Monte Mini -The complete story

In January 1994, Monte mania dominated the headlines in the motoring press. The idea that a Mini was again competing in a round of the World Rally Championship, 30 years after its first win, seemed to grab journalist's imaginations.

The Paddy Hopkirk entry was first in and received much of the early coverage. Another Mini was announced from the same camp, and then another appeared.

It was the fourth entry that fascinated the press most though, because they found it so hard to find information about it. E.veryone was talking about 'The Japanese E.ntry', but no one knew who was behind it, or even if it was for 1-eal.

Who was driving it? Was there really a Jumbo Jet load of Japanese arriving next week? What the hell, basically, was going on?

The truth was that there was much background manoeuvering going on, and even though we at Mini Spares were involved from Day One, we were sworn to secrecy because the backing for the project was coming from very high up. Very, very high up indeed.

It all started for us when an old Mini Spares' customer walked in to the shop to renew old acquaintances, and during the conversation, casually enquired of Keith Calver whether he could recommend anyone to build a Group A Mini for the Monte Carlo Rally.

Rob Thornley, it turned out, was a great Mini enthusiast in his youth, and judging from his current enthusiasm, this passion has never really faded. Rob holds a senior position within British Aerospace, parent company of Rover Cars and, with the help of his marketing people, persuaded his employers, and its subsidiary Rover Japan, to finance the Monte Carlo project.

The Japanese fascination with the Mini is of course, legendary, but sales of Minis in Japan are largely influenced by the aftermarket possibilities that are made available - personalised bolt-ons and modifications that the Japanese feel are essential to their enjoyment of the car. (Mini Spares products are seen in Japan as very influential in this respect).

If Rover Japan could build a genuine Monte Carlo rally car AND get a famous name to drive it, they could use all this as a great promotional vehicle around the Rover dealerships and motor clubs in Japan, and give potential customers the ultimate inspiration for buying a new Mini! Rover Japan managed to acquire some sponsorship from Neko (a Japanese publishing company who produce car magazines that feel more like telephone directories), and so the hefty financing of the project was now secured. (Think closer to six, rather than five figures for this).

Back in London, Rob Thornley was firmly pointed in the direction of Tom Seal - subject of our cover story in the last issue of Mini Tech News. Interestingly, Rob had already heard Tom's name cropping up in discussions with other Mini people, and while other names had been mentioned, Tom's was the one that came out on top.

Rover Japan had already been approached by other parties concerning the Monte but decided, after discussions with the trade, that this new route represented the best choice. As Mr Seal is a staunch supporter of Mini Spares products, and indeed has helped develop a great many of them, we were now firmly hooked into the project.

'Back to Monte with Mini Spares', it seemed. The new 1.3i Mini Cooper (L66 LBL) was acquired for the Japan entry on 7th December, and preparation work began in earnest. Group A FlA regulations were now available, incorporating some fascinating new homologation constraints. (The full build up of the car is detailed by Keith Dodd in the next few pages). After much politicing, and with Fax machines just about on the boil, Rover Japan confirmed the official entry on December 20th, supported by Rover Group and British Aerospace.

The Monte Mini was to be driven by Timo Makinen, with his regular co-driver Paul Easter - winners of the 1965 Monte Carlo rally; first past the post in 1966, but disqualified over a lighting infringement. (Timo was reported to be slightly less than chuffed at the time, and this feeling has not diminished over the years).

When the car was completed, Timo turned up with his best suit on, threw it around a slushy airfield for a while (see pies), and declared all to be well.

The countdown to Monte had begun. With Monte fever now on a roll, Mini Spares decided to let it be known that, unknown to anyone, we had already bought our own Mini L408 AUE, on 27th November. It was stripped that week and our intention was to enter this Mini as the second car in the team, so that in the event of an accident or failure of the lead car, we could keep the team flag flying. (which would later prove to be a blessing).

It would be built alongside the Japan entry and share common parts - more back-up for the team. To prove that this was no mere whim on our part, it was back as far as October 1 993 that we were working on special drop gears made to cope with Monte conditions (these helped to make our Mini unique in power terms).

