8-Port

The thick deck Cooper S cylinder block was bored to 1358cc.The EN 40B crankshaft was our very special Jaguar(fouring car design, using the largest possible counter weights we could swing in the block,and also having heavy metal inserts fitted to try and achieve optimum balance re.the stoke.The primary gear circlip groove was deleted, to avoid a repetition of the Tiff Needell Charringtons RAC Rally failure of 1993, and a spacer is made to go between the primary gear top hat bush face and the inner face of the flywheel.
These cranks are available to Mini Spares' customers for special order only at £ 1116 each.The conrods are specially selected new 1300 balanced end to end and shot peened.Pistons are Omega dished machined to suit compression ratio etc.
The camshaft is a Kent 296 with slightly different full lift timing figures.Oil pump is Metro Turbo. Flywheel is ultra lightweight steel with a steel backplate and Ceri Metallic clutch. All this was put together by Cliff Humphries and dyno tested to produce t 27 BHP @ 7000 RPM and Maximum Torque 98 ft/lbs @ 6500 RPM. But with the competition running with nearly double the horsepower (240 BHP for the Escorts),some serious chassis sorting was neededto get this Mini on the pace.The others were also running on 5 speed gearboxes against Costa's four - 4 synchro Tran-X straight cut with Tran-X drop gears and L.S.D with 4.5 final drive and Monte driveshafts. Steering geometry was set first.Castor at 3°-Negative camber 2° on the front and 0 ° (neutral) at the rear. Front toe-out 1/16",Rear toe-in l/S". Koni shock absorbers were used all round - the Monte and S-port cars are living proof of how good they can be - and rubber came from Yokahama,
With an- the aforementioned engine work and chassis set up,which was completed on site in Portugal,Rui Costa has developed a large smile,and his trophy cabinet is already starting to fill up.We now have a Portugese convert to the Mini Spares cause,and he is looking forward to the end of season revisions,during which larger carbs are being planned,as well as some different profile cams.A realistic target of 135 BHP is being discussed for next season.
We have a policy at Mini Spares of quoting accurate power figures in all our literature. That is to say using figures gleaned by qualified engineers, properly calibrated equipment.Now this may seem a strange concept to grasp in these days of rampant bullshit, but we decided long ago that Mini Spares' integrity was more important than short term headlines.A certain Portugese gentleman would certainly echo those feelings, and I seem to remember that Tom and I managed to polished off that bottle of Portugese Rose. .