the chance to snap up a showroom condition Cooper which has just 182 miles on the clock.

A private seller in Scotland is selling this 2001 Rover Mini Cooper, which is one of the last cars off the production line and has never been used outdoors other than for its initial delivery drive to its first owner. It is being sold for £14,995. Gary Jones 07834 062949. http://loveminimag.blogspot. co.uk/2014/02/rare-last-classic-mini-forsale.html

Not much Miniing has been happening over the Christmas and New Year season here in Queensland, Australia. It has also been very hot with days where the temperature in my area of Queensland soaring up to 46 Deg C for a couple of days before the New Year. There are also more heatwaves predicted and no rain in sight. Even though being tropical here we have not had much rain this summer and boy do we need it!

Being an Auto Electrician I have finally got down to doing my second Mini with electric power steering. So now I have two of them done; the Orange car and the red convertible. It makes them drive so much easier even though they have 13 and 12 inch wheels.

Now that I am 60 years young I think I deserve some comfort in my Minis!

about these type of publicity stunts, but in this case it’s actually put together really well and sounds pretty good.

Check it out, even if you’re not Canadian - they’ve got a pretty good National Anthem! http://loveminimag.blogspot. co.uk/2014/02/mini-sings-canadiananthem.html

AMERICA

end of magna steyr minis Production of the MINI Countryman and MINI Paceman at Magna Steyr in Austria is set to end in 2016.

A report in Kleine Zeitung states that production of the two models will move to the main factory in Oxford, UK, and to Dutch group VDL at the former Mitsubishi NedCar factory in Born, Holland.

Magna Steyr has been producing the MINI Countryman since 2010 and the MINI Paceman since 2012.

CANADA In tribute to the Canadian Olympians who are taking part in this year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, the MINI Team that is sponsoring them, have put together a ensemble of MINI sounds to recreate the Canadian National Anthem.

Usually we’re quite sceptical

MINI enthusiasts all over America have been waiting for this... MINI Takes The States is a bi-annual event hosted

by MINI USA which attracts large numbers to convoy from one side of America to the other.

This time the event journeys from San Francisco through Reno, Dallas, Chicago and Cleveland before finally arriving in Boston, MA two weeks later.

The official website is now live and registration opens on March 27, but until then MINI will be releasing snippetts of information about this year’s event to whet your appetite. www.minitakesthestates.com/ welcome

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on the PULSE

FUTURE MINI

spied: four-door mini hatch The cover has been blown for MINI’s forthcoming family car as spyshots spam social media.

This

may be old news for most of you as anyone who has access to the internet and an interest in Minis would no doubt have come across the wave of reposts and shares overcoming social media sites. But for those who haven’t. here are some cheeky spy shots of the forthcoming four-door MINI Hatch, prior to it’s official announcement later this year.

These pictures were taken in the Netherlands and spread from one of the Dutch Mini forums after the car was spotted uncovered in an empty car park. A previously leaked photo showed the car partially covered ready for being sprayed.

With the extended platform of the new 2014 MINI range it allows the firm to fit in a proper pair of rear doors and offer some generous legroom something severely lacking in previous models -but at a price. The larger size once again moves away from the MINI ethos and when you consider it’s the same size as the 3-door BMW 2 Series Active Tourer.... It is expected that the

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base model will have a 1.5-litre, threecylinder turbo engine.

The new four-door MINI will share the same platform as the 2 Series Active Tourer.

jalopnik: mini didn’t win dakar rally Popular opinionated motoring blog - Jalopnik has been quick to pour scorn on MINI’s achievements in this year’s Dakar Rally by claiming the cars are not MINIs at all.

Writer Raphael Orlove was less than impressed by the marketing claims that a MINI had won the Dakar after discovering the rallywinning cars have “about as much to do with Mini as I have to do with a cheese danish.”

In fact he has a very good point. If you look at the technical specifications of

the Dakar MINIs none of it is stuff you would find in any consumer MINI. The three-litre diesel engine, clutch, brakes and differential are all carefully chosen to suit the needs of the rally car, but in essence take away the credibility of calling the car a MINI. This year’s MINIs are in fact the same as the BMW X3s used in the Dakar a couple of years ago, but simply with a MINI bodyshell. http://jalopnik.com/amini-didnt-win-the-dakarrally-1505308402

Historic rally car register Mini cup returns The 2014 Mintex British Historic Rally Championship has reaffirmed its commitment to historic motorsport by announcing the return of the Mini and Imp Cups.

2013 saw unprecedented numbers of Imps and Imp variants take to the stages of the BHRC providing exciting battles and interesting viewing for the spectators with Geoff Taylor and Steve Greenhill taking the Cup home. Clive King and Bob Ward dominated the Old

Stager field and won the 2013 Mini Cup. For 2014 the format will be based around the four best scores of each crew.

The BHRC has also confirmed that this competition will not exclude crews from winning their class, which will be based on the best six scoring rounds.

Championship Secretary John Hunt said “It’s part of out long standing commitment to historic motorsport, ensuring that all makes and models of

car can enjoy their BHRC experience.

Geoff was a worthy winner of last year’s competition and we look forward to seeing even more cars out this season.” www.hrcr.co.uk

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on the PULSE

jobs

uk MINI employment boosted by investment news Recruitment for new apprentices, 1000 contract jobs go permanent and transformation of Hams Hall engine plant.

BMW

Group is looking for around 160 young people with a passion for the motor industry to take up apprenticeships available through its company and dealership schemes in 2014. The new recruits will join over 400 existing apprentices currently undergoing training across the company’s UK operations, and within its BMW and MINI dealer network, with some able to rise beyond NVQ to degree qualifications.

In its MINI UK production network, the business is looking for 49 new apprentices to take up places in August as the plants ramp up production of the next model generation. In addition, BMW and MINI dealerships are looking to recruit around 110 young people across the UK. Skills and Enterprise Minister Matthew Hancock said: “It is always encouraging to see large employers, such as BMW, committing to employing more apprentices. This scheme is a great opportunity for a young person with an interest in the automotive sector to begin a rewarding career. I want choosing university or an apprenticeship to be the new norm for young people and the range of positions available demonstrate this is becoming a reality.”

Apprenticeships in the MINI UK

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production network MINI Plant Oxford has 31 places available in a variety of areas ranging from finance and logistics to engineering and IT. Technical apprentices will attend Plant Oxford’s new bespoke training school, featuring state-of-the-art classrooms, dedicated computer study areas and a fullyequipped workshop.

Applications have now closed. but you can find out more at www. facebook.com/BmwCareersUK.

Dealership Apprenticeships

For the 110 apprentices to be recruited to MINI and BMW dealerships, there are programmes in various disciplines ranging from Service Technician, Parts Advisor, Motorcycle Technician and Body Panel/Paint.

Production triangle All BMW and MINI dealer With 10 apprenticeships available at apprentices complete the three-year Advanced Modern Apprenticeship at the Plant Swindon pressings plant Level 3, the Parts Advisor programme and a further eight at the Hams Hall engine plant near Birmingham, is two years, and receive VRQ/VCQ qualifications from the Institute of the apprenticeships last between three and four years and cover a wide range Motor Industry. Training is carried out at the BMW Group Academy UK, of skills from human resources and business to electrical maintenance and a purpose-built training centre opened engineering. The training leads to an in 2006 and located near Reading, the NVQ level three qualification and some Bodyshop programmes are carried young people will have the opportunity out at our training facility in Milton to progress right through to degree Keynes. In general the minimum entry criteria require between three and level in the course of their career at four GSCEs at grade C or above or MINI. Frank Bachmann, Managing Director, equivalent.

Commenting on the 2014 intake, Tim MINI Plant Oxford and Swindon, said: “Investment in young people is a key Abbott, Managing Director of BMW Group UK, said: "Bringing new talent part of our development strategy for the plants and it is vital that we attract into our dealerships is vital to ensure the very best young talent to ensure we provide the best possible service for the business has the right skills for the our customers and so I am delighted future. We are delighted to be able to that we will welcome over 100 new offer young people the chance to join apprentices to our award- winning our modern apprenticeship scheme.” scheme in the UK."

hams hall overhaul The MINI engine production plant at Hams Hall, Birmingham is to undergo a massive multi-million transformation to produce the car’s next-generation 3and 4-cylinder engines.

The upgrade of the facilities are in preparation of the manufacture of BMWs new, extra efficient, ecofocused engines to be used in the 3rd generation MINI such as the F56 and other variants.

Hams Hall was opened in February 2001 and was the first BMW production site outside of Germany and Austria. As well as all MINI engines it also builds powerunits for the BMW 1 Series, F3 3 Series and X1.

xmas bonus for workers In December MINI announced that it is creating 1000 permanent positions with agency workers to be given priority.

Some 700 jobs are being recruited for in the New Year with another 300 to come in 2016 - no doubt to tie in with the transfer of MINI Countryman/ Paceman to Oxford.

BMW spokesman Angela Stangroom said: “We are part way through the £760m investment in the MINI production network and the new model is creating this expansion.

Priority will be given to eligible agency staff as long as they meet the selection criteria which is a robust process.”

The majority of the jobs are expected to be at the main MINI factory in Cowley, Oxford, but the pressings plant at Swindon, which makes the bodyshells, will also see an increase in permanent staff numbers as will

team sulpher carbon 4000-mile lejog charity run Two avid Mini owners are travelling from London to Lands End to John O’Groats to London in their Mini to raise money for the Police Dependants’ Trust and Marie Curie. As if the journey wasn’t enough of a challenge, they plan to visit every police service in England, Wales & Scotland, clocking up some 4000 miles in just 10 days.

Nikki Green and Kerry O’Sullivan, or Team Sulphur Carbon as they are known, will set off from London on April 8 in Minx, Nikki’s classic Rover Mini Sport 500. The little blue car will be covered in the logos of the two charities as well as those of various sponsors and supporters.

They will be accompanied by toy dog team member K9, who has his own warrant card that the pair hope will be stamped at each police station they stop at.

Nikki and Kerry chose to raise money for the Police Dependants Trust because it supports both injured officers and the

families of officers killed on duty.

As well as being Special Constables the pair has many friends and family members who are police officers and so know the risks that come with the job.

The pair also chose to raise money for Marie Curie as the nurses were a great support system and provided invaluable assistance to Kerry’s family during a very hard time in late 2013, when sadly Kerry’s grandad was losing his battle with cancer and passed away.

the engine plant at Hams Hall, Birmingham.

Around 4000 staff work at the Cowley plant, which has a production capacity of 260,000 cars a year.

UNITE national secretary Roger Maddison said: “The best Christmas present for working families is job security. We are delighted 1000 BMW

agency workers are to be made permanent with guaranteed job security beyond 2020. It is a prime example of unions and employers working together to make a lasting and positive impact in the workplace. The deal is also an indication of the strength of the car industry and the skills of the UK workforce.”

If you would like to donate to the Mini run, you can do so via their JustGiving page: www.justgiving.com/TeamSulphrCarbn If your company would like to sponsor the team please email Nikki and Kerry using: teamsulphurcarbon@live.co.uk Find out more at the website: www.teamsulphurcarbon.co.uk

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on the PULSE

(if the Mini makes it!)

rally

Harris to make comeback in R.A.C. Rally Championship Former BMC youngster returns to the motorsport fold after 23 long years with a rallying family heritage and a whole lot of catching up to do.

Twen

ty-three years after he last rallied, Phil Harris will make a comeback to the sport in this season’s West Wales Rally Spares R.A.C. Rally Championship.

The Northampton-based motor sport accountant is due to join the championship for the Mid Wales Stages in March in his Mini Cooper.

Phil has a long association with Minis as his late father Les was a regular co-driver for Bob Freeborough. In the 1960s, they were linked to the works BMC team and often competed in factory built Minis. The era had a big effect on the youngster.

“As a young boy I used to go to the BMC Competition Department at Abingdon and see people like Timo Makinen, Rauno Aaltonen and Paddy Hopkirk,” said Phil. “I grew up around Minis.” Later, Phil rallied a Mini of his

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own and now, 23 years on, has finally decided to make a comeback.

“I bought my Mini when I was 19 in 1976,” said Phil. “We built it into a rally car and had a whale of a time. I reshelled it in 1989 and its last rally was the 1990 Hella Stages. Then I started a business and had to stop rallying.”

Sitting patiently, waiting...

The Mini sat in the back of the garage for more than 20 years before Phil finally decided to make a return to the sport. The car has now been completely rebuilt by Towcester-based Rob Smith Rallying.

“I gave the car to Rob to sort out and it has now had a bare shell rebuild. I hadn’t thought about rallying it for 23 years but now I can’t wait!”

He will contest the Aldon Automotive Mini and Imp Cup within the R.A.C. Rally Championship.

To complete the family story Phil will be co-driven by his two nieces, Helen and Jenny Bradshaw, during the season.

The 2014 R.A.C. Rally Championship starts on the Red Kite Stages on Sunday 2 February and more details are available from www.redkitestages.co.uk The West Wales Rally Spares R.A.C. Rally Championship is the only championship that runs historics first on the road on all events.

More details about the R.A.C. Rally Championship can be found at www.racrallychamp.org Follow the championship on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ RACrallychamp and on Twitter: @ RACRallyChamp.

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Gear

Bits and pieces for your Mini

55 years of the mini www.minispares.com

£15

2014 is the 55th anniversary of the Mini!

To celebrate the occasion Mini Spares have had Dooderwear design a range of t-shirts for them. These

£6xx0

are now available in red, white or blue each with a different design on the front and the small Dooderwear logo on the back.

Available in small, medium, large, X-large and XX-large.

GAZ GOLD COIL-overs for new MINI £919+VAT www.gazshocks.com Leading suspension specialists GAZ have a new coilover kit for the BMW Mini Cooper from 2002 onwards.

The GAZ Gold kit is suitable for serious track or competition vehicles, although it can also be used on street cars.

The GAZ Gold units are bump and rebound adjustable and can be adjusted whilst on the vehicle by means of easily accessible adjusters.

The Gold range comes with a gas cell in the outer reservoir filled with a high viscosity index multi-grade oil to prevent cavitation and reduce fade in racing conditions.

Ride height is adjustable through 60mm of adjustment and the units are plated (either zincplated or black nickel) and fitted with anodised adjusters for long life.

All units are individually tested before leaving the factory and covered by a two-year warranty.

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£xxx

PRE-verto clutch plunger www.minispares.com

£17.28

Mini Spares has just released an upgraded pre-verto clutch lever arm plunger. This is the carrier that holds the clutch release bearing and on the other end has a hole for the clutch lever arm 22A2204MS. This part has been produced in response to customer demand, as the early diaphragm clutch really needed a better quality plunger. Until now the only alternatives have been of poor quality or designed specifically for racing. (C-22A2204 race kit) To cope with the stresses imposed upon it Mini Spares has stipulated that its version of the part be manufactured in durable EN24T.

Copper head Gasket £15.54 www.minispares.com For some time now Mini tuners have been asking for a decent copper head gasket, true to race standards, as all others have fallen way below the quality required.

Now Mini Spares have crossed the original C-AHT188 competition copper gasket and early AF460 copper gasket to produce the GEG300 gasket - a high specification, copper, asbestos-free gasket.

To test the GEG300 gasket it was run for over 50 laps in Bill Richards racing 1380cc 8-port engine. When the engine was stripped down for inspection the gasket was found to be perfect.

The GEG300 gasket is suitable for all large bore ‘A Series’ modified engines, and has a 3.4cc compressed volume. Part number is GEG300.

DSN Water pump pulley www.dsnclassics.co.uk

From £37.50

Billet alloy water pump pulleys from DSN Classics ensure durability and keep your classic’s engine bay looking good!

Small, as fitted to most Minis. £37.50 + VAT (£45.00) Large, as fitted to a few factory models.

Also useful with hi revving engines. £45.00 + VAT (£54.00) And Mpi. A direct replacement for the standard item. £40.00 + VAT (£48.00)

Oil absorbing pads £8.54+VAT www.lasertools.co.uk These new oil absorbing pads from Laser Tools (part no: 5712) repel water-based fluids and absorb oil and petroleum-based fluids to ensure efficiency in your cleanup operation. Oil-only absorbent pads are

Weber DCOE Gaskets £32.75 www.webcon.co.uk Just in time for the start of the ‘rebuild season’, Webcon have announced the release of a new gasket kit for a pair of 38, 40 or 45 Weber DCOE carburettors.

The kit is available as part number 9200150502. Other ovehaul parts such as needle valves, internal return springs and mixture screws also available.

designed to control and clean up spills in small areas.

The pads are 100% polypropylene construction, strong, durable and offer terrific absorption — 0.6 litre per pad.

Each pad is 500mm x 400mm and 2mm thick, supplied in a pack of 10. Pre-cut to divide each pad into two if required.

The pads can be used indoors around machinery to catch leaks, drips and spills (great for underneath marine engines) or use them outdoors to soak up oil sheens off the surface of water.

Will not absorb water but will float and absorb oil spills on water.

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Gear

SEaled beam headlights ww w.m inispa res.com

Bits and pieces for your Mini

£11.52

ck those lights and if you r cla ssic’s Wit h Winter com ing it’s time to che res. ck out these offerings from Min i Spa headlights are pas t their bes t che e most com mon

e light replac These sea led bea m un its wit h a sid as used on Mi nis up to 1990. right-hand drive light un its and are wh ile but they are in stock at Mi ni They haven’t been ava ilable for a the longer nights.

Spa res once aga in, jus t in time for Mini chocolate moulds w w w.dsncla ssics.com

£4.50

And now for somet hi ng completely di fferent!

M in i chocolate mou ld.

Manufactu red from food grade si licone, it ca n be use for chocolate, ice, plas tic, plas ter of pa ris, and many more mater ia ls.

With stands temperatu res from -60° C to +260°C. La rge M in i is approx. 10 cm x 10cm Smal l ones are approx.

5cm x 5cm

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NANKING winter tyre www.minispares.com

£45.60

Remember last winter? Don’t get caught out this year. Change to winter tyres and be ready for snow, ice and cold weather.

Mini Spares are now stocking Nanking SV-2 Winter Tyres in 145/70/12 for Minis with 12” wheels and other cars using this size.

The v-shaped tread design makes for added security in all driving conditions. Its special lamella technology and silicone mix ensures the tyre stays supple and provides grip even in sub zero conditions.

The SV-2 retails at £45.60 each inc VAT, but should be fitted as a full set.

From £29.40 rear view mirrors ww w.m inispa res.com two Mi ni Spa res have jus t relaunched Mi ni mi rrors that have been listed 0 grey obsolete for some time. The 24A175 wide and the 24A2110 wh ite interior 6” ed from pla stic mi rrors were originally fitt 1964 on. ma ny The grey wa s fitted until 1970 but s is people thi nk they were wh ite as thi the colour they fade into. at Early cars had a single bal l socket ker but either end and a black rubber suc ha this is the later factor y update wit , clear sucker on an ext ra bal l socket 0 at The grey can be ordered as 24A175 £24.50 plu s vat (£29-40) 0 at The wh ite can be ordered as 24A211 £25.25 plu s vat (£30.30)

Momo racing suit package £399.99 www.b-gdirect.com MOMO UK can help save you money getting kitted out with a new Clubman Racing Package. The package consists of a high quality MOMO Rookie race suit, a pair of MOMO gloves and a pair of MOMO Pro Rally race boots at the all in price of £399.99 (inc VAT). (usual total price of these items would be £493.16). Phone or email only for this offer, quoting ‘Clubman Package’. Available in red, blue or black.

£73.20 Brake master cylinder 1980-89 www.minispares.com Mini Spares now have stocks of genuine AP Lockheed master cylinders for 198089 Minis.

These ‘front to rear’ dual master cylinders, were introduced in 1985 and had a stepped bore of 17.8 to 19mm.

They can be used to replace any previous master cylinders from September 1978 to 1988 (when the built-in servo type master cylinder was introduced).

Identifying features are the failure light switch on the reservoir cap and a yellow identification tab. This item replaces all the front to rear square type reservoir cylinders - GMC173/198 and the GMC192/195.

