6 replies to this topic

[matt large]

Hi all,
Been thinking about starting a thread for a while now but just not had the opportunity to until now as the wife's gone back to work and i have the evening to myself.

I'm in the progress of building a national autograss class 5 mini with an 8 valve twin kam motor.

The project has been fairly long winded so ill run from the beginning and hopefully have the opportunity to keep it updated as i progress.

 L165.jpg   63.49K   14 downloads

I started out racing with an all steel Morspeed 1380 motor, i know some have had their issues but i have never had any what so ever with my engines,

this was one of the very first Simon built as Morspeed were setting up, engine consisted of steel crank and rods, omega forged 73.5mm pistons, fully developed cylinder head, 1.5 rockers, weber 45 on 7 inch maniflow manifold, straight cut box, salsbury lsd 4.3 cwp, ultra lightweight flywheel and backplate. On Hitec Motorsports rolling road we had 121 BHP at the wheels. i had a fair bit of success at club level competing with mainly rwd cars my love for fwd just made me push even harder.

The original shell the engine was in was fairly heavy so in 2007 i decided i was going to build another car that would be a lot lighter and better handling, just at this time the twin kam engine was being publisized again and Simon was keen for us to put one in the new shell.

Having had good success with the 5 port i decided that the twin kam would give that little bit extra coupled with the lighter shell,

Starting with a bare shell i sent it away to have a 1" box section roll cage fitted, quite commonly used in national autgrass and fully within regulations. The rear end of the car is fully space framed with fully adjustable rose jointed rear trailing arms with protec single adjustable coilovers for now.

Now between starting the build and now ive had a fairly busy period, i went to uni and studied motorsport and automotive technology, ive moved house, got married and to top it off had a baby, all of these things have meant the project has been very slow going.

Whenever i have had the spare time i have managed to do a little hear and there,

 part build.jpg   75.64K   11 downloads

the front subframe consists of adjustable hi lo's, spax adjustable front shocks, rose jointed adjustable bottom arms, adjustable tie bars, subframe modified to allow steering rack to be removed without having to remove entire frame,

the shell has now been painted, opted for white with pink and blue accessories to stand out,
 painted shell.jpg   57.54K   21 downloads  painted shell 2.jpg   86.25K   10 downloads

the shell is now at a stage where it is being built up and is now fully rolling, brakes are all plumbed in with new master cylinder, braided hoses throughout, standard 8.4 calipers with drilled disc's,

 2012-05-12 08.17.35.jpg   48.02K   18 downloads

two weeks ago we were finally at a stage to fit the engine, spec as follows:

1420 twin kam

wedged and bladed long stroke crank, omega pistons modified for twin kam conversion, ultra light steel flywheel and backplate, same straight cut box as previous engine with 4.3 cwp, 8 valve k1100 cylinder head with Morspeed conversion kit, all fed by twn 40 webers on short manifold, Specialist components stainless exhaust manifold.

 2012-08-18 13.02.56.jpg   64.9K   53 downloads  2012-08-18 13.03.22.jpg   63.47K   64 downloads

now not the obvious choice to go with webers but at the time i didnt hav ethe funds to go injected with dta or megajolt so used the webers i had with aldon dizzy, this may have to do to get the car up and running but definately looking at alternatives such as the new aldon amethyst or mega jolt or even mega spuirt with injection,

all in all this is about as far as i am, hoping to pick up remaining few bits this weekend at stanford, new rad, hoses, slave cylinder,

im hoping to have car finished in next few weeks then off to the rollers, either Hitec motorsport or Aldon Automotive,

when i have a few more pics from the build ill get posted and also any updates, but thanks for looking for now,

cheers matt

Attached Files

•  2012-05-12 08.17.15.jpg   61.69K   24 downloads

[Artful Dodger]

Love it! That's going to be a stonker of a mini!!!
Carbs should be ok for up to 150 brake so injection isn't really necessary:P

[Clubbed_76]

Very keen to see more of this build, keep the pics coming, I need all the inspiration I can get

[spaceframemini]

Looks very nice would love to do autograss one day top work

[aldonauto]

Thanks for you interest in The Aldon Amethyst. Our dedicated webpage has gone live today. Hoping units will be available mid to late November.

[jonny f]

Very nice build!

Shame to take that clean engine on the grass track

[mini13]

whats the spec of the head?

I ask cause if its std you wont make any more peak than your old lump ( unless hiteks rollers read high)

chap round the corner has an 8v bimmer head on a 1380 makes, 110-112, ok you'll pick up a bit from an exhaust and the extra cc, but he's on injection which dosent have the curvey manifold.