9 replies to this topic

[Zacherius]

Have spent all my time in the mini driving around A and B roads.

Have been driving around today and went down the by-pass. Flew up to 55 ! ( woohoo ), but ( due to traffic couldn't go any faster anyway) wondered what the Top Speed should be for my mini ???

Doing 55 it had tons of power left ( as kept testing ) but last thing I want is to blow it up, so wondered what I shouldn't go past !

Or, if I fit a Tachometer, where should I put the red line !!

(Its a 998cc Mini HL Auto with Stage One Kit, New and adjusted Needle, and rolling road tuned.)

[Dan]

Most standard 998s top out around 85-95 (whatever the speedo may say and off the public road obviously!) depending on the FD and at that they are screaming. If you keep it up for a long period you will crack a ring (that's a dead certainty by the way). How fast yours is though depends on the FD, off hand I can't say what an HL had in it. I'm sure someone else knows.

[taffy1967]

This is the closest performance figures that I can find right now, but an auto Mini won't be quite so quick off the mark and it's top end performance would be something like 78mph?

[taffy1967]

Most standard 998s top out around 85-95 (whatever the speedo may say and off the public road obviously!) depending on the FD and at that they are screaming. If you keep it up for a long period you will crack a ring (that's a dead certainty by the way). How fast yours is though depends on the FD, off hand I can't say what an HL had in it. I'm sure someone else knows.

Well a manual HL would have had the classic 3.44 final drive. Not sure about the auto Mini though?

When it briefly went over to HLE in 1982 (just before the Mini Mayfair was announced that year), it would have had the 3.1 final drive.

[Dan]

I missed the 'auto' in the question!

[Linzi]

I have a 1981 998cc Mini HL but mine is manual, with no performance mods. I had it on the rolling road to be set up last month and it's top end is 89mph, they said my speedo was very accurate right through which is good to know.

[taffy1967]

I have a 1981 998cc Mini HL but mine is manual, with no performance mods. I had it on the rolling road to be set up last month and it's top end is 89mph, they said my speedo was very accurate right through which is good to know.

Well that is excellent, although when actually driving out on the road, the wind will hold it back a bit so unless your going down hill, it wouldn't be so easy to reach that speed on the flat. Especially as the Mini has all the aerodynamics of a house brick.

[taffy1967]

This is another tech data sheet on the Mini and the 998cc auto is also included, although it's an A+ engine with the 3.1 final drive: -

[Zacherius]

[quote name='taffy1967' date='Jan 10 2009, 08:54 PM' post='1291512']
This is another tech data sheet on the Mini and the 998cc auto is also included, although it's an A+ engine with the 3.1 final drive: -

This at least shows me I can go closer to the 70 mark without "too much" concern for the engine. Yet one thing I will check, is I'm sure its accelleration is quicker !!

[oli8925]

when i test drove a mini city auto it comfortably sat at 60/65mph and can go to 70/75mph. it can probably manage more than that but at pretty uncomfortable engine speeds. in my city manual with stage 1 it got to just past 90 on the speedo (on private land!) but 1. the speedo's was about 10% out, and 2. it was extremely uncomfortable with the engine making such a racket.

but unless your engines out of tune, 60/70 shouldnt be a problem (except possibly mk1's and 2's, no experience of these). just dont expect to get there quickly!