It should also be noted that this master cylinder has 2 different size metric unions, Top one is 10mm and the bottom one 12mm for the larger stepped bore size to the rear brakes, so new pipe kits will be required if replacing an earlier master cylinder - Mini Spares can also supply the pipe kits.

£24.00 t Expansion tank bracke w w w.m in ispares.com r ow ners of Multi Here’s a usef ul pa rt fo onwards...

Point M in is from 1996 is have an ‘ 96 on Multi Point M in is bracket hold s it ex pa nsion ta nk and th in place.

M in i Sapres are It of ten ru sts away! So ent made to the now of fering a replacem sa me specifications as the or ig inal.

Order as pa rt nu m ber PCU103230 at £20.00 plus VAT (£24.00).

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Event Highlight

Brooklands Mini Day

MARCH 22, 2014 Brooklands Rd, Weybridge, Surrey KT13 0QN 01932 857381 www.brooklandsmuseum.com

As

the first static outdoor show of the year Brooklands typically kicks off a Mini calendar that will get progressively busier as the season goes on.

This particular show, based at the historic Brooklands Racetrack and Museum in Surrey, offers more than just a showcase of Minis to ogle over, but also provides a beautiful historical backdrop to learn about.

Whilst you can expect to see a

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wide selection clubs and Minis, along with food and trade stalls, what makes Brooklands special to Mini owners is Test Hill.

The 1:4 gradient hill, built in 1909, is named so as it was often used by car manufacturers when testing prototypes.

Now, enthusiastic car owners challenge their own motors on the steep hill with most getting to the top, albeit some a little slower than others.

The sights and learning isn’t over there though, with sheds of

displays of all forms of transport from over the last Century.

From Concorde to a World War II V2 bomb and other historical aircraft and apparel, you’ll also find a museum of bicycles charting its evolution over the decades.

This is the show that signals the Mini show season is open and that your weekends are going to become very busy, very soon. It’s a great day out for all the family, with lots more than just Minis to see and enjoy.

Upcoming events

VIEW

Dates for your diary MARCH

MARCH 8 A’s of Herts Mini Owners Club Annual Night Tour 01438 225441 MARCH ??

Crewe’s Missiles Minimine Run www.crewes-missiles.co.uk MARCH 9 Austin Morris Day www.brooklandsmuseum.com MARCH 22 Brooklands Mini Day Brooklands Museum, KT13 0SL www.brooklandsmuseum.com MARCH 26-30 Techno Classica Essen Messe Essen, Essen, Germany www.siha.de/tce_uk.php

APRIL

APRIL 21 East Coast Mini Run www.eastcoastminiclub.co.uk APRIL 21 Easter Mini Run www.miniclublimburg.be APRIL 26-27 Moonraker Run molesminiclub@hotmail.co.uk APRIL 27 Suffolk Run www.buryminiclub.co.uk APRIL 26-27 MSA Spring Classic www.msaclassics.co.uk APRIL 27 H2H Run Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire www.hamoc.co.uk

APRIL 11 April’s Mini Run hadders24@hotmail.co.uk

APRIL 28 - MAY 3 Dutch Mini Rally Dover – Harwich www.dutchminirally.nl

APRIL 12 Pride of Longbridge Rally www.austinlongbridgefederation.co.uk

MAY

APRIL 13 Lincoln BIG Mini Day www.trentvalleymoc.co.uk APRIL 13 Malvern Mini Show The Malvern Showground, Worcestershire, www.classicshows.org APRIL 18 Wheels Day Dunsfold Aerodrome, Cranleigh, Surrey. www.facebook.com/surreystreetrodders APRIL 19-21 Silly Mini Weekend www.sillyminis.com APRIL 20 Minis vs. Beetles www.yorkraceway.org.uk

MAY 2-5 Northumberland Mini Splash Dash www.minisplashdash.webeden.co.uk www.cumbriaminicruisers.co.uk MAY 2-5 Riviera Run www.rivierarun.co.uk MAY 3 Back to Downton Brian Whitehead Sports Ground, Wick Lane, Downton SP5 3NS www.dewsc.org.uk MAY 3-5 Minis on the Prom Aberystwyth www.newportminiowners.co.uk

MAY 11 British Mini Day Himley Hall, Staffordshire, DY3 4DF www.britishminiclub.co.uk

Event s g n i t s i L k clic

MAY 17-18 London to Brighton Crystal Palace, London to Madeira Drive, Brighton www.london-to-brighton.co.uk MAY 25 Durham Mini and Classic Car Show North East Restoration Club, 1 Wilden Terrace, Pattinson Ind. Est., Washington, NE38 8QB www.facebook.com/durham.miniclub www.durhamminiclub.com MAY 25-26 Motorsport at the Palace www.motorsportatthepalace.co.uk MAY 26 The 3rd Mini & VW Show Knebworth Park, Stevenage, SG1 2AX www.classicshows.org MAY 31 - JUNE 1 Classic & Performance Car Spectacular Tatton Park, Knutsford, Cheshire. www.cheshireautopromotions.co.uk

JUNE

JUNE 8 MCR Mini Cooper Day www.minicooper.org JUNE 14-15 Under Milk Wood Run / National Transport Festival of Wales Bracelet Bay car park, Mumbles, Swansea www.ntfwswansea.co.uk JUNE 15 - CANCELLED Normanby Hall Mini Day 07749 536407 www.trentvalleymoc.co.uk

Visit www.love-mini.co.uk for more information on each event and a full list of the year’s events

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diary

Craig McBeth

Winter of neglect

After enjoying the summer sunshine, Bruce has sat cold and forlorn exposed to the elements.

Sinc 1991 Rover Mini Cooper Spec: Carburrettored 1275cc A-Series with Stage 1 kit, K&N air filter, Maniflow twin-box centre exit exhaust, Ultralite 12x5.5-inch wheels with A539 Yokohama tyres, Minisport 1.5 negative camber bottom arms.

Bruce has been in my ownership since 2007 and was my first car.

Bought for a bargain with tax and MoT he needed serious welding to get through the next test.

Since then he’s covered over 60,000 miles and just before a huge trip to Italy in 2013 I killed his engine and had to quickly fit another.

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e our return from Italy, Bruce has been living the charmed life now that there is another car in the stable. He happy to be the car of choice over the summer, but when his tax and MoT ran out in the Autumn, I decided to rest him up for the winter in favour of a warmer Vauxhall Astra.

And that is where he has remained. Nestled outside my back door, under my watchful eye. There is a fair list of jobs to do to get him back to roadworthiness, but in case you hadn’t heard, the

www.facebook.com/cmcbeth www.love-mini.com

UK is suffering from its worst period of sustained rain since before records began over 100 years ago. Needless to say, I’m waitinig for more clement weather before pulling the Mini to pieces.

In the meantime, Bruce’s interior has been taking a battering. Water has been finding its way inside and the moisture has spawned mould to come out on the seats and steering wheel!!

I pulled the carpets out and rear seat and have had to regularly refresh a pair of towels to soak up the water that resembles an Olympicsized swimming pool in the rear footwell.

Had the original sounddeadening not covered the floorplugs, I could have popped them out and drained it that way.

Anyway, I think I’ve now found the sources of the leaks.

Using an unorthodox method of covering an area with Talculm Powder, I was able to trace the route of the water http://loveminimag.blogspot.com www.facebook.com/loveminimag

and find the leaks.

Although it is obvious to say the windows and doors - the question is where exactly, and why? All the seals are new enough, and they seem to be fitted securely and snugly. Either way it seems there are limited solutions; use some sort of sealent with the current seals or just buy a brand new set. I really should have picked up a set at British Mini Club’s Mini Fair at Bingley Hall at the end of January. Anyway, I’m sure Bruce will survive the wet and I’ll have more pressing jobs to fix once the sun decides to show itself.

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diary

Norman Nelson

Pooper & Pynt Syz 2004 MINI Cooper S 1973 Mini Cooper I am 63 years old, retired, living in Shasta in northern California, USA. I am married to Jesse. We are the proud owners of two Minis and we are baby-sitting a 3rd named Kruezr for three years.

Pooper is my 2004 MCS (R53) that has been highly modified. I drive it mostly for Mini runs but I also take it on track. Our 1973 Mini Cooper is named “Pynt Syz” and we have stripped it down and removed all rust, and repainted. We added wheel fenders and running boards and a windup key.

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State of play Festive season cheer and future plans for the coming year.

My n

ame is Norman Nelson (aka Pooper) from Shasta CA in the US from where I am joining the love:mini team as correspondent to cover news and events from the US. I am a long-time Mini enthusiast, starting back in my early years as a spectator, and then in 2005 as an owner of my 2004 MCS R53 Mini named ‘Pooper’. I have been involved with various clubs in the US and even in the UK and have travelled to MINI United at Silverstone in 2009, ran the London 2 Brighton Run that year in a hired Mini, then attended MINI United in 2012 at the Paul Ricard Circuit in southern France.

I am active in several clubs, but primarily in Shasta Minis here in northern California. I am a member of the Miniology.com Team as a reporter, photographer, and radio interviewer. I am also the Westcoast Editor for Motorwerks Magazine out of Toronto Ontario, Canada.

In 2008 my wife Jesse bought a 1973 Mini Cooper and named it Pynt Syz and in 20011 I bought MINI Eagle.

We now own and drive

three Minis.

This will be my first submission for love:mini magazine and I am looking forward to covering many of the events across the US. Here are some of the events I plan to cover.

As the 2013 ended in California, all of us Mini enthusiasts took a bit of time off from Mini events and runs, and spent a little time with family. As most of the central and eastern US was pounded by storm after

storm we, in California, enjoyed some very dry warm weather that continued into a drought.

Many of our west coast clubs held events with charity drives and shows for the kids (Toys 4 Tots), and visits to our Veteran’s Homes, and night tours around town to view the exciting Christmas Light displays.

January was time to reflect and plan for the year ahead.

Next up on our schedule is Stormin’ Norman’s MINI Thunder V at Thunderhill Raceway Park in California. Here 200-300 MINI/Minis gather for a full trackday. Running groups from beginner through Advances and race-prepared. This is one of the largest Mini Cooper track events in the country and is held each year on President’s Day weekend.

Above is a group photo of last year’s event participants. Photos courtesy of GotBlueMilk.com Another major US event on the east coast is MINIs on the Dragon, held in the in the mountain along the Tennesse and North Carolina border.

The event is held at the Fontana Village where some 700+ Minis gather from across the eastern seaboard to enjoy a week-long festival and the very cool roads. The ‘Dragon’ is a twisty, mountain road with significant elevation changes. It spans 11-miles

with 318 turns. The drives are fantastic, but the fun and parties are even better.

The US is filled with many Mini Cooper clubs, but we are spread across 3000 miles and often can’t get to join in with each other. The answer to that is MTTS (MINI Takes the States). This year we will be departing San Francisco on July 26, and criss-crossing our way through America stopping in 15 cities along the way, ending in Boston, MA on August 9. This journey of Mini Maniacs will cover some 3000 miles.

I have a few more surprises but will save them for the next issue. Cheers to you all…and remember… “Keep the Rubber Side Down.”

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diary

Louise Inch

Handing over the keys Former Mighty Mini champion passes on the mantle to dad.

Paul Inch Engines Mighty Mini Louise has been competing in the Mighty Minis racing series for six years and was even crowned champion in 2010 after a quickly learning her trade in the preceding years.

Louise’s has Mini racing heritage in her blood passed down from her father Paul, and grandfather Chris, who sadly died while racing at Castle Combe Circuit.

While Louise is taking a break from racing her eye-catching pink Mini, engine-builder dad, Paul will be taking over the hotseat and reliving his youth as Louise tells us all about it.

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Afte

r six years of exciting racing in the Mighty Mini Championship, and the 2010 Championship title under my belt, I think it’s time to let the man responsible for my racing career have a go himself in 2014 - my father, Paul Inch.

His passion for the Mini started when he was just a boy, after watching his father, Chris Inch, race back in the ’60s.

After Chris’s tragic death in 1979 at Castle Combe Circuit, dad continued to compete in various hillclimbs, sprints and rallies throughout his 20s and 30s, with a brief stint in the Mighty Minis.

Now, at the age of 52, he’s ready and raring to go and fight for the 2014 championship title in Mighty Mini Championship.

Over the past few weeks, we have removed the engine from the last ever Mini Cooper Works driver, Bob Bennetts’ car, which he is kindly lending Paul for the season, for a rebuild.

We stripped the engine down, and found it to be very tired after being lent to Joe Polley-Golding and Chris Morgan for a few races. So we had to fit a new crankshaft, a set of cylinder liners, rebore it back to standard size and fit a new set of standard pistons.

The cylinder was just as bad and needed new guides and valves. When we came to the gearbox, which looked like it had been used without its clutch for its whole life, so it had to have new synchro hubs, selector forks and baulk rings. All done within 24 hours and every man in

www.paulinch.co.uk

the workshop was working on it.

The engine is now all ready for Bob Bennetts to take back to his workshop in Yeovil, where Chris Morgan will give it some tender love and care.

Dad will be testing the car on March 17 at Castle Combe along with his 1963 MkI Cooper s, which he will also be using in a few rounds in the Masters this year.

THE NEW MINI. THE NEW ORIGINAL. ARRIVING MARCH 2014.

To find out more about the all new MINI Hatch visit our website at www.bowkermini.co.uk or call your local Bowker dealership.

BOWkER pREsTON

Channel Way, On the Docks Preston PR2 2YA 01772 765995

BOWkER BLACkBURN

Trident Park, Off Whitebirk Drive Blackburn BB1 3NU 01254 274428

Official Fuel Economy Figures for the MINI Hatch Range: Urban 36.7-67.3 mpg (7.7-4.2 l/100km). Extra Urban 58.9-91.1 mpg (4.8-3.1 l/100km). Combined 48.7-80.7 mpg (5.8-3.5 l/100km). CO2 Emissions 136-92 g/km. Figures may vary depending on driving style and conditions.

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on the PULSE

MINI: The next generation The third incarnation of the MINI gets bigger, quicker and a lot more intelligent.

redesign

2014

sees the release of the new, third generation of

MINIs. Launched initially in 2001 after new European NCAP safety regulations would have meant the design of the classic Mini would no longer pass safety testing, and then tweaked again in 2006 for the 2nd Generation this new form is different in a whole lot of ways.

This new MINI is built from scratch. Unlike the previous evolutionary change in 2006, which kept the basics of the car and altered just some of the aesthetics and gadgets on show, this car has been drawn up as a completely new engineering project for the designers, retaining the familiar features and characteristics but... sadly, moving away from the ethos of the brand - keeping things small - by actually making the car bigger!

The length of the 3rd Generation of MINIs has increased by 98mm to 3821mm, and widened by 44mm to 1727mm, which essentially means BMW have changed the whole platform of the MINI which

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It looks familiar, but it’s all new.

parent company BMW intends to share with other models from its stable aswell as allow it to introduce a fourdoor saloon version, as spied in our news pages.

Putting aside gripes about the everincreasing size of the supposedly small car - the clue is in the name!

- what this means for customers is more legroom, which we all know has been a major issue in the rear seats of a MINI and a larger capacity boot, so that you might be able to go shopping less frequently.

Under the bonnet is where the real changes begin with a revolutionary 136bhp 3-cylinder 1.5-litre twin-turbo engine as the base model for the Cooper, a 192bhp 2-litre 4-cylinder twin-turbo unit for the Cooper S and a 3-cylinder 1.5-litre 116bhp twinturbo diesel block for the Cooper D. Alongside all MINI’s MINIMALISM technology, designed to reduce emissions and fuel consumption, testing has verfied reduced fuel consumption aswell as improved

performance figures across the range.

Whilst the look of the MINI will look familiar, if you look closely you will see that everything has changed. The build lines, where the exterior panels join are in different places, the grille now has a horrible extended plasticky push-barrier to protect pedestrians (what are they doing in the road!), all of the lights have been redesigned, with the front headlights now incorporating a ring of LED daytime driving lights to complement LED head and sidelights if chosen.

The use of stronger lgithweight materials has been highlighted as well as a complete reconfiguration of the damper set-up to allow the MINI to retain its low, go-kart feeling despite the increased size. Accompanying that is a whole host of accronyms covering dynamic braking, differential control and other services to keep the wheels in traction.

MINI’s use of technology has never been conservative and in the latest release we see the first introduction

VITAL STATISTICS Length:

Width: Height: Wheelbase: Weight:

Fuel tank:

Compression:

of a Driving Assistant. A camera-based cruise control system uses a distance function to maintain a safe distance from vehicles ahead, but is also used an automatic braking system in emergency situations. Drivers are warned of a collision several times prior to a hit but if no intervention is made by the driver, the car will automatically brake to reduce the force of the impact or avoid a collision completely.

Additional functions of the Driving Assistant is automatic parallel parking, choosing suitable parking spaces and doing all the steering as you just work the accelerator and brake. It can also switch from Full Beam headlights when it detects an oncoming vehicle.

There are some nice touches though, such as not requiring to put the key into a slot - you can just start the engine once the key is inside the car

3821mm Cooper/D 3850mm Cooper S 1727mm 1414mm 2495mm 1085kg Cooper 1160kg Cooper S 1135kg Cooper D 40-litres Cooper 44-litres Cooper S/D 11:1 Cooper/S 16.5:1 Cooper D

- although that could prove trouble for anyone with kids! And there is the funky little HUD that pops up out of the top of the dashboard with navigation and infotainment options.

Finally, and for all you tech geeks, you can install a SIM card into the MINI and get connected to your social media and install useful apps, as well as make automatically make emergency calls when you’ve had an accident.

Drivers are warned of a collision several times prior to a hit

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on the PULSE

Far left & left: The front end looks higher with a slow curve to the grille and a nasty pedestrian bumper. Ther headlights can come as LED or Halogen

VITAL STATISTICS Power: 136bhp Cooper

141bhp Cooper S

116bhp Cooper D Torque: 220nm Cooper

280nm Cooper S

270nm Cooper D 0-100km: 7.9s Cooper

6.8s Cooper S

9.2s Cooper D Top speed: 210km/h Cooper

235km/h Cooper S

205km/h Cooper D Fuel consumption rate:

4.5-4.6-litres per 100km Cooper

5.7-5.8 Cooper S

3.5-3.6 Cooper D

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Above: Rear light clusters enlarged to encroach on the boot lid. Far left: Boot capacity has increased by 51 litres. Below: The new interior setup, note the HUD display on the dashboard behind the wheel.

a semi-transparent heads-up display is the trendiest new gizmo love:mini

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on the PULSE

Finally, the door lifted and the MINI was driven out

MINI MkIII: The launch love:mini views the Next-Gen MINI up-close at simultaneous launch events.

launch

Sir

Alec Issigonis’s 107th birthday would mark the launch of the 3rd-generation MINI with celebrations happening in 3 cities across 3 continents over a 3 day period. London. Los Angeles.

Shanghai.

I was lucky enough to get an invite to the press launch in London; thanks to Ian Brooks from Surrey New MINI, which would mean that I would be one of the first few people to see it in the metal. There were around 500 guests at the event that was located at The Sorting Office. For the event I was able to have a plus-one and after a lot of thought I decided to take a fellow miniMINImini contributor and good friend, Keith Burton.

Upon arrival, we had to

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WORDS Sammie Watts PHOTOS Sammie Watts & MINI

register at the registration desk, where we were given a blue MINI wristband – which I loved and already had plans to store it away as a keepsake to remember the night with; little did I know that later that night that wristband would surprise me!

The first thing that caught my eye was the large MINI sign and so I ran over to get a photo of it and knew that would be the perfect first shot for Instagram! I must get myself one of these. The first priority for Keith though was to hook onto the free Wi-Fi. In his words he “needs Wi-Fi like he needs oxygen!” I can’t tell you the

amount of times I have heard that!

You couldn’t be without food and drink, as there was a large selection on display with waiters and waitress’ circling the space. Of course, there was nothing that I liked because I really am the fussiest eater you will ever meet... after my sister.

