Just a quick message to you all to say Hi.

I've just acquired Matty H's yellow Libra having missed out on a couple of others further afield.

Being based in Lincoln I think it was about the closest Libra I could find, with the very notable exception of the one being rebuilt in Lincoln !!

I've been a long time admirer of GTM from the Coupe and Rossa days to actually now join as a Libra owner feels very satisfying.

No doubt I'll be asking lots of silly questions as I get stuck into things, but hope you'll accommodate my noobish-ness !!

And many thanks to Matthew for both keeping the car so well for such a long period of ownership, and for letting me buy the car from him.

Phil.

Hi Phil and welcome.
No such thing as a daft question so ask away. There probably aren't many things that haven't come up previously so Someone will advise on whatever you come across. I hope you enjoy your Libra, although you do know the yellow ones aren't as quick as the red ones

Hi Phil welcome you have a nice car there l was looking at it just could not get the wife to agree

sanzomat It whent to quick for me

Welcome........and congratulations on buying a Libra in the correct colour

Phil welcome to the yellow side
Ian

Welcome Phil, its nice to have a running Libra back in Lincoln. Hope you will be able to join us at
the East Midland Meet at Newark when we get rid if this Corvid virus.

Coming from an A-series (the more observant of you might have worked that out from my pseudonym) rather than a K-series background it is well known in Classic Mini circles that a red engine is worth +5bhp compared to any other colour, so a Red Libra must be worth at least +25bhp over any other colour

TBH I wasn't all that concerned about the colour, I was speaking to the gentleman in Kent about the Red Libra converted from Auto to Manual, but Kent is a long way from Lincoln !!

Just getting to grips with a few immediate issues, like water leaking into the cabin and a very heavy clutch, but I think I've got a solution to that.

Thank you all for the welcome, and to Don if we are allowed to meet sometime after the lockdown then Newark is but a quick sprint down the A46 so it's a possibility for sure.

Again thanks all.

Phil.

Hi Phil and welcome to the GTM nutcase owners forum, I have to disagree about yellow cars being slower than red ones,
Back in the day when I had my road going Yellow Cox with 1425 S engine and running gear, I had the chance to have in my class at a Curbro' sprint a share driven red Coupe, that arrived with mechanics on the back of a breakdown tilt bed truck, they were very stand offish and did not talk to me, but went away at the end of day still not talking, but around 3 sec slower than my pace around the track,
Oh and my Jedi has yellow front springs and rear wing, which do not appear to make it slower (or faster??)
John

Thanks for the welcome John.

A 1425cc A-series would be a pretty special beast for sure, Offset bore and offset ground crank I'm guessing ?? As you know it's Torque which gets you from A to B and Horsepower which determines maximum speed, but in Hill and Sprints, I'll take a torque monster engine over a high power one any day.

As for a Jedi, I would say no matter what colour any part of it is or what power unit is fitted, the biggest problem would be traction ??

Phil.

Not sure who the quote is from but I recall someone once wisely saying "horsepower sells engines, torque wins races".

Sounds like a Carol Shelby quote

Hi Phil,
My old 1425 Cox was built back in the day before all the specialist pistons became available, so it was standard stroke with 2.5 PI Triumph pistons, worked well, though I had been told I could blow a head gasket from time to time so always carried a spare gasket and a torque wrench which cured the problem as it never happened,
Torque verses HP was described to me as; HP determines how fast you hit the trees, torque determines how far you go into the trees.
Jedi wheel spin-when I used a ZZr1095 Kawasaki (very wide band and high torque) but tall and a bit heavy, I used to get inside wheel spin exiting high speed corners, I fitted a rear anti roll bar that helped, later I fitted a Quaife Mini diff that cured it, I now run a much more powerful ZX10r engine, narrow power band, similar torque without roll bar, traction is good with 250 section super soft Pirelli slicks on the back, leave the start line @9000rpm in 2nd gear most places.
John

I think the version I heard was " Oversteer is when you hit the wall with the back of the car, Understeer is when you hit the wall with the front of the car, Horsepower is how fast you hit the wall, and Torque is how far you take the wall with you".

Walter Rohrl said "When you see the tree you're about to hit it's called Understeer, when you can only hear it and feel it is Oversteer."

The other Rohrl quote I like is "A car is just fast enough when you stand in front of it in the morning and are afraid to unlock it."


Ahhh yes that was a well-known path in period but a very big overbore. I've heard of Hillman Imp pistons being used as well. When I had my 1380 I also had many people tell me it would "eat head gaskets", and it really didn't. That engine wasn't all that high powered but it went well enough. My current engine is only 1293 but a better cam and higher compression - it's trackday spec and drivable on the road so nothing too aggressive. About 85bhp at the wheels, which is nice in a stripped and caged Mini - I can drive to the track, do the trackday, then (hopefully !!) drive it home again.

The Jedi sounds like lots of fun. I know someone who built a Z-Cars Mini with an R1 engine in it, he said it was ridiculous to drive on the road but incredible on the track.

Phil.

Hi Phil,
The imp pistons were used in 1000/1100 blocks I had one with 998 imp pistons in an 1100 block, Minnow Fish carb out to 1165cc,
It broke a crank in Milan and Luigi in the garage who put the bits back together screwed up, I suspect left the thrust bearings out, had a nightmare journey back, replaced with a 1071S,
As S engine were rare, we built all sorts of odd ball engines until the 1275 came along to make life easier.
Here in Kano I have a 1400 with Omega pistons in the coupe and another 1380 with Hepolite pistons in the front of what was my Twinni Mini bush race car, I'm guessing the 1400 puts out around 110 at the wheels but no dyno here, its blast up a straight road, pull the plugs to check colour, rejet 45DCOE and try again
I have a Tee shirt with the oversteer and underseer explanation, only its face and ass hits the wall .
John