Bare with me you might just like this.

This particular engine was born out of Redline racing in Brighouse and the head came from the skilled hands at Howley racing.

The engine left the machine shop at 04:00 on a Saturday after the builders wedding and just before he flew of on his Honeymoon.

Ps he is still marred.

The first home for this engine was in the front of a hillclimb 1275 GT ish



Then the engine decided to change ends



And them back to the front where it is still positioned.



Oops what was that second car?

The story will continue in the following posts.

I was wandering if you were already on here Nick! Get more pics of the GTM up

Ok let's start the story of the yellow Cox.

But let's step back a little.

At the age of three I sat on my fathers knee and steered his Cooper S up the driveway.
Mum had a Countyman. We also had a Clubman.

My first car was a 1275 GT and others followed, a special and a pick-up and then there was a mini that I kept putting hot engines in.

I had the books (still do) and there was this picture of a GTM. I LIKED IT.

Anyway got fed up putting engines in road cars so decided to go racing. Being a Yorkshireman I was not wanting to spend too much money, and a friend was going hillclimbing so I thought that would be good. Ordered an engine and built the White GT above.

And this is where things went of track. I saw a Red Coupe in town. And got talking to the owner. Sorry it was a long time ago, but Malcom rings a bell and his son raced Lawnmowers. So what part of Yorkshire was this? Holmfirth.

During this time there were tales of kit cars hiding on front gardens and in sheds. This was the earlyish 90s. One car was a Marcos in Honley that had not moved for 10 years but was not for sale. Then via friends who worked for an electronics company in Melthan mentioned that there was a Mini based kit car rusting away behind the works. Sorry I forget both the company and the owners name, but I do remember the chat we had about racing Minis.
He ran a supercharged Mini but with a revered cam. The exhaust ports were used as inlets and the inlets were used as exhaust ports.

Think about it.

Then we moved onto the thing out back. Not for sale. Why am I interested in it. I want to Hillclimb it. Ok make an offer.

I bought it for £80. I wish I had pictures of it when we pulled it out.

I also wish I had taken pictures before I started any work but I did not. But I took some later on.

So what had I bought.

A petrol can had sat on the roof for years. The floors and sills were history, well some of them were there but they were FUBAR.

What to do. Measure, cut out and have some sheet bent up at low cost. As there were no outer sills I just went simple and went straight sided.

The rear pontoons were there but were rusted out and had no strength so I created a frame to replace it taking ideas from later cars.

I was lucky in that it came with a cut down early Mini remote gear housing. But just the two parts and two short rods. I had to work out how and why what was needed.

Windscreen, I heard that the size of screen changed and the ones that were available would not fit. I got hold of a cracked one to check and nope. So took it to a plastics place you cut it out with about an inch extra all around from some scratch resist prolly carbonate.

Opps I am jumping a head here. I also needed a rollcage I also needed a new seat as the one in the GT was way too big.

Seat was simple. I was up st Itallia Motor Sport in my Mini Pick up measuring up a bit of Italian power that would actually fit in the back of a Mini. Yes I was dreaming but it would fit. Anyway they were redoing a car for a customer and a snatched a nice Soarco Carbon/Kevlar seat of them for £35.

Rollcage was going to be fun. And it was.

Enough words for now.

I think this is the most wordy post I have ever made on any forum. Pics soon.

I have a few I still need to scan but yes.

Ok some pictures after some metal work had been done.

Fiberglass just resting on there. And us as it was when I collected it.

Just a note about the above.
The wheels are just filling holes they are not attached to anything.

Sorry no pictures of the tub as it was until after the cage was fitted.

Points to note. The door hinge support is as it was. And there is no metal between the pontoons.

Original metal. Tunnel front and rear bulkheads and most of the metal forward of the front bulkhead.



The cage. I know for sure where most of it came from. What I forget is the main hoop. But it does look like GTM hoop. The rest came from a Toyota Celica.

A fair bit of history there
John

So while I was getting the car together I was contacted by a new Publication for the classic mini as they had heard I was involved with an event at York Raceway.
The first Mini Versus Bettle shoot out. Only one picture of it there. The front end profile can be seen. But it was after a few runs I decided that I needed some down force as it got so loose at speed.

So here are some pictures as I was thinking how to and what would work.







And yes I had a radiator in the front.

There was actually a spoiler made that self disintegrated as it was not rigid enough.

The polycarbonate flexed too much and hit the track.

Anyway my solution cane about with little time before the next event



Image taken from this video.

https://youtu.be/uDNmBfs6FvQ

See the wheels on the Metro yep needed more grip.
The metro was another car I was looking after.

So that was the next and final changes I made.




Never spun it on that corner again

Took it to one of the MniClub Black track events.



At the end of that season I decided to sell it on. So it went without power unit but with 3 sets of 10" wheels

It is still racing and here is the latest image of it I have.

Thanks nick for posting, some really nice pictures there.

As I briefly mentioned on the phone, the owner, is a member of this forum, and with a little bit of luck, I'm hoping some of us may see it next year.

Bundled it all up, didn't hit anything, entertained the crowd -- what's not to like?

Much better than the embarrassing chap in the Mk2 Escort!

Is that Harewood Hill and when was the video taken?

Steve

Yes Harewood and would have been 96 as I only ran it for that year.