As we waited for the countdown, which was displayed near the stage, I got talking to a couple who had won a competition to attend the press event. It also turned out that they lived not too far from myself.

They bought their MINI convertible two years ago as they wanted a car to purely have fun in and felt that the MINI was the perfect car. They told me how it was a massive change from their Discovery but are super-pleased with their purchase and were excited to see how the look will evolve.

During the last few seconds of the countdown, it dawned on me that I was

going to be in a large number of the camera shots as I was towards the side, whereas everyone else gathered at the front of the stage.

The blue wristband started to light up as the reveal edged ever-closer, which fascinated me. Of course, this would be another Instagram shot despite the photo not being too good. Its pulse could be seen throughout the room that was a great sight. As the countdown reached 1, everyone was prepared with their cameras and smartphones at the ready in order to capture that first moment.

A short video played on the door that the MINI later drove out from. The video showed links to the classic Mini remained open-minded until I saw it in and plenty of Alec Issigonis shots too. the metal.

Finally, the door lifted and the MINI The event itself focused on showing was driven out by the presenter Rick the brand as ‘cool’ and ‘hip’. There was a DJ with Ellie Golding helping out, plenty of top food and drink, British celebrities, designers and of course, the venue itself which all added to this ‘cool’ vibe. To finish off the ‘cool’ factor was an hour-long live session by Fenech Soler. The night before the event I checked them out on iTunes to get a teaser of what was to come. They were fantastic!

This experience was nothing like events myself or those who attend Mini shows expected it to be, as there were only two MINIs; a red Cooper and a Volcanic Orange – (yellow), Cooper S and the focus was more on the event rather than them.

By the end, I was starving, as I didn’t like any of the food inside. Keith and I

decided that before heading back to the hotel we would sniff out a McDonalds.

Overall, I am superpleased to have been able to be a part of this event although it was incredibly different to what I have been to before. It was such a great atmosphere and I’m honoured to have been one of the first to see and sit inside the F56. I must also thank Liz for collecting us from the hotel and chauffeuring us to the venue. Thank you!

Edwards whose passenger was in fact the designer - Anders Warming.

After the speeches and further pictures displaying behind the MINI, we were allowed to get closer to it, including sitting in it to get a real feel of the car.

I’ll openly admit that it took me a long time to adjust to the 2nd-Generation, and to this day I still find a huge difference in the way that they feel when you drive them. Perhaps that is because I am extremely attached to my reliable R50; good ol’ Stripes, and so feel that nothing else can top her. Along with a large number of people, I don’t particularly like change.

Although photographs had been leaked online, none of them were official, so I

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john cooper works concept

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john cooper works concept

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john cooper works con

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ncept at the naias 2014

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39

interview

y “I think they just wildl abused the brand�

- Frank stephenson

frank talk Original MINI designer Frank Stephenson says MINI has lost it.

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Designer of the first New MINI (R50), launched in 2001, was Frank Stephenson. The revolutionary design of the British icon cemented his place in history and led to high-profile jobs at Fiat where he redesigning the Fiat 500; Ferrari and now McLaren. Last year he spoke with motoring journalist Jamie Lincoln Kitman for Automobile Magazine. We’ve picked up the interview where he starts talking about MINI. You can read the full interview here: http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/ mclaren-designer-frank-stephenson-looksmotoramic-q-174942307.html?page=all

“With

Mini it was completely different story.

The Mini had to be a safe bet because of who was going to trust a German company reinterpreting a British icon?

They don’t think like us, and then they’re going to make it crazy and Germanic and all that?

So my proposal then was basically just to -- reinterpret it -- in that first month we asked what the ’69 Mini would have looked like? What would it have looked like in ’79, ’89 and then ’99, so build in the lifecycle. So when they say it’s a retro design, it tees me off because the 911 isn’t a retro design.

It’s just an evolutionary process of designing 911, which was what the new Mini was -- what the Mini would have looked like in 2000.

JK: So what do you think of the Countryman?

FS: Oh, my gosh, I don’t like it.

I mean I don’t like the whole new trend at all. I think they just wildly abused the brand. And they’ve gone away from their roots in such a way that now the buyers are not the same buyers.

JK: When the next Mini has got three rows of seats and a V-8, I’ll know that they’ve really lost it.

FS: They’ve lost it. [When] they chose to change the design, [c. 2007] perhaps

a higher-volume share in technology for platforms and engines with other companies. So it suffered maybe a little bit from that. But yet the car still sells very well.

There’s a whole new segment of buyers for the car. Maybe the older ones are still linked to the original 2000 Mini. The newer buyers are coming in because they like the reputation of -- the spirit of the Mini.

Yet it can accommodate family or, you know, going out to the mountains like a small SUV or something. So it’s a bit of everything for everybody. But, of course, the Mini was -- it is more of a niche car. I think its original intention JK: It seemed like what they did was, was put families on wheels in a small, they mostly concentrated on cutting limited amount of space. costs.

Now, of course, volume means that they just get bigger and bigger…

FS: They did. The original wasn't cheap to build that way, I think that’s JK: Well, if you could go back, one of the things that happens when though, what do you choose? Like how you do get a bit risky. … And it was do you make that next generation that expensive, of course, to build. Had it showcases the technology rather than not been, then it probably wouldn’t just cheaper to build? have looked like it did. It probably wouldn’t have been as successful.

FS: BMW’s a pretty well-off company.

So I don't think they should try to JK: No, it felt very special in a way. make a cheap car. It has its own market to have, you know, a small, FS: Yeah, it was a small BMW, luxury car that’s basically classless. basically. So you were getting the You can, kit it out or spec it such that quality and the technology of the BMW it can be available to anybody. Then on a small platform. And, of course, again you could kit it out so it could be companies are always in the business an ultra luxury car and customize it of trying to make money, so how to at the same time. I think that was one of the big secrets to the success of the make it just as desirable with maybe that would have been the best moment to break away and really innovate like the original Mini did. With all the new technology today, how would you reinterpret a small car with the technology that BMW’s capable of using for that type of car?

You can imagine a very small car like a Mini with the innovative packaging again, putting maximum amount of space around the very limited four occupants, for example, how to carry luggage and all that.

So I was hoping for a breakthrough, creative look to the new Mini to the new, new [second-generation] Mini.

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interview

JK: So what do you do with Beetle and Fiat?

FS: The Beetle for me is not a serious

car. You get Minis that are like little bulldogs. You walk up to them with a little bit of respect. VW, I hate to say it, but it looked goofy, and you’d walk up and slap it before you’d pet it. And it was really a bit of a compromise on the design side. It was designed to look cool or trendy. Or whatever.

But it didn't really go, and it was a bit of a packaging disaster. That dashboard, so huge, so expensive.

The 500 was the right car at the right time because [by] 2006 Fiat was basically ready to fall off the cliff with sales of everything [deceased or dying.]

So there was a need to produce a car in ten months. I remember I was at Ferrari, [and] they said you have to go over [to Fiat,] do something in ten months. And I thought, well, it’s kind of impossible. You don’t design and build a car in ten months. ...But we sat down at Fiat with [CEO Sergio] Marchionne, we figured out, well, realistically we can’t design and build a car in ten months. But if that’s the time period we have, let’s just take the Panda platform, which works very well, take the body off of it and put

another body on top of it.

Let’s make it look up to date, sort of the spiritual successor to the 500, like we did with the Mini. And let’s make it customizable, a few different versions of it so you can have a cool version, entry-level or whatever. You would customize it to no end, engines and things. So that turned out to be very successful.

It’s had pretty much the same impact as the Mini [in Europe,] and it’s doing better and better in America.

You get Minis that are like little bulldogs. You walk up it b e l t it l a h it w m e h t to of respect

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“

Mini was, you could make it your own.

Except that I think that the special thing that made the Mini desirable in the original was the amount of character it had and obviously the packaging solutions it offered. And that it was basically a fun car to drive. It wasn't intended that way obviously until John Cooper got ahold of it and turned it into a giant killer. So I think the newest Mini or, say, when they changed in 2006, that’s the point where they should have turned it into another packaging wonder….

There was one solution that they came out with when we were selecting the new Mini back in 2000, one that was done from the UK. It was called the Mini Spiritual. And at that time it was probably not the right car because it didn't really look like a successor to a Mini. It was just a bubble car, basically.

But the MINI Spiritual would have been a good transition from the Mini, current Mini or the 2000 Mini, to the next generation 'cause they did look very futuristic for what they were.

Whether you are looking for a standard replacement or a bespoke design of your choice, we can provide it for you.

Everything from a Gaiter to a complete interior, we manufacture it.

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Driven Innovation Ltd Complete Interiors start from ÂŁ899. Contact us for a quote Jay@driveninnovation.co.uk

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my mini er im r p h c t e in d e h s y m it sat in for three years...

Owner Info Name: Tony Buttigieg Age: 60 Location: Queensland, Australia

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This

1966 Mini 850 has a long story behind it and means a lot to me personally. It was originally the project of a young guy who was a boilermaker by trade. He got it sandblasted and did all the deseaming work in 2003, all TIG-welded and reinforced from behind - a beautiful job. I spotted the ‘De Seamed Mini Shell for sale’ ad in the old paper Trading Post, went for a look and

brought it home.

It sat in my shed in etch primer for three years as I had another project going at the time. In 2006 I sold it to a dear friend, Cec Kelaher, who used to drop in for a chat about cars every now and then in his Blue Datsun 1200 Ute, which was also modified and had a CA18 Supercharged engine fitted in it. Cec was a bit of a hoon I suppose.

He had been mentioning to me about doing a Mini up for a while.

sadly told me that he had passed away the month before. It was an unexpected and sad bit of news for me and I was stuck for words to say with a big lump in my throat.

As there was no one in his family interested in Minis Julia asked me if I wanted to buy it back, so I did and I also promised her that I will do it the way he intended as this is my style of Mini too - “Different”.

Cec was a great man. He was quite a clever designer/inventor too. He was even designing a special driver's seat for this Mini that actually swivels around to help him get in and out of the Mini easier. From his plans and ideas for the car one of the few

things I changed was the colour.

He wanted it Electric Blue. But it happened that I saw a Ford Focus drive past me and I fell in love with the Pearl Orange colour. Cec’s daughter didn’t mind me changing the colour he planned and she actually likes the colour I chose.

Some of my additions are the Electric Sunroof and the (EPS) Electric Power Steering which helps turning the 13x7-inch wheels and the white leather interior. I have also had stickers made to go on the back which say CK Special and the other a copy of Cec’s own signature. I am proud of the fact that I got to finish off Cec Kelaher’s dream Mini. Hope you like it too CES Ol’ Mate.

He bought the bodykit, engine, gearbox, brakes, subframes and many other bits and bobs for it. My friend was 76 and he had all the right ideas and designs in his plan for this Mini. I used to ring him regularly to see how he is doing with it. Every time I rang he used to tell me what else he had collected for it and what his plan is. I rang him last in June 2010 as usual and his daughter Julia answered the phone and when I asked to speak to Cec as usual she

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50 years

1964: Mini wins the Monte Carlo rally

Paddy Hopkirk and Henry Liddon upset the odds and write themselves into the books of history with a stunning win on the world famous Monte Carlo rally.

Smal

l car, huge win: it is now 50 years since one of the most spectacular victories in the history of international motor sport.

On 21 January 1964, the Mini Cooper S won the Monte Carlo Rally for the first time. It was the pairing of Northern Ireland’s Patrick (“Paddy”) Hopkirk and his co-driver Henry Liddon that pulled off the big surprise, resisting the supposed superiority of significantly more powerful rivals in their small British car. Its faultless run over country roads and mountain passes, ice and snow, tight corners and steep gradients laid the foundations for the underdog-turned-giant-slayer to cement itself in both the hearts of the public and the annals of motor sport legend.

Indeed, the classic Mini’s dominance of the Monte Carlo Rally continued over the years that followed, Hopkirk’s

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Finnish team-mates Timo Mäkinen and Rauno Aaltonen adding two further overall victories – in 1965 and 1967 – to the British manufacturer’s collection.

Now 80 years old, Paddy Hopkirk’s eyes still light up when he recalls the driving qualities of his winning car: “Although the Mini was only a little family saloon, technically it had a lot of advantages. Its front-wheel drive and front-mounted transverse engine were a great advantage, and the fact the car was smaller and the roads were ploughed, they were quite narrow, so I suppose that was an advantage.

We were very lucky – the car was right, everything happened at the right time and came together at the right moment.”

Night of the Long Knives

It was the legendary “Night of the Long

Knives”, the penultimate stage of the Monte, which put the Mini Cooper S with car number 37 and the now famous licence plate 33 EJB on course for victory that winter of 1964. Hopkirk crossed the finish line just 17 seconds off the pace set by his chief adversary Bo Ljungfeldt in the far more powerful V8-powered Ford Falcon. The handicap formula at the time – designed to even out the weight and power differences between the various cars – meant the classic Mini actually led the way in the overall standings. And Hopkirk defended his advantage in the sprint through the streets of Monte Carlo that rounded off the rally. At the winner’s ceremony he shared the cheers of the crowed with his team-mates. Timo Mäkinen’s fourth-place finish and Rauno Aaltonen’s seventh overall set the seal on the success of the Mini Cooper S and ushered in the era of the “Three Musketeers” in the Monte Carlo Rally.

The classic Mini’s victory was

celebrated with particular excitement in its native Britain. Hopkirk received a congratulatory telegram from the British government and the Beatles were also among those leading the applause.

“I got a telegram from the Beatles,” remembers Hopkirk. “That was followed by a photograph of the four of them autographed to me saying: ‘You’re one of us now, Paddy.’ And it’s very nice to have that nowadays.”

The triumph of the classic Mini in the Monte was lauded as a sensation by motorsport fans around the world. But this wasn’t a success that came entirely out of the blue: the small car developed

by Alec Issigonis, then Deputy Technical Director at the British Motor Corporation, possessed an inherent sporting talent from birth. The first person to spot this potential was John Cooper. The sports car designer was the driving force behind construction of a more powerful version of the car. The Mini produced only 34hp at launch, but its front-wheel drive, low weight, wide track and comparatively long wheelbase made it an extremely agile four-seater and paved the way for its forays onto race circuits and rally courses.

As early as 1960, big-name racing drivers like Graham Hill, Jack Brabham and Jim Clark were spotted testing the cornering flair of the John Cooper-

tuned small car on the Silverstone Formula One track. However, the classic Mini was most at home in rally racing.

Patt Moss, sister of grand prix driver Stirling Moss, piloted it to wins in the Tulip Rally and Baden-Baden Rally in 1962. And by the following year, the diminutive British car was ready to burst into the public consciousness at the Monte Carlo Rally. Preceding years had been a tough learning experience for the works team, but now they would make people sit up and take notice.

Rauno Aaltonen and Paddy Hopkirk

drove the 55hp Mini Cooper to a 1-2 finish in their class, which was good enough for third and sixth places overall.

It was clear that the classic Mini was better equipped than any other car to pull off the classic David vs Goliath act.

John Cooper had long suspected that the car had what it took. Back in 1959 he instructed Roy Salvadori to drive a prototype to the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. The journey itself turned into a race between Salvadori and fellow

“i t was clear that the classic Mini was better equipped than any other car to pull off the classic David vs Goliath act.”

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50 years

racing driver Reg Parnell at the wheel of an Aston Martin DB4. The result confirmed what Cooper had foreseen in his mind’s eye: the Cooper-prepared classic Mini arrived around an hour earlier than the much more powerful Aston.

Identifiable from a distance with their tartan red bodywork and white roofs, the six small racers dispatched by the BMC works team for the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964 were – at least on paper – fighting against the tide once more.

The Mini Cooper S lined up at the start for the first time. Its new four-cylinder engine now had an increased 1071cc capacity and output had also been boosted to around 90hp. This was a lot more than in previous years but still modest in the face of competition from the likes of the Mercedes-Benz 300 SE and Ford Falcon, whose six-cylinder and V8 units had three or four times more power at their disposal.

Minsk - Reims

The 33rd edition of the Monte Carlo Rally began – as was traditional at the time – with a nod to the origins of the event, the cars starting from nine European cities before converging on

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the French city of Reims. The Hopkirk/ Liddon partnership got their journey with the Mini Cooper S under way in Minsk, while for Rauno Aaltonen and Tony Ambrose the Monte adventure started in Oslo, and Timo Mäkinen and Patrick Vanson set off from Paris. The classic Mini successfully negotiated all these journeys and all six works cars were able to take their place in the 277-strong field in Reims. The first stage of the rally to Saint-Claude brought together the two cars which were to define the 1964 Monte from start to finish. Bo Ljungfeldt roared to the top of the time sheets in his Ford Falcon, but Paddy Hopkirk remained hot on his heels in his Mini Cooper S. The next leg of the rally was made up largely of mile-long flat-out sections, but Hopkirk refused to let his bigengined rivals build up a decisive advantage. The “Night of the Long Knives” would become the day of reckoning; this was the classic Mini’s chance to demonstrate its talents to the full. “It was quite snowy that year, so we had done a lot of practising and preparing,” explains Hopkirk. “The Mini was particularly good downhill, and all the tests were up and downhill, so what we lost going up, I think we made

up for going downhill.”

Irresistible handling, correct tyre choice, Hopkirk’s gifts at the wheel and the snow – which slowed the bigger cars down – all came together and ensured that Hopkirk was able to take over the lead on the 1,607-metre (5,270 ft) Col de Turini. However, it remained a tight contest all the way to the finish, with Bo Ljungfeldt, as expected, again posting the fastest time on the final stage through Monte Carlo. However, Hopkirk was also squeezing everything from his Mini Cooper S once again and hung onto his advantage to wrap up the win. “It’s not like rallying today when you know where you are. I had to do the final circuit, then the journalists told me I had won and I couldn’t believe it. It surprised the world and us, so it was very nice,” recalls Hopkirk.

The following year Timo Mäkinen and co-driver Paul Easter ensured the classic Mini would retain its title.

They were helped by a new engine with capacity increased to 1275cc, but it was the Scandinavian’s driving skill that landed the decisive blow.

Mäkinen was the only driver to remain penalty-point-free throughout the rally distance, despite the fact

that the 1965 Monte Carlo Rally was providing one of the most exacting tests in the history of the event. Epic levels of snow and ice made the going seriously tough, but that didn’t stop the organisers including a second night stage through the Maritime Alps in the programme. Mäkinen and his Mini Cooper S appeared impervious to the deteriorating conditions. The Finn won five of the six special stages on the final leg of the rally and finished the event with a handsome margin over the second-placed car.

French conspiracy

The most impressive and also most dramatic Monte Carlo Rally for the “Three Musketeers” was to follow in 1966. Mäkinen, Aaltonen and Hopkirk dominated the event from the start, and it was in this order that they completed a clean sweep of the top three positions overall at the finish.

Public enthusiasm for the quicksilver classic Minis appeared to be boundless – as was the disappointment when the French race commissioners revealed their decision to disqualify the trio on account of lights that allegedly did not conform with official regulations. This was also the reason given for removing the fourth-placed Lotus Cortina from the classification, which meant that the Finnish Citroën driver Pauli Toivonen was crowned the winner.

The dream of a Monte hat-trick lay in tatters, but the “Three Musketeers” resolved to return at the earliest opportunity. In the winter of 1967 Hopkirk, Mäkinen and Aaltonen lined up alongside two other BMC works teams for the Monte Carlo Rally. And this time neither the rules nor the other cars could stand between the Mini Cooper S and victory. Rauno Aaltonen was joined by Henry Liddon – Paddy Hopkirk’s co-driver from the successful 1964 Monte – for his latest assault on the rally. The FinnishBritish team clicked straight into gear.

Aaltonen guided the classic Mini to what was this time an undisputed victory with 12 seconds to spare. And nobody was more pleased for the duo than Hopkirk: “Henry Liddon was really an outstanding co-driver. But the co-drivers never got enough credit, you know. They did a fantastic job in reading the notes and they were the office manager of the car.”