Also in October, we had asked Koni to make some special shocks for the car; Kent Cams were asked to help with a special camshaft design. Special Cobra seats were to follow.

By December 7th, the interior trim of L408 AUE was removed and attempts were made to fit the Safety Devices roll cage, which turned out to be a real pain, but as it had been homologated, it had to be installed. This is the first of many problems keeping the car legal to homologation rules. On December 7th, the Japan car was also stripped of everything and both engines were sent off to C.LS. Engineering.

Tiff Needell's name had entered the frame early on as a possible driver of the Number 2 car. As well as his obvious Top Gear connections, Tiff had proved himself a valuable asset after a brilliant drive in the Historic RAC Rally of the previous year. Mini Spares' name looked very good indeed as Tiff brought home the first Mini in the event. Make no mistake, this man can drive.

There was also a natural connection here because of the Tom Seal(fimo Makinen involvement with the car Tiff drove.

Fruitful discussions had taken place between us and Tiff Needell, and everything looked to be going full steam ahead with the second car. Top Gear cameras were to be installed in BOTH cars. Press Releases were prepared (although rumours were already buzzing around the press). Everyone was on a high.

Then that old devil politics raised its head again, and everyone crashed down to earth with a large thud.

All right, so perhaps we won't have a second car. With the benefit of hindsight, the stumbling blocks leading to the withdrawal of our car could have been put down to pure communication difficulties, but certainly we had the feeling that our efforts were not being appreciated, or indeed reciprocated in certain quarters.

Remember that we had been developing special components for over three months, for the specific purpose of making the Monte Mini viable, as well as competitive.

All at our expense.

This involved hours of research and development, prototypes and stress testing on dozens of key components.

All in all, we reckon that we lost over two month's production of our 5-speed gearbox during this period, because all our efforts were being thrown into the Monte Car.

The Japan entry , with all it's corporate backing and resources, would have been dead in the water without Mini Spares development work, so some sort of recognition would have been appreciated. Politically embarrassing or not.

The next turn of events, however, rendered that line of thinking completely obsolete. With only three days to go before the start of the Monte Carlo Rally, the Japan Mini was stolen from the back of the trailer that was transporting it to the event!

The deed was done in the early hours of the morning of January 19th, on a side street in Hinkley, Leicestershire. The Police were alerted, and rumours were flying around that parts were already being offered on the black market. There were also stories of negotiations with the thieves and desperate pleas for the return of the car. But all to no avail.

Suddenly then, with only 48 hours to spare, there was a desperate need to make use of the Mini Spares car after all.

Remember that only the roll cage had been fitted so far, so in two days of frantic activity between London and the Midlands, that Mini was rebuilt to full Group A FlA livery using parts raided from Mini Spares shelves, together with those cannibalised from the 8-port project car! An amazing achievement.

The next thing we knew, Makinen was off and running in our car, with no reported problems. Meanwhile, the original car had turned up, after an anonymous phone call had revealed its whereabouts. That was on the Saturday, after the rally had already started. Sods law.

When I say most of it had been recovered, there was a sorry list of missing items including engine, gearbox, suspension, brakes, electricals,etc. as well as £8000 worth ofT op Gear cameras. The bodywork had also been dented and the whole car had been generally vandalised. Some of the experimental items were left intact, notably the plastic fuel tank and aircraft style fuel intake. A number of other unique secret items did go missing though, so if you have been offered anything unusual, we would love to hear from you.

Back on the rally, Makinen had started well to be more or less on the pace after stage one. But all the best laid plans, as they say, get screwed up in motorsport, and sure enough, early on stage 2, Makinen was forced to retire with a mysterious fuel problem.

So despite all the heroic efforts of the team, Makinen's spook had returned to haunt him on the Monte Carlo Rally, and everybody was totally deflated.

But when the car returned to England, the fuel problem had disappeared and the car was running as beautifully as ever.

We decided at that point that it was about time we showed our work off properly and so, looking like a million dollars, the fastest prepared Mini in the world embarked on a new career as a media star, beginning with a round of press engagements to demonstrate its real class ...

Graham Austin.