Hopkirk finished the 1967 Monte Carlo Rally in sixth place and also

drove the classic Mini to fifth overall the following year. Aaltonen was third in 1968. However, the era of the small car that stormed to the summit of rally racing was clearly approaching an end.

Its rivals had grown just too powerful and the sporting zenith of the classic Mini was now behind it. Memories of that famous triumph in the winter of 1964 will forever burn bright and the “Three Musketeers” have written an indelible chapter into the history of motor sport. As for distinctive headlight solutions, such as incurred the wrath of the powers-that-be back in 1966, they also live on as some of the most popular Original MINI Accessories – from black headlight housing and the evocative spotlights fronting the radiator grille to retrofit xenon headlights.

“French offICIALS RULED OUT A THIRD SUCCESSIVE WIN OVER HEADLIGHTS” love:mini

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50 years

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Racing the La Carrera Panamericana A little classic Mini takes on the powerhouses of the American muscle cars in a pan-American adventure. www.MuseoCarreraPanamericana.com WORDS & PHOTOS Graham Reid

A co

uple of years ago my shop, Heritage Garage in Costa Mesa, California, was asked to build a power unit for a Mini owned by a customer from Cancun, Mexico. We had previously supplied him many of the performance parts for the brakes and suspension for his car. The car was to run the La Carrera Panamericana and had to last a grueling seven days and over 2000 miles of hard driving on Mexican roads with thousands of feet of elevation changes.

It had to be fast, it had to be reliable, and one more small detail, it had to run on Mexican pump gas.

My Spanish being what it is with enough to maybe say good morning and order drinks, discussions about the specifications needed were not easy, but not being one to back down from a challenge we took on the task. During the last year I also assisted with the actual car preparation which included the need for several trips to Cancun. (Yes, it’s a rough life but someone has to do it).

The car owner, Benjamin De La Pena, is the founder of the Museum Carrera Panamericana in Cancun, which pays photographic tribute to the race history all the way back to its beginning in 1950. His passion for the La Carrera Panamericana is about equal to my passion for Minis so it was extremely important to me that the Mini succeeded in finishing the race. The engine and transmission unit was completed in late 2011 and we installed it in

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Mini run

we had to develop a series of hand signals as i couldn’t hear the navigator

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one of our shop vehicles in order do all the final testing and leave nothing to chance. It was then crated along with a selection of spares I guessed we might need and shipped off to Cancun. On my last trip to Cancun, in the summer to help Marco and Antonio, the museum mechanics carried out the engine install and final race preparation.

Benjamin surprised me with an invitation to join his team for the October race. I didn’t need asking twice as this race was close to the top of my bucket list. I was excited at the prospect of traveling with Marco in the support vehicle and being a spectator at this amazing event. Benjamin had other ideas and insisted I bring my racing gear with me. I looked online at what was involved in getting registered to race and it looked like a daunting task.

In true Mexican fashion and with his typical “no problem” response, Ben dealt with all the rules and regulations and a day after I arrived in Veracruz on October 17th for the race, I was wearing a driver wristband.

results we needed so we decided on about 10 hand signals along with loud voices as our only option to identify speed bumps, dips in the road, intensity of corners from zero to four and most importantly left or right.

Next problem, Benjamin is about 5’6” to my 6’ plus and a Mini is, well a Mini. Moving the seat back was not going to happen, as it was already against the custom roll cage. We settled for removing the drop bracket on the steering column and spreading the seat wider with a screw jack in order to accommodate my (slightly) larger posterior. I figured what the hell, I can do this. I might need hip replacements later but who cares; I’m going to be driving a Mini in the La Carrera Panamericana.

Benjamin drove the car in prequalifying and on race day one. He finished second in our group and was more than happy. He had intended the car to be raced more as a promotion vehicle for the museum and placing in the top 3 was just icing on the cake. He

I’m going racing!

One problem down and a couple more to go. First, my race helmet was not fitted for a communication radio and with 270 miles of unfamiliar twisty roads ahead for my day of driving, hearing the navigator just might be a wee bit important. No amount of searching local stores brought the

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Mini run

We started with about 22 miles of transition to the first speed stage and I got a feel for the car’s power and handling. My only goal today was to

had participated in seven previous La Carrera races, mostly in a big Mercedes sedan, and had brought home only 3 day trophies. The little Mini had given him number 4 on the first race day.

Now it was my turn. Day two started for me at 6am with a quick breakfast, get suited up and into the Mini to actually drive it for the first time.

Travelling from Oaxaca de Juarez north through Tehuacan to finish in Puebla, there were 10 flat-out speed stages on closed roads along with 200+ miles of extremely high speed transition driving between stages on open road.

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finish and not break my customer’s car.

The Mexican people turned out in the hundreds and thousands to welcome the race through their villages and

cities. Drivers were cheered as they roared past and huge crowds gathered wherever a car stopped, asking drivers for pictures and autographs. It was such a completely different experience from my track racing. It was amazing to be allowed to drive as fast as you want on public roads with the state Federalis and local police blocking intersections so you can run red lights as well as encouraging you to drive faster. The timed speed section were on closed roads with miles of endless twists and turns, some with treacherous drop offs. The Mini was in its natural environment as long as I kept it on the road and the brakes worked.

As we passed through the finish arch in Puebla I got a medal hung round my neck for just finishing the day.

Many did not finish each day, and this is what the La Carrera is all about. It pushes cars and drivers to the limit. Of the 111 cars that started in Veracruz, less than half would complete the week.

We were brutally reminded of that on the first day when a seasoned driver crashed a high horsepower Studebaker resulting in one death and the other occupant critically injured.

Words cannot express

It would take pages to explain every detail of my first day of driving but suffice to say it was the most exhilarating, adrenaline pumping, heart thumping experience of my life and we arrived in Puebla with the car in one piece.

My life was complete, lay me down

now, this was as good as it could possible get.

Each night there was a dinner for drivers and navigators where trophies were awarded to the top 3 finishers in each class for the day. As I sat down to eat, Tony my navigator came running up with a huge smile on his face and announced: “We won!”. My response was, “won what?”. I hadn’t bought any raffle tickets! We had won all 10 speed stages in Historica A and claimed first place in our group for the day.

At this point I thought I might be dreaming a Burt Levy novel but no amount of pinching could bring me

out of it. The notion that I could have possibly won against some of the seasoned La Carrera top drivers was almost incomprehensible.

The team was ecstatic with two trophies in two days, but Benjamin had plans. He now wanted me to drive again. Could I do it again? Was it a one shot wonder?

He petitioned the race committee and received permission for me to drive two more days in the race.

Now it was a competition, game on - and no longer just the spirited drive of day two. ‘What the hell,’ I thought, ‘I’ll give it a shot’. Five hours of sleep

Game on - it was no longer just a spirited drive

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Mini run

each night and tequila with dinner be dammed. I’ve read Burt’s book, Montezuma’s Ferrari, they’re all crazy down here, so I’m in good company.

The fairy tale continued with Benjamin pulling off two more 3rd place wins on day 3 and 4 and then it was time for me to get back in the seat. Well, almost all the way in the seat. With the help of Tony our amazing navigator using his loud voice and flying hand signals, I pulled out all the stops, avoided using brakes too much and came up with 1st place wins again on day 5 and 6.

Benjamin capped it off with a 3rd place trophy on the final day. We now had seven trophies for seven days of the most intense driving experience anyone could ever hope for. The Mini had been flawless and didn’t miss a beat. At one point we calculated our road speed at well over 115mph. I remember thinking that this would

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not be the best time for a stray dog or wild burro to wander onto the road. (Note to self, don’t try this at home.)

The banquet dinner on the final night had the whole team assembled and waiting patiently for the overall results for the week.

We knew we must have placed well, but did we have enough to

win? They finally called out the results.

For the first time ever, and on the 25th anniversary of the La Carrera Panamericana, a classic Mini had won race group Historica A. The rest is history and a very blurry night with mucho Tequila por favor.

They’re all crazy down here so i’m in good company!

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Showtime

Mini Fair Bingley Hall 2014 The first big event of the new year is always British Mini Club’s trade fair and show. www.britishminiclub.co.uk www.facebook.com/MiniMadnesss

The

end of January is always booked for British Mini Club’s annual trade fair and show.

Held at the Country Showground in Staffordshire, it’s a time for people

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PHOTOS: Craig McBeth, Mini Madness & British Mini Club WORDS: Craig McBeth

to pick up final bits for their projects before the show season, come and look at and show off some already completed specimins and generally get back into the groove of the Mini scene and catch up with some friends

from other clubs around the country.

There were some familiar sights amongst the cars on show, and few new examples, hopefully we’ll see more as the season unfolds. Likewise there was a distinct lack of MINIs on

An old shell with a lot of history.

Pimp wagon!

show both from clubs and in display groups, but

Transparent bonnets -

the trade side of things was booming sellers. with a number of new and expanding This year’s theme was Race and stands from various types of Rally, and the highlight came in

only from Stickyfingers.

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Showtime

Charity auction.

the form of a personal appearance by Monte Carlo Rally winner, Paddy Hopkirk, and his Mini rally car 6 EMO, who this year is celebrating 50 years since the famous win.

He was here with Barry ‘Whizzo’ Williams and they chatted for the crowds, recalling memories, whilst Paddy was also on hand at the Mini Sport stall selling his branded goods and signing memorabilia.

An auction earlier in the day also helped raise money for charity before the final crowdpleaser... the chance to Win a Mini for £1.

After taking some picture of the award winners - Jeremy Robinson and his 1970s Mini won Car of the Show, and newly formed Midlands Mini Club won Stand of the Show with their display depicting a scene from the Monte Carlo rally - our little mascot of the day, my son, Anekin, was chosen to draw the winning ticket for the stunning low-mileage Mini 35. The winner, was sadly not me, but a very lucky 11-year old Josh, from Wales.

British Mini Club boss Dave Hollis chats with Barry ‘Whizzo’ Williams.

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Midlands Mini Club’s eff

orts paid off with a win.

Paddy Hopkirk signs some stuff for fans.

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Showtime A worthy Stand of the Show winner.

Eleven year-old Josh from Wales was the winning ticket holder and won this Mini for just ÂŁ1!

Winner of Car of the Show - Jeremy Robinson

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Watson’s Specialist Car & Rally Centre * Home of Honda powered Minis. * Converting Minis for over 30 years. * Rallying Honda Minis for 15 years. * Quick toys for big boys Watson’s Vtec Mini - Up to 209bhp Watson’s Specialist Cars Spring Garage Cluntergate, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, WF4 5DA

01924 260323 watsonsrally@aol.com www.watsonsrally.co.uk

rimmer bros

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Mini run

The sun itself was just waking up.

WORDS & PHOTOS Craig McBeth

UK

Blowing away the winter blues.

With

DATE January 12, 2014

Location Ellesmere Port to Llandudno

Website wirralminis. com

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Wirral to Llandudno

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the festive season firmly behind us and the New Year rung in, Wirral Minis’ annual run to Llandudno saw the first Mini action of 2014.

Christmas may be another 12 months away, but its synonymously chilly weather still remains.

And so over 120 of the hardcore, crazy and bored decided to get out of their nice warm beds at a ridiculous hour in the morning to meet in an empty, barely lit, car park in Bromborough on the Wirral at 8.30am. Fortunately a Subway outlet had opened up on

this wintery Sunday morning and after registering for the run and affixing our run plaque to the MINI we took refuge inside with a £2 sausage sarnie coated in brown sauce. Mmmm, that warmed me up.

Route options

This year’s run to Llandudno offered, for the first time, an option of routes. Route A was the more scenic, longer route, whilst Route B followed the time old traditional trail. From what the organisers said and the number of cars on our Route

A, it seems the more scenic roads were the popular choice, staying off the dual-carriageway and cutting through tree-lined roads and twisty village roads.

We became detached from the main pack thanks to some red lights and took a brief wrong turn before heading back on to the A55 to

Testing their mettle on Test Hill.

Rhos-on-Sea where the Minis parked up on the seafront parking to regroup and refesh. It was also a great opportunity to stretch our legs and climb up the hill to take a photo of all the Minis lined up in a curve. It was a great sight, but difficult to capture in a photo. We took time to walk down the line of cars and appreciate the various creations of each owner. Some clearly were in need of some tlc with rusty holes clearly on display, while others werein pristine condition and set for a good wash after the run with all the salt in the air and roads.

The next leg of run took us from Rhos, through Llandudno and up to the top of the Great Orme rock which juts out of the North Wales peninsula.

The 679ft headland has some great views and some nice hairpin bends on the way to the summit where we parked up to take in the atmosphere, talk minis.

As we made our way back down the Orme and around its perimeter road the convoy turned onto the promenade at Llandudno where we all parked up for lunch and the locals to enjoy the little Minis on display.

Wirral Minis had kindly negotiated a free coffee at Wetherspoons for all participants, but

The Minis all lined up at Rhos-on-Sea.

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Mini run

it has become a staple part of the Mini events calendar

Cliff-side roads made for some perilous driving.

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The imposing Great Orme is used for the Wales GB Rally.

Participants were treated to a stunning view at the top of the Great Orme.

we found it a bit too pricey for food and popped into the Carton pub instead where the grub was lovely, served amazingly quickly and not too expensive. Highly recommended.

At around 3pm after a browse around the picturesque town we strolled back to the cars and thanked the organisers for their efforts. It had been a good run, a good turnout and compared to previous

years, the weather wasn’t too bad at all.

Considering this run has been running for over 12 years, it shows no sign of fading away and infact has become a staple part of the Mini events calendar.

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Mini run

Twisty roads and a load of Minis equals heavenly delight.

Great views from the top of the orme

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Parking up for the final stop on Llandudno’s promenade.

It’s not a proper Mini run without someone wearing a wig.

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Mini run

International Mini Moke Day Annual celebrations of the Mini Moke in Sri Lanka.

Words and photos Mighty Mini Club Sri Lanka

sri lanka

DATE December 2012

Location Colombo, Sri Lanka

Website www. mightymini.lk

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Yet

another International Mini Moke Day was celebrated in Sri Lanka by Mighty Mini Club of Sri Lanka on the 29th of September 2013.

A Large number of participants came forward in their Mokes and Minis to celebrate this Annual event, where the mini Mokes were the highlight of the day. We had 24 Mokes in vivid colours and the support of another 28 Minis to make a long parade of this iconic British small car. The day began in colombo at the Independence Square which was the meeting point for the members and the

parade began at 9.30 am from Colombo to Negombo a 38km route where all the Mokes and minis drove in line , the mini members from Negombo welcomed the participants and then were handed over

breakfast packs and thereafter with the police escort the cars paraded the streets of Negombo and then were hosted to a buffet lunch at Silvas Beach Resort with a calypso music for entertainment.

Mighty Mini Mirigama Races Sri Lanka Mighty Mini Club goes to the races.

The

Mighty Mini Mirigama Challenge was held at the Kanway Racing Circuit in Mirigama, situated in the Western Province of Sri Lanka, approximately 60 kilometres north east of Colombo.

This Members Day event was conducted together with the Motor Racing Association under the auspices of Sri Lanka Automobile Sports Interim Board. A total of 64 entries was spread over 11 events which included the SLAS approved Mini 7 and the SL-A 1050cc Classes. Both these classes saw some excellent racing with the plaudits going to young Prasad Wickramasingha in the SL-A 1050 class, who displayed some

Competitive action let owners and cars go wild.

Words and photos Mighty Mini Club Sri Lanka

magnificent driving to give the very experienced Donald Buultgens a run for his money. The Class was won by the Mini Veteran Hafiz Cader with Donald second and Prasad a very close third.

The Mini 7 event which had nine entries saw the Wijeratne brothers Lakmal and Chatura take 1st and 2nd with Thanush in 3rd place. In the Modified 1000 Class the Madugalle brothers excelled with the younger Praveen getting the better of the older Dilan and Hafiz respectively. Mudith Maddumarachchi in a modified 1275 did an excellent run to win his Class.

The Ladies event was won by Sakuni Priyankara with Lewis Nilanthi 2nd, R Kamaleswary 3rd and Nishani Ekanayake coming in 4th.

The fastest timing of the day was recorded by Praveen Madugalle.

A notable feature of this event was the enthusiasm shown by over sixty Members of The Mighty Mini Club , many of whom have already called for another event of this nature in the near future.

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Mini run

new zealand

Brits on the Beach Celebrating all things British in New Zealand.

The

DATE 4-5 October 2013

Location Whangamata, New Zealand

Website www. britsatthebeach. co.nz

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Words and photos Greg Wenzlick

weekend of 4th/5th October 2013, saw the 4th annual gathering of Brits at the Beach held at the beach resort town of Whangamata, on NZ’s North Island Eastern coast. The town is world-famous for its surfing culture and lifestyle, and also hosts the annual Beach Hop for American-produced cars.

A large contingent of Mini cars, old and new, turned out in various guises and colours to celebrate all things British, as well as other Oxford-produced examples of Morris Minors, Morris Oxfords, MG sportscars,

and also a rare Morris Isis.

The clubMINI NZ mascot, Biff the English Bulldog, entertained the crowds who lined the parade route driving a 2002 MINI Cooper S R53 in an exemplary display of driving, stopping now and then to bark at onlookers on route.

Inside the Bulldog costume was none other than clubMINI NZ Patron Greg Wenzlick. “I had lots of fun despite the swelteringly-hot spring day.

Attendees recognised the driving dogs theme from the NZ television driving dogs skit earlier in the year. I got good reaction from the old attendees

and especially the kids who joined in the fun. I nearly barked myself hoarse over the days events and got plenty of sniffs.”

Biff was accompanied by a lady minder costumed as character Gladys Pugh, chief Yellowcoat from 1970s UK TV series ‘Hi-de-Hi’, who was runner-up in the Best Costume Contest”, beaten by a group of Wombles for the NZ $500 prize.

Amongst the MINI display was MINI NZ Sales & Development Manager ex-pat Brit Brett Waudby and his family in a new MINI Paceman Cooper S. “The event was a lot of fun and the Paceman got a lot of attention.”

Advertise Here in love:mini This space ÂŁ50 Reach thousands worldwide editor@love-mini.co.uk

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Motorsport

Rally:Circuit:Hillclimb:Autograss:Sprint

MINI returns to rule the Dakar roost again

Comprehensive wins for multiple MINI teams sees domination of the Dakar complete. www.dakar.com

www.x-raid.de

The

preparations are complete and the waiting finally over: as the 2014 Dakar starts at Rosario, Argentina, to take the drivers over the course of two weeks to Valparaiso, Chile.

The first team members flew to Buenos Aires as early as December 30 to pick up all the service and racing vehicles. The cars had been shipped to Argentina from Le Havre, France, and arrived in Buenos Aires a week before the team. Afterwards, all the vehicles were subjected to an extensive check and on 1st of January, they hit the road for the 250-kiilometre ride to Rosario, Argentina, where the 2014 Dakar starts.

There, the obligatory shakedown was executed. At a 1.5-kilometre circuit not far from the service park, the drivers and their navigators tested the 11 MINI ALL4 Racing without encountering any major problems.

Just a short time later, Stéphane

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Peterhansel, Nani Roma, Orlando Terranova, Krysztof Holowczyc and Nasser Al Attiyah attended the press conference at Rosario’s MINI dealership in a great atmosphere.

Following the administrative approval – where several documents had to be submitted – of all the team members including the drivers, the cars had to pass the scrutineering.

The highlight of the day, however, was the podium in the evening. In front of thousands of spectators, the competitors drove across the starting podium.

/ Lucas Cruz (ESP) and Nani Roma (ESP) / Michel Périn (FRA), two other MINI ALL4 Racing teams finished third and fourth respectively.

The two Frenchmen Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret in their black MINI ALL4 Racing lost some time due to a puncture, came sixth – and crossed the finish line in exactly the same time as Krzysztof Holowczyc (POL) and Konstantin Zhiltsov (RUS) in the red MINI ALL4 Racing.

The frustration due to the fact that the team failed to win Stage 1 was limited. After all, no driver who was the fastest in the car category on day one succeeded in winning the Dakar as a very good start into the 2014 Dakar in recent years. By finishing second, Rally, for the Monster Terranova proved to be the fastest Energy X-raid Team and the X-raid Monster Energy X-raid driver.

“The track resembled a WRC stage Team. Together with his Portuguese a lot – it was tight and twisting. So, co-driver Paulo Fiúza, Argentinean Orlando Terranova took his orange making mistakes was easy,” said the Argentinean. “But with 40 kilometres MINI All4 Racing to second place behind Carlos Sousa (Haval), in Stage covered I found a good rhythm and 1. And with Nasser Al-Attiyah (QAT) started to push. Definitely the right

It w

decision.”

For Al-Attiyah, it was the first time he drove the MINI ALL4 Racing in anger – and he came third. “I took it easy to day to familiarise myself even better with the MINI,” said Al-Attiyah.

Some 30 seconds behind the driver from Qatar, Spain’s Nani Roma finished fourth and proved to be happy with this result.

“This was a good start into the Dakar,” he said. “Unfortunately I had to drive some 60 kilometres in the dust of Carlos Sainz, thus losing some time.

Otherwise, we possibly could have achieved an even better result.”

For quite a while, Peterhansel seemed to be on the way to winning Stage 1 but then, a slow puncture cost him valuable time. “With just 30 more kilometres to go, the rear of the car handled more and more nervously and when the vehicle was nearly uncontrollable, we changed the tyre,” the Frenchman said in the bivouac.

“Then, I rejoined the action ahead of Nasser. But when he used his sentinel I let him pass.” Just as Roma, Holowczyc also lost time in the dust of an opponent. “But I didn’t want to take any risks,” admitted the Pole. “It’s day one today and a lot of things can happen.”

In the next stage the drivers will have to cope with a diversified programme.

The first part of the stage will be one of the fastest sections of the entire event.

Over the course of the stage’s final 100 kilometres the competitors will have to battle their way across the grey dunes of Nihuil. Altogether, they will have to cover a mileage of 798 kilometres, with

433 special-stage kilometres.

The

two Frenchmen Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret in their black MINI ALL4 Racing gave the Monster Energy X-raid Team its first stage win in the 2014 Dakar Rally. They won Stage 2, from San Luis to San Rafael, followed

by Buggy driver Carlos Sainz in second

MINI after 1 stage: 1. Haval 2h 20m 36s 2. O. Terranova / P. Fiúza 2h 20m 47s 3. N. Al-Attiyah / L. Cruz 2h 21m 23s 4. N. Roma / M. Périn 2h 21m 51s 6. S. Peterhansel / J.-P. Cottret 2h 24m 57s 7. K. Holowczyc / K. Zhiltsov 2h 24m 57s 11. F. Villagra / J. P. Companc 2h 26m 45s 13. V. Vasilyev / V. Yevtyekhov 2h 28m 36s 22. M. Kaczmarski / F. Palmeiro 2h 32m 59s 25. Zhou Yong / Hong Yu Pan 2h 33m 43s 28. B. Garafulic / G. Picard 2h 36m 42s 29. S. Schott / H. Schmidt 2h 37m 52s

position. Their teammates, Nani Roma and Michel Périn, took their yellow MINI to fourth position, with the pairings Nasser Al-Attiyah / Lucas Cruz and Orlando Terranova / Paulo Fiúza in the white and orange MINIs finishing fifth and sixth respectively.

After having had to cope with coming fourth on day one, Peterhansel experienced a trouble-free second stage.

“The first part of the special stage was extremely fast,” said the Frenchman. In the dunes the competitors had to cope with during the final 100 kilometres of the special stage he was supported by unusual helpers. “We nearly could do without navigating as there were so many spectators on site that we could use them for our orientation.” By winning Stage 2, Peterhansel also took the lead in the overall standings, with his black MINI. Meanwhile, Roma in the yellow MINI was hampered by some minor problems. “Unfortunately, some grass had obstructed the radiator and I had to slow down again and again to let the engine cool down,” said the Catalan.

In addition, he had to make a short stop due to a puncture. Nonetheless, he wasn’t too unhappy. “It’s just day two and things aren’t looking too bad for us.” In the overall standings he holds fourth position, just nine seconds behind his team-mate Al-Attiyah.

The man from Qatar in his white MINI was stopped three times by punctures. “I hit a rock sideways and realised at once that we had a slow puncture. But just two kilometres after

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Motorsport having changed the tyre, we found out that the rear tyre also had been damaged.” And at kilometre 200, they had to cope with the third puncture.

“From this point in time, I opted for a far more conservative approach as we had no more spare tyres and keeping on pushing would have been too risky.”

Terranova had been the second to start into Stage 2 but soon had to adopt the pathfinder role as Carlos Sousa was stopped by a technical failure.

“This alone wasn’t easy and then, something obstructed the radiator,” said the Argentinean who now holds fifth position in the overall standings.

Holowczyc also had to cope with a dose of bad luck, in the second stage: the Pole also had to stop twice due to punctures. “Later we had some navigation problems,” revealed the Pole.

“Unfortunately, we lost a lot of time, today.” The driver of the red MINI had to settle for finishing 13th and dropped back to ninth position in the overall standings.

The next stage sees the drivers reach the foothills of the Andes for the first time and during the course of the stage, they will move up to more than 3000 metres over sea level. The track surface will be hard and rocky.

Following a 202-kilometre liaison, the drivers will start into the 301-kilometre special stage that will end with just another three kilometres to go to the bivouac.

Day

three of the 2014 Dakar rally was a day of mixed feelings for the Hessian team: With their yellow MINI Nani Roma /

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Michel Périn won the stage, followed by their

teammates Krzysztof Holowczyc / Konstantin Zhiltsov in the red MINI. Orlando Terranova and his Portuguese navigator Paulo Fiúza took their orange MINI to fourth position and the pairing Nasser AlAttiyah / Lucas Cruz in the white MINI came seventh. Meanwhile, the Frenchmen Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret encountered a bad day, in their black MINI and finished 29th, some 28 minutes behind Roma / Périn.

Roma, however, was virtually over the moon: “Today’s stage was extremely difficult,” he said. “I drove past several cars that had had to stop and began to

worry. But then I focused on myself and at the end of the day, everything went fine.” By winning Stage 3, he also leaped from fourth position in the overall standings to the lead.

Holowczyc also completed stage three without being hampered by

any major problems. “Finally a trouble-free day,” the Pole beamed in the bivouac.

“Konstantin and I get on better and better.” For Holowczyc and his Russian co-driver Zhiltsov, the 2014

MINI after 2 stages: 1. S. Peterhansel / J.-P. Cottret 6h 17m 02s 2. Buggy 6h 17m 30s 3. N. Al-Attiyah / L. Cruz 6h 21m 12s 4. N. Roma / M. Périn 6h 21m 21s 5. O. Terranova / P. Fiúza 6h 25m 33s 9. K. Holowczyc / K. Zhiltsov 6h 54m 10s 12. F. Villagra / J. P. Companc 6h 56m 22s 16. M. Kaczmarski / F. Palmeiro 7h 16m 32s 19. V. Vasilyev / V. Yevtyekhov 7h 23m 13s 20. B. Garafulic / G. Picard 7h 35m 39s 25. S. Schott / H. Schmidt 7h 47m 36s 31. Zhou Yong / Hong Yu Pan 8h 14m 07s

Dakar is the first rally they contest together. Terranova finished fourth.

At first, he lost some time in the dust of several other vehicles and then, “I stopped to provide Stéphane with one of our spare tyres as he had suffered his fourth punctures and had run out of spare tyres.”

Al-Attiyah experienced a blessing in disguise – he had to cope with four punctures. In the first three cases, he could solve the problem with a spare tyre but after the fourth puncture “We stopped every five kilometres to refill the tyre,” revealed the driver from Qatar who finished seventh, nevertheless.

Meanwhile, Peterhansel had to cope with a heavy dose of bad luck. “This was a day I haven’t encountered in my career to date,” said the Frenchman.

“The first puncture was my mistake as I hit a rock. But then, we arrived at a field with vegetation and countless thorns.” Theses thorns pierced into the tyres and caused the punctures. “Orly provided us with a tyre as we had run out of spare tyres and then, we had to cruise to the finish with another two slow punctures.”

The day’s special stage had to be shortened by the organisers from 301 to 245 kilometres as a section of the track was damaged over the course of the past days by heavy rain to an extent that using it was impossible.

Day 4 is the longest stage of the 2014 Dakar: a total mileage of 868 kilometres, featuring a 501-kilometre special stage that is split by a 157-kilometre neutralisation. According to the organisers, the first car will start at 07:20hrs and is expected to finish the stage at about 15:25hrs.

MINI after 3 stages: 1. N. Roma / M. Périn 9h 20m 13s 2. O. Terranova / P. Fiúza 9h 29m 19s 3. N. Al-Attiyah / L. Cruz 9h 30m 13s 4. Buggy 9h 32m 15s 5. S. Peterhansel / J.-P. Cottret 9h 44m 21s 8. K. Holowczyc / K. Zhiltsov 9h 54m 54s 11. F. Villagra / J. P. Companc 10h 06m 08s 16. M. Kaczmarski / F. Palmeiro 10h 28m 41s 18. B. Garafulic / G. Picard 10h 50m 21s 22. V. Vasilyev / V. Yevtyekhov 11h 22m 04s 23. S. Schott / H. Schmidt 11h 22m 46s 27. Zhou Yong / Hong Yu Pan 11h 27m 17s

The

fourth stage, from San Juan to Chilecito, represented a true challenge: its 501-kilometre special stage was one of the longest of the 2014 Dakar Rally.

Right from the start, several drivers battled it out for the stage win and at the end of the day, French pairing Stéphane Peterhansel / Jean-Paul Cottret in the black MINI finished second behind Carlos Sainz. Nasser AlAttiyah / Lucas Cruz took their white MINI to third position, with Federico Villagra and Jorge Perez Companc causing a stir by securing fourth place, with their MINI. Nani Roma / Michel Périn in the yellow MINI crossed the finish line in fifth position, followed

by Orlando Terranova / Paulo Fiúza in the orange MINI. While Krzysztof Holowczyc and his Russian co-driver had to settle for finishing 19th.

After the bad luck in kind of six punctures he had to cope with, yesterday, Peterhansel struck back by finishing runner-up. Due to a proposal of the Monster Energy X-raid Team, the Frenchman was moved up from 29th to 16th position in the starting order (a move that is allowed three times for the top drivers, according to the regulations). “Routes like

today’s – long and difficult – are exactly what we need to re-close in on the podium positions or even the leaders,” said the Frenchman. “But unfortunately, we suffered a puncture just 25 kilometres into the stage and following yesterday’s incidents I wasn’t sure how fast I should and could go. But then, I found a good rhythm, nevertheless and was able to push again.”

Al-Attiyah also was a factor in the battle for the stage win and held the lead for quite a while. Then, however, navigation problems due to an imprecise roadbook and a puncture cost him time and he dropped back to third position. “Today’s special stage was difficult but I’m happy with what we achieved,” said the driver from Qatar. Terranova who finished sixth also was misguided by the roadbook and got lost at the same point as his teammate. “Afterwards, we circled several times to find the right way”, he said.

“This cost us quite a lot of

After bad luck yesterday peterhansel struck back today

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Motorsport

first of all hot day for all the competitors. Nani Roma and his French navigator Michel Périn, however, proved to be unstoppable and secured not only the stage win but also regained the overall lead. Orlando Terranova / Paulo Fiúza finished fourth, with their orange time.”

“And as we had run out of spare tyres, MINI, with French pairing Stéphane Meanwhile, Argentineans Federico we had to back off and finished the Peterhansel, Jean-Paul Cottret and their Villagra and Jorge Perez Companc stage at cruising speed.” black MINI finishing right behind them, caused a major stir by taking their The next stage takes the field from in fifth position. Krzysztof Holowczyc MINI to fourth place after having held a Chilecito to Tucuman, sand and heat / Konstantin Zhiltsov in the red MINI top-flight position throughout the stage. will take centrestage. Throughout the had to settle for finishing 21st. Nasser “I’m truly surprised,” the Argentinean session, the competitors will have to Al-Attiyah and Lucas Cruz finished fifth said beaming. “I didn’t push so hard. race off-road. According to hints of but received a one-hour time penalty I drove fast where it was possible the organisers, this special stage is and consequently, they dropped back to to do so but opted for a somewhat supposed to once again massively 22nd. conservative approach elsewhere. We screen the field. Altogether, the drivers Actually, today’s special stage was just were on a roll and had a good day.” will cover 911 kilometres, 527 of them in supposed to feature a mileage of For Roma, today’s stage represented the special stage. more than 500 kilometres, thus once an anything but easy task. As winner again being one of the longest of the of yesterday’s stage, the Catalan was 2014 Dakar. Due to the extreme heat, the first to go out today and had to find five, featuring however, the ASO opted for stopping his way without motorbike traces as the fifth stage the special stage early – after 429 navigation orientation. The bikes raced from Chilecito kilometres, at CP1. Already at the end of on another route today, and so, Roma to Tucuman, was a gruelling and the first part of the special stage – prior had to act as pathfinder for the other drivers. “Today’s special stage was very difficult. In the opening stages, there MINI after 4 stages: were some ditches that couldn’t be found in the roadbook and consequently 1. Buggy 14h 52m 47s proved to be rather dangerous. Later, in 2. N. Roma / M. Périn 14h 54m 53s the closing stages, we had to navigate a 3. N. Al-Attiyah / L. Cruz 14h 59m 43s 4.

O. Terranova / P. Fiúza

15h 05m 55s lot. Once we got lost as spectators were 5. S. Peterhansel / J.-P. Cottret 15h 10m 57s standing in our way and we weren’t 8. F. Villagra / J. P. Companc 15h 39m 59s sure where to go. But altogether, I’m 9. K. Holowczyc / K. Zhiltsov 15h 59m 47s 15. B. Garafulic / G. Picard 16h 55m 34s really happy with our performance.”

19. M. Kaczmarski / F. Palmeiro 17h 39m 25s He now holds second position in the 22. S. Schott / H. Schmidt 18h 00m 31s overall standings.

Holowczyc also had his problems – with his tyres and the imprecise roadbook. “We got lost twice and suffered three punctures,” the Pole revealed in the bivouac.

“we got lost twice and suffered three punctures”

Day

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to the 111-kilometre neutralisation – the gaps on the timesheets proved to partly be massive. Because of the difficult navigation, numerous competitors had lost their way.

Périn however, the navigator of Roma, had no major problems when it came to finding the right way, thus enabling Roma to take the yellow MINI to the lead. “Michel did a fantastic job today,” the Spaniard beamed in the bivouac.

“We got lost just once, in the dunes at the beginning of Stage 2. But you have to consider that we had to take the pathfinder role. Altogether, it was an extremely gruelling and hot day and I’m really happy to now be here in the bivouac.”

For Terranova, the navigation turned out to be crucial. “We had a good pace lost valuable time while looking for it. The French now holds third position, nearly 40 minutes behind Roma.

Al-Attiyah had even bigger problems when it came to the waypoint: “This was a difficult day for us,” he said. “Unfortunately we didn’t find the waypoint.”

Therefore, he received a one-hour time penalty, dropped back to

and things ran well for us but then, we certainly lost some 20 minutes while looking for a waypoint,” explained the Argentinean, who nonetheless was delighted by the difficulty level of the special stage. “The ASO did a great job. This was the most difficult special stage I had to race in my entire career to date.” Terranova now holds second position in the overall standings, 31 minutes behind Roma.

Peterhansel also regards today’s special stage as one of the most difficult ones he had to contest in South America to date. “This was a true Dakar special stage,” the Frenchman said enthusiastically.

“From a driving point of view, it wasn’t big fun as the terrain was extremely hard for both our bodies and the material.” Peterhansel also got lost on the way to the waypoint and

22nd position in the stage ranking and to fifth in the overall standings.

In t

he sixth stage of the 2014 Dakar Rally, from Tucuman to Salta, Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret proved to be the quickest, with their black MINI, thus celebrating their second stage win. Second place was secured by Argentinean Orlando Terranova and his Portuguese codriver Paulo Fiúza in the orange MINI. Meanwhile, the winners of yesterday’s stage, Nani Roma and Michel Périn, crossed the finish line with their yellow MINI in sixth position. The pole Krzysztof Holowczyc and his Russian

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“The big number of spectators was just incredible” co-pilot Konstantin Zhiltsov finished driver from Qatar admitted laughing. the sixth stage in their red MINI in 8th Nearly throughout the stage, he had place. to cope with driving in the dust of Today, everything finally ran other vehicles. “I had to start from 17th according to plan, for Peterhansel position and therefore, a lot of cars were and he contested the stage without driving ahead of me. The second part of encountering any problems. “This was the stage was far better and I gained a a really nice special stage,” beamed lot of time.” the Frenchman. “It resembled a WRC When arriving at the finish in Salta, special stage a lot – but in a fantastic Terranova was happier about the landscape. Altogether, however, the crowds than with having finished first week didn’t run too well for us third. “Driving today was great but and we have to settle for holding third even greater was the crowd that lined position. But that’s the road at not our goal. Now the end of the we have to push for stage,” said the MINI after 5 stages: making it to the very Argentinean.

1. N. Roma / M. Périn 19h 21m 54s top – but doing so “The big number 2. O. Terranova / P. Fiúza 19h 53m 50s increases the risk of of spectators 3. S. Peterhansel / J.-P. Cottret 20h 01m 53s making mistakes.”

4. Toyota 20h 03m 18s 5.

N. Al-Attiyah / L. Cruz

20h 48m 22s He currently holds 10. K. Holowczyc / K. Zhiltsov 21h 44m 53s third position in the 12. M. Kaczmarski / F. Palmeiro 22h 01m 58s overall standings, 33 13. F. Villagra / J. P. Companc 22h 04m 36s 14. B. Garafulic / G. Picard 22h 25m 56s minutes behind the 20. V. Vasilyev / V. Yevtyekhov 24h 20m 34s leader.

28. S. Schott / H. Schmidt 25h 16m 00s Al-Attiyah was 43. Zhou Yong / Hong Yu Pan 31h 42m 15s disappointed after yesterday’s time penalty but nonetheless, he pushed again, today, and wouldn’t mind to keep on racing, tomorrow. “I completely forgot the rest day and asked my codriver, Lukas, how many kilometres we would have to cover tomorrow”, the

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on site was just incredible. But now I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s rest day.” He still holds second position in the overall standings, some 30 minutes behind Roma.

Roma also was happy when getting out of his MINI. “I once again had to act as pathfinder and doing so isn’t easy. There were a lot of slippery corners and no traces you could use for your orientation,” the Catalan explained. “After the rest day I will have to continue in this style: not mistakes, no punctures. Then, things are looking promising for Michel, me and the team.”

Meanwhile, it was a truly dusty day for Holowczyc. Due to his position in the starting order, he had to start

into the stage behind several trucks.

“Throughout the stage, I drove in the dust of the vehicles ahead of me,” he revealed. “Right in front of me was Villagra but he also was just a part of the convoy. Nonetheless, I was able to pass several opponents and will be in a better starting position, the day after tomorrow. Then, my streak of bad luck hopefully also will be over.”

Tomorrow, the MINIs will stay in the service park of the Monster Energy X-raid Team and Team X-raid. The 2014 Dakar takes its rest day in Salta, Argentina. The drivers, however, won’t have the chance of relaxing the entire day as they also have to take care of the sponsors and journalists.

In t

he seventh stage around Salta, following the day of rest, the MINIs really went for it – and seven of them made it to the top 10! Nasser Al-Attiyah and Lucas Cruz in the white MINI finished second behind Buggy driver Carlos Sainz. Frenchmen Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret were just slightly slower and took their black MINI to third place. Nani Roma and his French navigator Michel Périn, currently the overall leaders, finished fourth, with their yellow MINI. The red MINI, raced by Poland’s Krzysztof Holowczyc and his Russian co-driver Konstantin Zhiltsov, came fifth, followed by the Argentineans Federico Villagra / Jorge Perez Companc who also race a MINI. The next MINI, the one of Russian Vladimir Vasilyev and Vitaly

Yevtyekhov, finished seventh, with Orlando Terranova and Paulo Fiúza in the orange MINI crossing the finish line in ninth position.

Today’s special stage that resembled a WRC special stage suited AlAttiyah particularly well. “It was a fast special stage without any particularly highlights,” explained the driver from Qatar. “I’m rather happy with the result but driving so high above sea level wasn’t too

MINI after 6 stages: 1. N. Roma / M. Perin 22h 11m 28s 2. O. Terranova / P. Fiúza 22h 41m 58s 3. S. Peterhansel / J.-P. Cottret 22h 44m 51s 4. Toyota 22h 52m 22s 5. N. Al-Attiyah / L. Cruz 23h 34m 03s 9. K. Holowczyc / K. Zhiltsov 24h 40m 25s 12. F. Villagra / J. P. Companc 25h 00m 27s 14. B. Garafulic / G. Picard 25h 35m 09s 16. M. Kaczmarski / F. Palmeiro 25h 59m 03s 18. V. Vasilyev / V. Yevtyekhov 27h 15m 34s 25. S. Schott / H. Schmidt 28h 41m 13s 37. Zhou Yong / Hong Yu Pan 35h 01m 02s

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Motorsport pleasant.” He still holds fifth position in the overall standings.

Peterhansel had to cope with a special problem today. “Whenever we were driving really fast, there was a herd of llamas standing in our way,” the Frenchman revealed. “We blew the horn but they just ignored it. So, we had to decelerate from 170 to 50kph.”

Later, he had to make a stop due to a puncture as he had driven over a piece of metal. In the overall standings, he still holds second position, some 30 minutes behind his teammate Roma.

Like many of his teammates, Roma also had to make a stop because of a puncture.

“Afterwards, we were stuck in the dust of Giniel de Villiers but he let us pass as soon as possible,” said the Catalan. “Altogether, it was a positive day for us. Unfortunately, there was the delay at the start. I don’t like it if you already are wearing your helmet to then be forced to wait.”

Meanwhile, Holowczyc definitely has battled his way back into the top flight.

“In the past days I had to eat so much dust that I nearly didn’t know how it feels to battle it out for fast times,” said the Pole. “Yes, I was driving behind Vasilyev, today, but he also was driving fast.”

Argentinean Terranova, however, encountered a day to forget. At first he hit a rock, resulting in a puncture.

“Later, we were driving on a winding road, I had to avoid a rock and we bottomed out. Getting the car back on its wheels was anything but easy and we lost a lot of time while trying to do so.”

Yesterday, Terranova received a belated 15-minute time penalty. In Stage 6, he passed a motorbike rider standing to the left who signalled him to stay right. Terranova tried to drive as far to the right as possible but behind a corner, a motorbike was lying in the road. Terranova just wasn’t able to avoid the bike and rolled over it at 18kph. As he knew that the bike rider was unhurt, he opted for continuing,

“there was a herd of llamas standing in our way” - peterhansel

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nevertheless. The stewards, however, came to the conclusion that he had displayed unsportsmanlike behaviour and penalised him.

Although the rest day was extremely rainy and the MINIs had to drive through deep mud when leaving the bivouac, there never was a doubt that today’s special stage could be contested. Nonetheless, the start had to be delayed by 30 minutes as the helicopters couldn’t start earlier due to low clouds.

Tomorrow, during the course of the stage from Salta to Calama, the field will cross the border to Chile.

Altogether, the competitors will have to cover a mileage of 823 kilometres, featuring a 302-kilometre special stage with tight and fast tracks that will make overtaking particularly difficult.

MINI after 7 stages: 1. N. Roma / M. Périn 27h 03m 52s 2. S. Peterhansel / J.-P. Cottret 27h 35m 23s 3. Toyota 27h 52m 15s 4. O. Terranova / P. Fiúza 27h 58m 26s 5. N. Al-Attiyah / L. Cruz 28h 21m 55s 8. K. Holowczyc / K. Zhiltsov 29h 34m 44s 9. F. Villagra / J. P. Companc 29h 56m 49s 12. B. Garafulic / G. Picard 30h 59m 00s 15. M. Kaczmarski / F. Palmeiro 31h 10m 11s 17. V. Vasilyev / V. Yevtyekhov 32h 15m 00s 20. S. Schott / H. Schmidt 34h 02m 01s 46. Zhou Yong / Hong Yu Pan 40h 23m 30s

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he ninth stage, from Calama to Iquique, the fight for the win proved to be a battle between Stéphane Peterhansel in the black and Nasser Al-Attiyah in the white MINI. At the end of the 302-kilometre special stage, Peterhansel and JeanPaul Cottret got the upper hand and crossed the finish line 2.27 minutes ahead of Al-Attiyah and Lucas Cruz.

The Spanish-Portuguese pairing Nani Roma / Michel Périn finished third, in the yellow MINI, thus defending the overall lead. The orange MINI, raced by Orlando Terranova and Paulo Fiúza, finished fourth. Thanks to their results, both Al-Attiyah and Terranova passed Toyota’s Giniel de Villiers in the overall standings. This means that the first four positions on the leaderboard now are held by MINIs. And Krzysztof Holowczyc / Konstantin Zhiltsov with the red MINI follow in seventh position.

From the beginning of the stage to Iquique, Peterhansel and Al-Attiyah battled it out for the stage win. The Frenchman quickly closed in on his teammate from Qatar and followed him for the rest of the stage. ‘In the opening stages, the track was rather

smashed and, consequently, dangerous.

We encountered a hard landing but the MINI is an extremely solid car – really incredible,” revealed the Frenchman.

On the way from the huge dune down to the finish, however, he still doesn’t feel really comfortable. “I still don’t dare to go flat out, there,” he admitted.

“Somewhere in me there is a voice that says: ‘No, don’t do it’!”

Al-Attiyah was the first to start into today’s special stage and had to act as pathfinder throughout the stage. “Doing so is not too easy and we several times got lost for a short time,” revealed the driver from Qatar. “Furthermore, Stéphane was pushing rather hard.

But we now hold fourth position in the overall standings and will try to work our way up to third.” Al-Attiyah’s gap to the leaders now adds up to about an hour but he lies just about five minutes behind Terranova.

Meanwhile, Roma once again tried to contest the stage without taking unnecessary risks or making any mistakes. But he still wasn’t able to fully get over yesterday’s puncture. “In the opening stages I therefore wasn’t able to really go for it but later, I felt better and was able to push,” the Catalan admitted. He is aware that his

teammate is an extremely competitive opponent. “Stéphane delivered in extremely fine style today. I know that he is very fast on this kind of tracks.”

As Roma got stuck for a short time, in the closing stages, he crossed the finish line 11:36 minutes behind Peterhansel.

Nonetheless, he defended his first place in the overall standings and holds a 12:10-minute lead over the Frenchman.

Terranova held third position nearly throughout the special stage but with just 20 more kilometres to go he lost valuable time. “In the dunes, one of our tyres slipped off the wheel and changing it wasn’t too easy,” said the Argentinean. “But it’s good that we are back in third position, now. The rally isn’t over, yet, and just in this Dakar, anything can happen.”

Holowczyc lost some time but he partially did so as he waited for Roma, after the start, to be able to help him if necessary. I followed him and then, we unfortunately suffered a puncture,” revealed the Pole. “Then, however, things went really well for us – until we arrived at the dunes. There we got stuck in a hole and this incident cost us some 15 minutes. Due to a technical failure encountered by Carlos Sainz, Holowczyc now holds sixth place in the

overall rankings.

The 10th stage, once again comprises a two-part special stage with a 231-kilometre and a 215-kilometre part.

The drivers will have to battle their way through sand as early as during the first 100 kilometres but afterwards, the track surface will be harder. The second part features several fesh-fesh sections to end on winding tracks.

MINI after 9 stages: 1. N. Roma / M. Périn 34h 15m 37s 2. S. Peterhansel / J.-P. Cottret 34h 27m 47s 3. O. Terranova / P. Fiúza 35h 10m 10s 4. N. Al-Attiyah / L. Cruz 35h 15m 23s 5. Toyota 35h 15m 23s 6. K. Holowczyc / K. Zhiltsov 37h 15m 40s 12. B. Garafulic / G. Picard 39h 01m 23s 13. M. Kaczmarski / F. Palmeiro 39h 10m 10s 15. V. Vasilyev / V. Yevtyekhov 40h 02m 48s 16. F. Villagra / J. P. Companc 41h 15m 13s 20. S. Schott / H. Schmidt 43h 13m 14s

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he 10th stage, from Iquique to Antofagasta, Nasser Al-Attiyah and Stéphane Peterhansel once again were the only two drivers battling it out for the win, with Al-Attiyah and his

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Motorsport Spanish co-driver Lucas Cruz in the white MINI getting the upper hand, this time, and securing their second stage win in the 2014 Dakar. Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret in the black MINI finished second, 3:50 minutes behind the stage winners. The Spanish-French pairing Nani Roma / Michel Périn set the third fastest time and defended the first position in the overall standings – with their lead over Peterhansel amounting to just 2:15 minutes now! Krzysztof Holowczyc / Konstantin Zhiltsov took their red MINI to fifth position and Orlando Terranova / Paulo Fiúza, racing the orange MINI, came seventh.

By winning today’s stage, Al-Attiyah worked his way up to third position in the overall standings. “This was a really good day or us,” he said. “I’m really happy that we made it to third position, today – that’s cool. But I’ll keep on pushing, tomorrow. After all, the Dakar is far from being over.”

Having won yesterday’s stage, Peterhansel was the first to start in today’s. “Doing so in the dunes of Iquique wasn’t too easy but we made it,” said the Frenchman. “In the second part of the special stage, however, Nasser was able to close in on us.

So I stopped for some seconds to let him pass.” In the overall standings, Peterhansel’s gap to his leading teammate Roma amounts to just 2:15 minutes now. “Since Salta, things are running well for us and we are gaining several minutes every day.”

For Roma however, things didn’t run that smoothly. “I had a puncture in the closing stages of part one but made it to the finish without a tyre change,” he revealed. “Later I got stuck in the dunes. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to contest the special stages of the past days without making mistakes. In the first week, others had problems and now it’s my turn. But I will try hard to defend my lead on the final days.”

Like many others, Holowczyc had

navigation problems, today. “In the early stages we passed Malysz and a Kamaz”, said the Pole. “But then we began to look for a waypoint. There were at least five cars circling, there.

We were the first to find the waypoint and continued right away.” In the overall standings, he still holds the safe sixth place.

Meanwhile, Terranova encountered a bad day today. “We just made too many mistakes,” the Argentinean angrily admitted. “No major mistakes but we again and again lost several minutes.”

Over the course of today’s special stage, he lost about 30 minutes compared to Al-Attiyah, thus dropping back to fifth position in the overall rankings – 20 seconds behind Giniel de Villiers.

Slowly but surely, the 2014 Dakar is entering the finish straight. Tomorrow, the teams will contest the 11th of the 13 stages. On the way Antofagasta to El Salvador, the competitors will cover 749 kilometres, featuring a 605-kilometre special stage. At the beginning, the route will take the field across tracks and river beds – and then into Atacama Desert and the dunes of Copiapo.

According to the organisers, the teams will need more than six hours to contest the stage!

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MINI after 10 stages: 1. N. Roma / M. Périn 38h 52m 57s 2. S. Peterhansel / J.-P. Cottret 38h 55m 12s 3. N. Al-Attiyah / L. Cruz 39h 38m 58s 4. Toyota 40h 07m 13s 5. O. Terranova / P. Fiúza 40h 07m 33s 6. K. Holowczyc / K. Zhiltsov 42h 10m 28s 10. M. Kaczmarski / F. Palmeiro 44h 26m 51s 12. V. Vasilyev / V. Yevtyekhov 44h 59m 45s 13. B. Garafulic / G. Picard 45h 30m 17s 14. F. Villagra / J. P. Companc 46h 23m 54s 18. S. Schott / H. Schmidt 43h 13m 14s

In t

he antepenultimate stage, from Antofagasta to El Salvador, the Argentinean-Portuguese pairing Orlando Terranova / Paulo Fiúza in the orange MINI celebrated their first stage win in this Dakar. Thanks to this success, they re-passed Giniel de Villiers in the overall standings and worked their way up to fourth position. Catalan Nani Roma and his French navigator Michel Périn, the current leaders, took their yellow MINI to second place. The black MINI, raced by the French pairing Stéphane Peterhansel / Jean-Paul Cottret, came fourth, with Nasser Al-Attiyah / Lucas Cruz in the white MINI ALL4 Racing following right behind in fifth position.

Due to the enormous speed Nasser Al-Attiyah and Stéphane Peterhansel raced at in the past days, Team Manager Sven Quandt made the decision that the drivers of the team should keep their positions in the overall standings. “The risk that something goes wrong at the enormous speed the two were racing at got just

too big,” explained Sven Quandt. “We wanted cars and drivers to safely make it to the finish and we want to see three MINIs on the podium.”

Terranova and his friends were beaming when the Argentinean entered the bivouac at El Salvador. Over the course of the 600-kilometre stage, Terranova worked his way up step by step to cross the finish line as winner, in the end. “This was a long and gruelling stage,” he said, “Particularly for the tyres. There were about 100 kilometres of dunes but the rest was extremely rocky. Nonetheless, we actually made it to the finish without any punctures and without losing our way.” In the overall standings, he now is back in fourth position.

Roma displayed constant speed, in the longest special stage of the 2014 Dakar, and only lost some time due to a puncture. “It was a tough day today,” Roma admitted. “At first I was driving in the dust of Stéphane and then I suffered a puncture. I’m happy that another day is over.” In the overall standings, he now holds a lead of slightly more than five minutes over his teammate Peterhansel. The Frenchman suffered two punctures on the rocky tracks. “In addition, the team had asked us to stop pushing,” revealed the Frenchman. “It’s the goal to have three MINIs on the podium.”

Al-Attiyah held the lead for the major part of the special stage, today, but in the closing stages he hit a rock, resulting in a broken suspension and a damaged chassis – that fortunately can be repaired. “We had to change the suspension what cost us about 25 minutes,” the driver from Qatar revealed. Despite this incident, he succeeded in defending his third position in the overall standings.

For Holowczyc, it’s all about making it safely to the finish, from today. He holds the secure seventh position in the overall standings. “We had just a normal stage today, nothing special,” said the Pole. “In the overall standings, our gap to the cars in front of us and our lead over the cars behind is so big that pushing wouldn’t make any sense.”

Tomorrow, the field will contest the penultimate stage, with the specialstage action starting start right at the bivouac. Other than in the past years, the bivouac won’t be located at Copiapo as fog again and again prevented the

“we had a puncture and stephane was able to pass us” - Roma field from starting in time, in the past.

Tomorrow’s route mainly will feature sand and dunes. With the special stage completed, the competitors will have to cover another 349 kilometres to the bivouac.

MINI after 11 stages: 1. N. Roma / M. Périn 45h 01m 54s 2. S. Peterhansel / J.-P. Cottret 45h 07m 26s 3. N. Al-Attiyah / L. Cruz 45h 57m 55s 4. O. Terranova / P. Fiúza 46h 05m 33s 5. Toyota 46h 15m 23s 6. K. Holowczyc / K. Zhiltsov 48h 46m 45s 9. M. Kaczmarski / F. Palmeiro 51h 19m 40s 10. V. Vasilyev / V. Yevtyekhov 51h 36m 51s 11. B. Garafulic / G. Picard 52h 12m 22s 12. F. Villagra / J. P. Companc 52h 55m 49s 17. S. Schott / H. Schmidt 57h 12m 19s 25. Zhou Yong / Hong Yu Pan 67h 18m 27s

The

French pairing Stéphane Peterhansel / JeanPaul Cottret in the black MINI proved to be the quickest in the 350-kilometre special stage from El Salvador to La Serena. With this success, Peterhansel passed Nani Roma in the overall standings and holds the first position, now. The second fastest time was set

by Nasser Al-Attiyah / Lucas Cruz in the white MINI. Roma and his French co-driver Michel Périn took their yellow MINI to third place, with Krzysztof

Holowczyc and Konstantin Zhiltsov in the red MINI finishing fifth. While Orlando Terranova / Paulo Fiúza came ninth, with their orange MINI. Peterhansel was the fourth to start into today’s stage and completed the 350-kilometre distance without encountering any problems. When Roma suffered a puncture, the Frenchman used the opportunity to pass him. “At this point in time, Nasser already had passed us but then I saw him opting for the wrong direction,” Peterhansel revealed in the bivouac. In the end, he crossed the finish line with a lead of more than three minutes over his team-mate from Qatar who had held the lead nearly throughout the special stage. In the dune field in the closing stages of the session, however, Nasser followed the wrong compass direction, thus losing several minutes. In the overall standings, he holds the secure third position.

Roma started into the stage behind Terranova who displayed a very good pace in the opening stage despite being the first to start into the session and had to act as pathfinder. Then, however, the Argentinean lost a lot of time while looking for a waypoint – and Roma passed him. From this point in time, the Catalan was the pathfinder.

“Unfortunately, we then had a puncture and Stéphane was able to pass us,” said Roma. Afterwards, he stayed behind his teammate to not take any unnecessary

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nani roma and michel perin made it a hat-trick of wins for the mini all4 racing team risks in the dunes.

By finishing fifth, Krzysztof Holowczyc once again delivered in solid style.

But he also suffered a puncture and lost valuable time. His teammate Terranova also had to cope with a dose of bad luck. He did not only lose time while looking for a way point but “We also got stuck once and suffered two punctures,” said the Argentinean. “This was just a bad day.”

Team Manger Sven Quandt: “As we explained yesterday, our orders for the drivers were made to make sure that they and their MINI safely make it to the finish. Particularly Nasser and Stéphane raced at the very limit for several days and we had to intervene before something went wrong. Today, Nani suffered a puncture and Stéphane was able to pass him.”

Tomorrow will feature the final stage and the presentation ceremony on the podium. But first, the drivers will have to contest a 122-kilometre liaison and a 157-kilometre special stage to the finish. From there, they will have to cover another 256 kilometres to the first night podium in the history of the Dakar in Valparaiso.

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MINI after 12 stages: 1. S. Peterhansel / J.-P. Cottret 48h 45m 45s 2. N. Roma / M. Périn 48h 46m 11s 3. N. Al-Attiyah / L. Cruz 49h 39m 52s 4. Toyota 50h 06m 58s 5. O. Terranova / P. Fiúza 50h 13m 42s 6. K. Holowczyc / K. Zhiltsov 48h 46m 45s 9. M. Kaczmarski / F. Palmeiro 55h 41m 18s 10. V. Vasilyev / V. Yevtyekhov 55h 46m 44s 11. B. Garafulic / G. Picard 56h 16m 07s 12. F. Villagra / J. P. Companc 57h 05m 34s 17. S. Schott / H. Schmidt 61h 57m 31s 25. Zhou Yong / Hong Yu Pan 71h 37m 50s

Thir

teen stages, more than 13,000 kilometres, one of the most gruelling Dakars ever – and in the end, the conclusion has to be: the MINI ALL4 Racing dominated the 2014 Dakar in unique style! For the third consecutive time, the Monster Energy X-raid Team won the Dakar Rally! Following the wins in the previous two years, secured by the French pairing Stéphane Peterhansel / Jean-Paul Cottret, Catalan Nani Roma and his French co-driver Michel Périn made for the hat-trick, with their yellow MINI. And on top of that, the fans

in Valparaiso, Chile, witnessed and all-MINI podium. Second place was secured by Peterhansel /Cottret in the black MINI, with Team X-raid driver Nasser Al-Attiyah and his Spanish codriver Lucas Cruz securing third place, in their white MINI. Many pundits regarded the plan to contest the Dakar with 11 MINIs as an unsolvable challenge. The Monster Energy X-raid Team and the X-raid Team, however, did not only succeed in making it to the finish with all the 11 vehicles but the entire team delivered in fantastic style, with the figures speaking for themselves: all the 11 MINIs made it to the top 20 in the 2014 Dakar. Nine of them secured top-12 positions and as icing on the cake, the podium proved to be an all-MINI-ALL4Racing podium!

For winner Nani Roma, the year 2014 represents a very special anniversary: 10 years ago, he won the motorbike ranking of the Dakar! In the following year, he already switched to four wheels! With his win in the 2014 Dakar, he followed the footsteps of Auriol and Peterhansel and now is the only third driver who succeeded in winning

the legendary event on two and four wheels. In the 2013 season, Roma already underlined that he would be a factor in the battle for the 2014 Dakar win: four rallies – four wins! Inter alia in events such as the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge or the Ruta 40.

Roma took the lead on day three of the 2014 Dakar and defended it up to day 12 when he lost it for one day!

And his co-driver, Michel Périn also massively contributed to this triumph.

In the sixth stage, when everybody lost time while looking for a waypoint, the Frenchman found it at once, thus enabling Roma to open the major part of his gap on the rest of the field. For him, the Dakar win is an early birthday present: Périn will turn 57, tomorrow!

But they weren’t the only MINI ALL4 Racing drivers on the podium as Frenchmen Stéphane Peterhansel and Jean-Paul Cottret took their black MINI ALL4 Racing to second position, with Nasser Al-Attiyah and Lucas Cruz in the white MINI ALL4 Racing coming third.

For the driver from Qatar, it was the first rally he contested at the wheel of MINI ALL4 Racing. Only on 1st January, he made his first outing with the car: “The MINI ALL4 Racing is a very good vehicle,” he said. “Fast and solid. Contesting the Dakar with it was big fun.”

The positions five and six also were clinched by Monster Energy X-raid Team drivers: Orlando Terranova / Paulo Fiúza finished fifth, with their orange MINI. “Our pace was good,” revealed Terranova, “But we just made too many

mistakes, this year. A pity that we lost our fourth place at the very end of the event.” Right behind him, Krzysztof Holowczyc and Konstantin Zhiltsov in the red MINI came sixth. “I definitely had set myself the goal to secure a better result,” admitted the Pole, “But we had to cope with a lot of bad luck in week one. Therefore, we had to start from far behind, afterwards, thus having to race in the dust of numerous other drivers. At least, things tended to improve, in the closing stages of the Dakar, and we had the chance of pushing again.”

One of the biggest surprises was Martin Kaczmarski who contested his very first Dakar. As youngest driver in the car category, the Pole secured the outstanding ninth place. Together with his experienced co-driver, Portugal’s

Filipe Palmeiro, he delivered – first of all – on a very consistent level, with his MINI. “It was very, very tough,” admitted Kaczmarski, “And it took me some days to find the proper rhythm.

But from that point in time, things went really well.”

Russian Vlaidmir Vasilyev and his Ukrainian co-driver Vitaly Yevtyekhov took their MINI to 10th place. And 11th and 12 positions also were clinched by two MINIs: together with his French navigator Gilles Picar, Chile’s Boris Garafulic came 11th, thus securing the best Dakar result in his career to date.

“I’m extremely happy,” said the Chilean, “Although it’s a pity that we didn’t quite make it to the top 10. Nonetheless, we once again demonstrated that delivering in consistent style is the key for securing a good result in this rally.” Twelfth position pairing Federico Villagra / Jorge Perez Companc unfortunately, missed a waypoint in stage six and received a one-hour time penalty. “We had a lot of fun and I think that we succeeded in convincing one another that we have got what it takes to deliver in competitive style.”

Final overall MINI positions: 1. N. Roma / M. Périn (FRA) 50h 44m 58s 2. S. Peterhansel / J.-P. Cottret 50h 50m 36s 3. N. Al-Attiyah / L. Cruz 51h 41m 50s 5. O. Terranova / P. Fiúza 52h 12m 42s 6. K. Holowczyc / K. Zhiltsov 54h 40m 40s 9. M. Kaczmarski / F. Palmeiro 57h 43m 10s 10. V. Vasilyev / V. Yevtyekhov 57h 44m 32s 11. B. Garafulic / G. Picard 58h 20m 13s 12. F. Villagra / J. P. Companc 59h 05m 50s 19. S. Schott / H. Schmidt 64h 10m 36s 31. Zhou Yong / Hong Yu Pan 74h 19m 03s

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Motorsport

Rally of the tests From marshalling rallies and dreaming of getting behind the wheel of a rally car, Dan Anderson finally got his chance on the RoTT.

The

CRA (Classic Rally Association) run Rally of The Tests historic rally, also known as RoTT, was held for the 12th time, recreating the early RAC rallies before it became a purely special stage event.

In previous years I have spectated and marshalled/run tests on the event, but the financial costs have always prevented me from taking part, though it was my dream to do it! Over the last few years myself and my friend - and regular navigator, Bob Hargreaves, have done many local modern night rallies and daytime historic road rallies, including a few HRCR championship events which always seem to run with full 80-car entries.

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Our car is the infamous ‘Orangebox’, a mongrel of a Mini, built from two cars to go rallying back in 1962, the ‘Orangebox’ name given to it because of the Marigold body colour.

Bob also navigates for a couple of other local drivers, and in 2012 was given the chance to navigate on the RoTT for previous winner and star driver, Irishman Frank Fennell in his Alfa. I was envious of Bob getting the chance to do the event, but I looked forward to hearing all about it. On his return he said "bloody hell, never again!!" It seems they had a fraught time on the first couple of days but recovered to get a decent result inside the top 15 by the finish.

At the end of 2012 myself and Bob were at the awards ceremony for the 2012 ANWCC Historic rally championship, which we won, and over a few beers we decided to see if we could get the funds together to compete on the 2013 RoTT, influenced by the fact that for this year it started and finished in the north of England which would mean less travelling to and from the start and finish venues.

The fact that, although later cars were allowed to compete, only pre-1962 cars could figure in the overall classification, and that Bob was forfeiting his annual holiday and so could meet half the cost of the entry fee meant I just had to find the rest and prep the car!

Good support

We decided that for 2013 we would do just a handful of events just to ‘keep my hand in’, and to concentrate on getting the car legal for RoTT. A chat with Chris Harper of Mini Sport of Padiham resulted in us getting a lot of help, support and backing through the year culminating in the ‘Tests’.

We replaced our Perspex side windows with glass, the fibreglass bootlid with a steel one and the Cooper S brakes were changed for Cooper 7-inch discs. The 997 engine, built by Michael Anderson at Minisport, needed nothing other than a bit of a service and check.

Our aim for the event was firstly to finish, it would be disastrous to retire early, next, to get into the top 20 and to finish well in our class, the crew to beat being Frank Lenehan with Cath Woodman, multiple-time Class winners, in their lovely Smoke Grey 997 Cooper.

The event was to start late Thursday

afternoon in Chester with a short night/ prologue section to set the running order for the first full day, Friday. We were to start at car 9, the event then running with reverse seeding i.e., if you finished the prologue in tenth overall, Friday morning saw you running tenth from last on the road.

North West circuit

The format this year was a roughly 750-mile route, with the previously mentioned prologue on Thursday finishing back on the outskirts of Chester.

Friday morning saw the restart going north towards Ellesmere Port before heading south through North Wales before travelling east back into England with the Friday night overnight halt in Stoke-on-Trent. Saturday would see us going north up to Oulton Park then up into Lancashire then across to Kirby Lonsdale, Appleby, Brough, then west to the overnight halt in Windermere.

The restart on Sunday saw us go south again before travelling east through North Yorkshire and onto the finish in Harrogate on late Sunday afternoon.

When Bob arrived from his home in Ulverston, we loaded up the Mini with bags and what seemed like a vanload of paraphernalia and we made our 65-mile journey to Chester and our accommodation for Wednesday and Thursday night. We made the hotel with no problems, checked in and unpacked we then set off in darkness to set up our tripmeter on the 5-mile calibration route. We spent a good hour doing this getting the trip calibrated to our satisfaction, before we returned to

our hotel for a meal and a pint while looking over the paperwork, quite a bit of which had been sent out the week before, including the test route book with all 33 of them illustrated.

made our way to signing-on where we collected more route information etc.

Then off back to the hotel room, kettle on, and work on the maps for a couple of hours before we were due to set off to MTC1 which was at the Plas Hafod Hotel at Gwernymynydd with us due to leave from the ceremonial start at 17.39.

From here it was straight in to the first darkness regularity, ‘Alyn Valley’.

This went reasonably well but, with over 50 years of rallying between us, we were both still very nervous at the start of an event. Three timing points saw us drop 45 seconds on this one.

The roads were very narrow, with many tricky ‘slots’, and slippy lanes, the timing points usually just after a tricky junction or piece of road to penalise a wrong slot or mistake.

The next regularity was named ‘Clywdian Way’ which had three timing points and a secret check, we lost time here after overshooting a well-known tricky ‘white’ slot, we arrived with all four wheels locked but still dropped 40 seconds into this one.

The third and final regularity of the evening was ‘Flintshire Hills’. Here we were going well, starting to settle down, and dropped just four seconds in the first control followed by a bit of a disaster!

Towards the end there was a 45° left followed by a hairpin right with the final control just before a hairpin left.

Unfortunately there was two hairpin lefts close together, Bob called it

WE crossed the FInish line with all four wheels locked

Thur

sday morning dawned bright and dry and we made our way to the noise test and scrutineering which passed without drama, in fact, Alun Morgan the scrutineer was a lovely chap and remembered the ‘Orangebox’ from first time round in the 1960s! After this we

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We ended up 17th overall and second in Class, 11-seconds behind Lenehan/ Woodman. The successful husband and wife team of Bob and Susan McClean in their fantastic little Anglia Super arrived back very late after getting stuck down a ‘white’ and needing a tow off a tractor to get out. Dinner, a pint and bed followed for us, pondering what Friday would bring and happy we had got the first part under our belt.

horrible weather and the route on an old 1” OS map, Bob was concentrating hard. With six controls it was hard and I just got the Mini round on the going but we had a reasonable run handbrake and we set off looking for other than a quickly rectified wrong the final control, Bob counting down slot, our penalty at the end totalling 1m the seconds, then “this doesn’t look 46 secs. right”, headlights approaching us Next came the third test of the day, turned out to be previous and eventual again in Clocaenog, just over a mile winners Paul Wignall and Mark long, with four chicanes, a code board Appleton who had made the same and very loose surface, which suited mistake! We tiptoed past each other on our tyres better than the circuits! We the narrow lane then I had to find a slot were second fastest in Class here, one to ‘hook’ it round and we raced back, second behind Lenehan. Next came a ay morning was cold aware someone else may have made the fast road run to the fourth test and a and wet and we set same mistake and be heading our way! off north to the Hooton time control at the Glan y Gors Kart The control which was at the second Circuit, where we arrived in heavy Park National Kart Circuit for two tests hairpin was a few yards away but over rain in a now very muddy Mini! With there that consisted of two laps with a sharp crest!! over 30 corners in just over a mile and a three-cone Chicane on the straight quarter on wet tarmac I wasn’t too to keep the average speed down. The Very dark, very muddy confident after the previous Kart Circuit raised ride height along with mud and After this was the ‘Special Test’ which snow tyres really affected us here with early that morning. was on a large farm complex, the Third fastest in Class was better than the tight wet corners creating loads test had to be modified as the farmer it might have been for us, with that of understeer leading to a lowly sixth had been out working all day and we man Lenehan fastest, with another Irish fastest in Class, six seconds behind arrived to find that the test I had spent fastest in Class the McCleans Anglia. crew, the Gaffney’s in a very sweet hours getting ‘right’ in my head had sounding Almond Green 850 equal Second-time round we were third changed! It was raining, very dark and fastest in Class but still six seconds fastest in Class. very muddy, but we had a good run, After this test all 80-odd cars had behind the Class fastest with the keeping it neat and only pushing hard to have a compulsory powerwash, a Anglia and Lenehan’s Cooper setting where I was confident of the grip, and breakout of Larch disease in Clocaenog an equal time. this gave us fastest time in Class, one requiring this. From the time control From here we went onto the second ahead of Lenehan/Woodman. here it was another road section to the first regularity of the day, ‘Halkyn It was then back to the Doubletree by Mountain’ with four controls and this start of the third regularity of the day, Hilton Hotel in Chester for the welcome went quite well with us coming away ‘Ffestiniog’, with just two controls on dinner and the results and starting this section. This went well for us with with 15-seconds dropped. From here it order for Friday morning. It had been was straight into the next regularity the just one second dropped at the first like a half-night road rally rather than a dreaded ‘Clocaenog Forest’. With tarmac control and three at the last. gentle warm up!

Next came a run up on to the and loose gravel, a couple of fords and Trawsfynydd ranges for two fast, loose surface tests, accessed by a deep fast flowing ‘ford’.

We were second fastest in Class on both tests, Lenehan fastest on both of them.

It is worth stating at this point that scoring on the tests was: fastest scoring zero; second fastest three seconds penalty; third fastest five seconds penalty and so on. This encouraged you to try hard as you could be just one second off fastest in your Class, yet be penalised three seconds.

From Trawsfynydd,

Frid

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it was onto the next regularity in Coed y Brenin where we had a very good run, followed by a time control at Cross Foxes in Dolgellau. Straight out from here was a run to ‘Dyfi’ for another regularity. Some amazing roads were used on this leg, with dozens of ‘whites’. Two spring to mind, one a steep muddy downhill white with a 90 left part way down with a massive tree on the outside which got very close as we tobogganed down on the sump guard, and another that seemed to follow the side of a fast flowing river, driving along a muddy ‘yumpy’ track… very narrow in a Mini, how on earth some of the bigger cars got down them beggars belief!

There followed three tests, all either loose or mixed surfaces at different venue’s which gave us fastest in Class on the first two and second on the third before another time control at the Green Inn at Llangedwyn.

including brilliant loose gravel tracks through the woods.

As it is held on private land, controls can be less than the normal two miles apart and this 30-minute section was broken up into one and two minute sections back-to-back.

If you consider that it is dark, the different surfaces mentioned and section length, how about the fact in them 30-minutes there are over 20-manned controls and 107 junctions!!

Just like an early ’60s Welsh Motoring News rally, bloody brilliant!

Fastest crew in here dropped five minutes, we dropped six in the little 997, very proud of that.

Next came probably one of the After this it was a main road to the overnight halt at the Holiday Inn in highlights of the event, Swynnerton Stoke-on-Trent, with the chance to Army Camp. This time control road rally section on private land is fantastic! check the car over. The fan belt was now squealing but more importantly it With every sort of surface possible from tarmac to mud, water, narrow and was pulling to the left and sometimes right when braking. tricky, wide and fast it has everything Lenehan again!

A time control at the Loggerheads Inn preceded the final regularity of the day ‘Staffordshire Lanes’ which saw us with a very poor 39-second penalty at the first control, seven seconds at the third but cleaned the other two!!

it was just like an early ‘ 60s welsh motoring news rally bloody brilliant!

Hail Mary

From the Green Inn it was a run to the 10th test of the day at Oswestry water treatment works. It was by now dark and foggy with a heavy hailstone shower to add variety! I quite enjoyed this test which suited our car and tyres, finishing equal fastest in Class with the Gaffney’s and a full eight seconds up on Lenehan/Woodman.

Next came another test at the Rednal Kart Circuit which saw us starting off on the loose surface to loop back round before entering the Circuit just after the first corner, running round the full lap with the finish a hairpin left to enter the pit lane at the normal exit and finishing in the pit area, two seconds up on Lenehan. From here it was, via a secret check, to the sixth regularity of the day, ‘Bury Walls’. With four controls this went really well with minimum penalties. Then a blast round Market Drayton Cattle Market, where we tied for equal fastest in Class with that man

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frustrated with the section.

We had time to reflect and chat though as the next part of the event was a long drag north up the M6 motorway to the lunch halt at Hoghton Tower near Preston, which took longer than normal because of a closed junction. Traffic was very slow and heavy and we, as were many others, well into our 30 minute penalty free lateness. My mum and dad and daughter had been standing in the rain at Hoghton for a long time waiting for us to arrive, and a wave and a cheer off them lifted my spirits, especially as Oulton Park I was on ‘home turf’ now, on roads I From here was a run to Oulton Park know well. for a time control in the Chequers After a well needed Lancashire Restaurant followed by another test Hotpot lunch we set off east towards held on the rally circuit, with two laps of the first loop then on to the last part an Autotest type test on the outskirts of Longridge run by Knowldale Car Club. through the trees to the finish.

Fastest in Class here by three seconds I didn’t particularly enjoy this test, from the Autotest champion Lenehan, our third in Class on here was about was a good welcome back to my home what I expected. Next came the last area. From here we set off to another regularity of the morning ‘Sink Moss’, regularity, ‘Lancashire Lanes’, and which utilized the wet loose gravel rday morning dawned roads of the Cheshire Showground with the rain was torrential now. I couldn’t believe the force it was coming down damp, but at least many ‘slots’ hidden in the tall hedges with, the roads and fords along here it wasn’t raining and open gates to tempt you into a awash with debris and deep water, yet! Straight off we were back to wrong slot. This ended up being quite it’s grim up north!! It went well for us Swynnerton for three fast tests there, quick with us arriving at one control dropping 17-seconds over four controls, the last of which had a Le Mans type completely sideways with us stopped start for the driver, running to the car.

90-degrees to the direction of the track, and six seconds less than Class leaders Think it is safe to say Stirling Moss was ahem!! This was our worst performance Lenehan/Woodman.

Next was an excellent fast test round better at it than me. Fastest on one of to date, dropping 2m 47secs, both of us At the hotel Bob went off to book in at the control, organise our room and bags of which were ferried round the route in a baggage van, while I worked on the car... in that damn rain again. Fan belt tightened, the ‘pulling’ turned out to be a loose track rod end on the nearside.

Obviously the result of our heavy landing in Swynnerton. I went over the full Suspension etc. with spanners, checked the levels, the only other thing we had was that we had lost the rear hub grease caps. I have never had this, though it seems some people have. The vent hole in the cap gets blocked with mud, the rear brakes get very hot and the caps pop off! A couple of modified aerosol lids packed with grease served as a temporary repair. It had been a very hard day and we were both ready for a wash, meal and a pint! Results showed we were still second in Class to Lenehan but very happy as we had moved up during the day from 17th to 9th overall.

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the tests, second fastest in the other two.

Next was the first regularity of the day - Barthomley, and the sun was out.

This was a tricky route with us crossing and recrossing under the M6 motorway, all on narrow twisty ‘whites’. After a lot of scaremongering about this section, it went really well for us, dropping just five seconds over four controls. Then came ‘Cheshire Plains’ and again this went well with the very minimum of penalties.

Grize Dale reservoir, and it had stopped raining. Myself and Bob know this Water Board property well, but it was the first time I had seen it in daylight as I’m usually charging round here in the dark on night events. We were flying, fastest in Class taking five seconds off Lenehan.

The ‘Caton Moor’ regularity with the long steep twisty ‘white’ over Haylots we both know well, again usually going like dingbats in the dark. Bob’s usual here is “seven crests all FLAT, 70 then 45-right downhill!” Anyway, back to the plot, this went quite well but we were beaten by Lenehan/ Woodman by the tune of five seconds.

From here it was a fast run to the Whoop Hall Hotel at Kirby Lonsdale for a time control and five-minute break.

Michael Anderson from Mini Sport was here making sure we were enjoying ourselves!

Orange submarine

Out from here was a quick blast down the road to the next test run by brothers Dan and Alex Willan of Kirby Lonsdale MC, both very quick ‘night’ event drivers in their Protons. The Orangebox’s original owner Roy Mapple was here watching, it was dark again now and a test I have done before on the Devils Own. We set fastest time in our Class again and third overall, Naaktgeboren fastest in the BDA. ‘Lune Valley’ was the next regularity and as we started this so the rain started to come down heavy again making the roads even more difficult with torrents of water running down the roads almost bringing you to a standstill sometimes, splashing over

the bonnet and roof. An amazing thunderstorm lit the entire horizon and for a second or so you could see the mountains ahead in perfect white light, very spectacular. Again we were on very tricky lanes made more difficult

we refuelled and gave the car another coating of WD40!

From here a run up over on to Shap and another test well known to me, Waters Farm, which I have done as a selective on night rallies and as a

open fIres and Good food seemed a better idea than more driving in the dark and rain because of the weather, but we know all the trick slots and hidden brows and we did this one third overall, and best in our Class beating Lenehan by 14-seconds. These sections finished at Tebay services on the M6, where

test on historic rallies. Starting under a railway bridge uphill into a 45-right with a couple of cattle grids, several crests, a sharp humpback bridge and immediate 90-right into a farmyard with a hairpin left on the way out then a 90-left on to a wide tarmac road crossing the M6 where 75mph is seen just before the finish. It’s a cracker and all in the dark!

Fastest in Class here again, taking 12-seconds off the next in Class and 19 off the best Cooper S. In fact other than Ryan Pickering’s ultra-rapid Triumph TR4 there was only a couple of Escorts and two 911s in front of us. Mind you the Orangebox could probably drive itself over that piece of road.

Next came another brilliant loose surfaced farm ‘white’ road test where we set our fifth-in-a-row fastest in Class time, though Mr Lenehan matched us to the second on this one!

From here it was a run in very wet

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weather to the Appleby Manor Hotel, a very impressive place. The open fires and smell of good food seemed a better idea than going back out into the dark and rain in a Mini that by this time had about an inch of water inside!

From leaving Appleby it was straight up on to the Warcop Army ranges for another time control night rally section, again with controls one and two minutes apart in places. This was on supplied marked maps to a different scale than normal, with lots of the vagaries you get on MOD land.

We had a none-to-smooth start until it all ‘clicked’ and we again enjoyed it with concrete and loose roads, 19 controls in 30-minutes, all as fast the little 997 would go, and I could see - it actually stopped raining here. Coming out from here I was sweating like a

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madman and Bob was freezing with numb fingers… I always need the window open for a bit of fresh air.

The organizers obviously thought we needed some more (not like these modern WRC boys, clock off at 4pm!).

We had some more regularities; three all quite quick because of the nature of the roads, and yes, it was raining again.

The first ‘Pendragon’ went very well, with me in road rally mode until the last control where we lost 40-seconds, but still a decent performance and second in Class again, although without it we would have been third overall on this. Next up was ‘East Lakeland Fells’ and this again went well, best in Class and 19 seconds up on the McCleans Anglia and over a minute on the Class leader.

Final section of the day ‘Mint Valley’ and best in Class again, sixth overall and 12-seconds up on Lenehan. From here it was to a much-welcomed shower, meal and pint at The Old England Hotel at Windermere. Results posted at midnight showed us to have maintained second in Class behind Frank Lenehan and Cath Woodman but we had now moved to eighth overall.

Feeling very tired but happy, looking forward to the last day.

Sund

ay morning dawned bright and a bit blustery, MTC3 out in the morning being situated up the road in another hotel, the Belsfield. From here it was a run south on some very flooded main roads, you come over a brow to find a foot of standing water across the width of the road which made life interesting, but at least the sun was out.

The first regularity of the day was ‘South Lakeland’ and we did excellent, but a 48-second penalty at a control spoilt what was otherwise a really good run for us, considering we finished just nine seconds off the Class leader, a missed opportunity here in hindsight.

We then turned north again for the ‘Killington’ regularity with the last bit through a bit of forest we know well, very steep and loose to start with, climbing to the top then fast downhill to the finish with the bends getting tight to the end. Bob did a cracking job here, third overall, four seconds off the best and 10 seconds better than Frank and Cath. In fact we could easily have beaten everyone here as a slight mix up on seconds had me easing off at the end, the lost seconds costing us a ‘clean’. Ah well!

last regularity of the event, which in reality was just like the night time sections on MOD land, i.e. flat out. With more junctions on the road than on the map, gravel all the way the little Orangebox was sideways, airborne and flat-out all the way, we still dropped two minutes.

Then Bob was muttering about it being “mental in there!” we made our

the access road, then on to the full hillclimb. Fastest in Class on both runs, both times Lenehan was second fastest, with him three seconds slower on the first before both of us going quicker second time, though we pulled four seconds out on the last run.

Then it was a run on busy roads in darkness to the ceremonial finish in Harrogate at the Old Swan Hotel, with photos and interviews. I was quite elated to get to the finish and for a moment or two got quite emotional while waiting to drive under the finish ramp, we had done it!

The black tie dinner was very enjoyable, I never seemed to buy a drink as people just put them in front of me, and we were a merry, happy gang way to a meal and time control at the who staggered off to find our rooms at we and Lenehan were equal fastest in services at Leeming Bar on the A1. the end of the night!

Class, and only four seconds off the Suitably fed and watered we made Final results put us 9th overall and BDA and the fastest car, a 911! What an our way to Tockwith for three more second in Class. Very, very happy with advert for a well-built 997! Next was tests, the first ‘Jacobs Ladder’ had that. The McClean Anglia did amazing another suited to 911 Porsches but we many people scratching their head. We to climb back to third in Class and again had a Class win, three seconds had worked it out, but could we do it although a long way behind us, the last up on Lenehan. We were then off to a car in our Class over five hours behind time control at Brough Castle. By now it quickly? It was a test from the very early days, basically four ‘boxes’ marked us in penalties. I had set out and done was midday and the sun was shining, out by cones, which totalled 13 ‘sides’, what I always wanted to do, and the the afternoon regularities would take you had to cross every one but not little car performed superb, really proud us past the Tan Hill Inn - the highest of the little car. pub in Britain and through the ford that more than once! We did the test with Lenehan watching us and as we came Of course none of this would have used to feature in the opening of the off it he gave me the thumbs up! He been possible without several people, programme ‘All Creatures Great and beat us though! We were third overall Bob for his skills, sense of humour and Small’. on this test. enthusiasm, our wives Suzanne and The first ‘Yorkshire Dales’ had only Another Kart Circuit was next where Hazel for tolerating it all, my parents, two controls and though we dropped Lenehan beat me by four seconds, Jon Wood, Neil Johnson and Chris only a few seconds so it seemed did followed by one and half laps of a Day, and of course all the guys at Mini everyone else, Lenehan/Woodman six proper Race Circuit. This was fun, Sport, without their help it would not less than us. have happened. I want to do it again ‘Downholme’ was very tough with six though Bob started to look worried when we had it on two wheels, now... controls and the best crew dropping bouncing off the one and half minutes. We were over a curbs to straighten minute down on Lenehan here. From the corners! Fastest here it was on for more MOD land, this time Catterick Camp for two super tests. in Class for us here, with 911s at the top of The first one very slippery and quick saw us one second behind Lenehan and the times again.

This was the last the 997 Coopers only two and three part of the event seconds behind the BDA which was and the last couple pipped by a 911! of tests which I had been looking forward Dutch delight to at Harewood Hill Next was a longer one, a cracker with Climb. I had watched cattle grids, several junctions and two virtually the same downhill hairpins most of it on loose stage on more than gravel. We had a storming run, in the one RAC Rally as a top five overall, fastest in Class by six kid, stood with my seconds from Lenehan and one second dad. Run twice, it ran off the BDA, its Dutch owner was round the paddock impressed by the little Orange Mini! area and down Staying on Catterick we started the From here it was on to the first test of the day but this was cancelled as the farmer had locked a gate after the first few cars, so we had a fast run in convoy with half dozen cars back up on to Warcop for four tests. The first one was a very enjoyable one, fast and twisty through a wood, fastest in Class and third overall behind two 911s. The next was very much a power test and

bob started to look worried when we had it on two wheels

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Cunningham takes top points on debut Round 1: Red Kite Stages

Irish Cunningham brothers make their first R.A.C. Rally appearance while King lucks out. www.racrallychamp.org

The

Aldon Automotive Mini and Imp Cup, which runs within the West Wales Rally Spares R.A.C. Rally Championship, got off to a great start on the opening round on the Red Kite Historic Stages (Sunday

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Words & Photos: Paul Lawrence

2 February).

Four Minis and a Hillman Imp was a most encouraging start for the new series, which has the Paddy Hopkirk Trophy as the major end of season award.

The Red Kite lived up to all expectations as crews competed over superb forest stages in the Caio and Crychan complexes. Despite all the pre-event rain, the stages were in excellent condition though heavy rain that returned as the leading crews tackled the deciding 15-mile stage in Crychan

made conditions very challenging.

The big winners were Irish crew Ray Cunningham and Gary McElhinney (Mini Cooper), who took top points in the Mini and Imp Cup and actually won Category 1 (pre ’68 cars) overall. They ended the rally tied with Simon Wallis/Graham Wride (Lotus Cortina) but the Mini crew took the Category on a tie-break by dint of the faster time on the opening stage.

Great start

“The stages were fantastic,” said Cunningham after a tremendous performance. Wallis was quick to give credit to his rival: “I couldn’t have gone any faster on that last stage and Ray pulled back three seconds to leave it level,” said Wallis who had earlier borrowed an intercom battery

Clive King

c o L u m n

Rally King

from the Irish crew.

Ray had to change co-drivers at the last minute as his intended co-driver Ross Forde is a fireman in Galway and his weekend leave was cancelled at 7pm on Friday night due to expected flooding. Fortunately, McElhinney was on stand-by to deputise.

Despite his lack of previous experience on gravel stages, Cunningham set a mighty pace from the start and pulled clear of his Mini rivals on the opening stage. Ray’s elder brother Frank, co-driven by Aaron Forde, led the chase and ended the day second of the Minis. “I’ve absolutely loved it,” said Frank of his return to driving a Mini.

However, even getting to Llandovery for the start of the rally had been a

big challenge for Frank. The US-based Irishman first flew from Florida to Boston and then to Dublin, before driving to Galway. His planned ferry crossing from Dublin to Holyhead on Saturday morning was cancelled with gales forecast, but the Galway Mini Centre team managed to get on the earlier overnight ferry. “It was 29 degrees in Florida and five degrees in Wales,” said Cunningham.

There was no luck for Clive King and Russ Joseph as a failed piston sidelined them on the first run through Crychan, while Paul Kendrick and Anton Bird made the finish, but only after taking a maximum stage time in Crychan after problems with ignition leads. With his own car still being prepared, Paul hired the Mini Cooper of Terry Cree for the event.

Foll

owing the Sunseeker rally in October last year, I thought that for this year I would put the 8-port engine back in. This engine had only done one rally at the end of 2012 but had ran OK so was dropped in untouched.

The first championship round The Red Kite Stages was on the Feb 2, in Mid Wales, again through the forests, my normal co-driver was unavailable so I asked Russell Joseph who normally sits along Eric Davies my main rival, Eric was unable to compete himself so Russell was available.

The event attracted four Minis along a strong 60 historic cars, for an event this early when people are normally still rebuilding their cars was great.

Among the Minis were Frank and Ray Cunningham both very quick guys from Ireand, although Frank lives in America currently, and flys in to compete on each event.

We had the cars checked over at scrutineering the day before, and Russell sat in the car for the first time.

I left the car overnight in the service area and was excited about the following day's motorsport - not only had I got the other Minis to compete against but several Lotus Cortinas and Porches.

We awoke to a dry day, thankfully, and went to the service area to get ready to start the rally. The car burst into life first time and ran great.

Russell arrived and readed himself then it was off to the start line, to be counted

down for the road section to the first stage.

The first stage was a learning curve as I had to get used to Russell reading the pace notes and he had to try and read them at the correct speed, also I had not driven the car since October.

The stage seemed to go OK apart from on the long straights where it wouldn't pull above 7000rpm.

Back in service area we lifted the bonnet to check and could see a lot of oil everywhere which I suspected a broken piston ring. We filled it up with oil, and I took the can with me to top up when needed.

The car seemed to work OK on the road section to the next stage, but on the start line when I dropped the clutch it threw oil everywhere. A mile into the stage with oil all over the windscreen it was time to pull over.

This 8-port engine has been a pain, but when it is working it's impresive putting out 128bhp compared with 100bhp with the 5-port.

Currently I am in the process of putting a 1293cc 5-port back in, but with twin 1.5-inch SUs insted of 1.75 SUs on a very rare Janspeed inlet manifold, in an atempt to improve the power mid-range. I let you know how it goes.

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MASTERS SERIES www.themastersseries.com

MINI MIGLIA AND MINI SE7EN CHALLENGES www.mini7.co.uk

APRIL 4-6 Barcelona, ESP MAY 3-5 Donington, UK MAY 24-25 Brands Hatch GP, UK MAY 26 Brands Hatch Indy, UK JULY 4-6 Brno, CZE JULY 25-27 Silverstone, UK AUGUST 8-10 Nurburgring, GER AUGUST 29-31 Zandvoort, NDL SEPTEMBER 19-21 Spa, BEL OCTOBER 10-12 Jerez, ESP OCTOBER 25 Oulton Park, UK

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CLASSIC TOURING CHAMPIONSHIP www.csccgb.co.uk APRIL 6 Oulton Park MAY 11-12 Rockingham JUNE 29-30 Pembrey AUGUST 3-4 Mallory Park AUGUST 31 - SEPTEMBER 1 Snetterton SEPTEMBER 21-22 Croft OCTOBER 12-13 Silverstone

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is really done. tor edi the Mi ni’s ind ica the fau lt and rem how we diagnosed hed ‘on’ position. here’s single bul b not flas e then we would hav igation Ch eCk beg un our invest the there - checki ng th e fuse 35a mp , socket and bul b. ing wir Up In our case the gr ade your early spec tors, fuse for the ind ica MINI door checkhAs An ythI ng and also the bra ke straps .

by Andy Simpson lights, had blown and Ch Anged? roughly After replacing it icators, recent ly we had s new models get act ivating the ind to the updated wit h ed wn fitt imparovste edreo check stra components you it blew aga in. A blo mig ht find obv iou slyps with later ones. you wan able, and ‘old’ model spr uce ept t youhad ni, acc Mi r is e Remova leof the doo onc e d up wit h some new fus r panel is also req h som erpla too. Here we look bits ying wit blem n uired for pro cha a bee ngi ng door handles is at ice rep tw laci but ng early style doo and front speake e it wa s cas s r g. thi tin rs. iga wires. In hAzA rd that needs invest if see to g s kin tor loo ht worth Obj ectirn Because the ind ica ve Ing LIg d WA ose exp any re use we there Replace earlthi s csw itch in and bra ke llights g y spe You need to remove s flipI pin en we MIN the door checkivated all wires or con nection the same fuse, wh door panel. Holdin e act our a stra ps cas g the with we e late fus r tly. that were cau sing door panel to the rec cor ts ligh tes ted each new item ng fram rni s es re wa are icators fou r T30 Torx scre short. We fou nd the that all ws and some act ivated the ind this establ ished possibleclips. as either WHY were a couple of tor bul bs were and bra ke lights ica d ind ere the cov cau sing Smoother door so the bul bs culprits and duly cou ld have been ng. opewo ting ningrki Usi ng a sma ll flat acti on and -head them wit h insula fau lt. had a the problem. morwe not e attr reacti screwd rive ve at

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blown. For to see if they have Check your fuses wn, which deals blo had e fus top my model, the and brake lights. with the indicators

tOOls s that might about any wiring job inkwdr Thscre T30 Torx iver insulation e Us rt. sho Sma ll flate cau ed sed a havblad es. screwdr iver er any exposed wir cov to e tap Larde flat-bladed screwdr iver Dremel-type tool or dril l with bits time 20 minutes

r, remove the door handle sur rou nd by pry ing it off where the two circles meet, or in the mid dle of the long side of the sur rou nd.

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love:mini is all about getting involved and helping others.

So next time you’re out doing a job on your Mini, why not take some pics along the way and send them in with some simple steps.

And if you really want to show off your skills and knowledge, why not offer something a little more taxing.

Diagnostic Had trouble diagnosing a niggling issue? We will go through the steps of sourcing the problem and how to rectify it with you.

DifficultY 2/10 AlternAtive met HOD N/A cOst About £20 each side

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WORKSHOP Showing you how it is really done.

DIY TECH I

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Objective Fit grille buttons for quick access to the front of the engine.

Tools Philips screwdriver File Drill Drill bit 2x 7/16 (11mm) spanners/sockets Marker pen Grease Tape (electrical or masking)

Fitting grille buttons

by Craig McBeth

Get access to the front of your Mini’s engine - fast!

Q

uick access to your Mini’s engine is very helpful - especially if your classic has as much trouble as ours. You can access the oil filter, distributor, starter motor, radiator bottom bracket

and a host of other essential locations.

As standard the grille is attached to the front panel by a series of screws which can take ages to undo. If you’ve broken down and it’s raining

1.

Time 30 minutes

First you need to check to see if your grille has some pre-drilled holes that you can use to attach it to the bolts you are going to use. If not you will need to drill some.

Difficulty 1/10

(which always seems to be the way) - you’ll want to do the job as quickly as you can.

With some simple-to-fit grille buttons it couldn’t be easier.

Once fitted you’ll see them as such a blessing.

5.

2.

Cost £10

Position your grille and loosly put in a few screws to hold it in place.

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Close the bonnet and adjust the grille until you are happy with its position. It is very important to get this part right as it will affect how your Mini looks at the end.

4.

Using a tool - we used a screwdriver - poke it through the holes in the grille to make marks on the front panel for drilling.

4. love:mini

5.

Remove the grille and use a marker pen to emphasize the drilling spot.

8.

6.

Cover the drill spot with some masking or insulation tape.

This helps prevent the drill bit from slipping.

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Compare your grille button bolts to your drill bits and find the most similar-sized one. Fit the drill bit and drill the two holes marked.

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Remove the tape (if used), and file down the hole to remove any Using two 7/16 (11mm) spanners, swarf. Ideally it would be a good idea tighten the nuts with washers to to add a touch of paint to the hole to secure the bolts in place. help prevent rusting.

Fit your grille on to the Add a smear of grease to the protruding bolts and attach bolts before fitting them through your buttons. Close the grille.... and the holes, facing forwards of the car. pray you got it right.

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10.

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WORKSHOP

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Showing you how it is really done.

DIY TECH iI Objective Washing a vinylcovered Mini.

Tools Neutral-acid car shampoo Sponge Micro-fibre cloth Time 30 minutes

Vinyl cleaning guide

by Jonatan Expósito Martín

A quick guide to keeping your vinylcovered Mini clean and in good condition.

Whatever kind of Mini you have, we all like to keep them in good condition and looking their best - well as good as some can

Difficulty 1/10

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and style, there are some slight tweaks to the usual vinyl-free cleaning routine.

Happy cleaning!

1.

Cost £10-20

3.

look without some welding and a respray.

But for owners who like their cars wrapped for preservation

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Here we are before starting the job.

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It’s important to use our own car shampoo. The perfect choice is a neutral acid type. and a sponge to wash the car.

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As rule of thumb, avoid using brushes from the cleaning station. These can contain residuals that can ruin the vinyl.

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Don’t forget to use a nonwax finish when clearing the shampoo. Just water is needed.

5.

After clearing the shampoo, dry out the car with a soft microfibre towel.

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Our job perfectly done will assure a long life and a good look to the vinyl.

love:mini

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GeT your mini feaTureD Unlike other magazines, we’re not just looking for the shiniest, most perfect Minis.

We want to hear the stories of all types of Minis, from the dilapidated workhorses of the world to your latest creation - and everything inbetween. But most importantly we want to hear about you - the people and your experiences and most heartfelt moments. Those unforgettable occassions in a Mini that made your heart beat a thousand times faster and bring the biggest smile ever to your face.

That’s what love:mini is all about...

email: editor@love-mini.co.uk

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