Having now covered 17000 miles in my twinpoint from new it developed bad oil leaks making it a true mini. The rocker cover seals perished along with a diff output shaft seal. The leaks now rectified, Duckhams oil was used to refill the engine.

The leaks now rectified, Duckhams oil was used to refill the engine. I had forgotten how this thicker 20-50 ( old fashioned oil ?) could affect gear changes when cold in winter, but having changed from Castrol 10-40 it was very noticeable until the engine had warmed up sufficiently.

I told Gary the shop manager at Minispares who was about to do an oil change on his Wolseley Hornet which also had Duckhams oil in so he tried a semi synthetic 10-40 oil and was amazed how much better the gear change was and how oil pressure seemed remained the same. I also have Castrol 10-40 in my 1965 Hornet. We shall be trying Millers oil next which was especially developed for cars with dual lubricating requirements (i.e engine and gearbox) as we have just started keeping stock after very good reports on its synthetic oil.

My car must have been built on a Friday car (which is what the trade call a bad car) It lacked the usual power of twinpoints but 3 years ago a stage one kit with a Mintec head and 1.5 rockers restored the balance of power. The car was originally used in the Martini V2 adverts on TV and was re-sprayed silver with a roll cage fitted and many parts taken out for safety reasons, as it had to leap out of the back of a lorry driven by stunt drivers. When purchased it had a shabby interior with bits missing and holes drilled for cameras and roll bar cage which had been taken out. It did however have under 1000 miles on the clock. This had a true low mileage owing to its limited but hard acting life. Problems so far It originally had a tendency to knock out wheel bearings but coincidentally since changing the dampers and tyres now seems fine..

The Earth strap for the engine is positioned on the stabiliser arm and does not always earth out in this location giving the impression of a flat battery (or indeed a flat battery) so and a new one has been bolted from the subframe to the sump as was always fitted on earlier cars. I had to do this modification because the battery kept going flat showing the alternator at fault which was perfectly okay. The gauge always showed discharge or fluctuated but a new earth strap rectified these problems. The upper engine stabiliser bar bushes which often wear out---I have tried all types and what a pain they are to replace with all the extra under bonnet parts fitted.. I am currently working on trying to make an ultimate type from the thermostat that clears all the pipes and hoses etc that are fitted. The original dampers (shocks) were replaced with Kayaba self adjust when the camber and castor angles and all geometry of the car was corrected. These have now been replaced with the new AGX 8 point adjustable type dampers which are really great. The suspension cones were changed at 12,000 miles to the competition type C-STR687 which stop body roll and the comfort ride seems the same but with better handling characteristics. I go over speed bumps to work everyday and do not feel hardly any more stiffness in their performance so I really recommend them..

Poly type lower engine mountings were fitted over a year ago for test purposes and are still intact. Engine movement seems about the same as the originals. Some parts of the 2 piece door seals and the boot lid seal have already needed replacing. Minispares latest type offset lower arm bushes were fitted over 2 years ago and have proven more reliable and better than every other type available that I tried. Some of the pretty coloured bushes just broke up after very few miles causing dangerous outcomes. The car has also suffered from the indicators not working and it is usually the contact points in the lamp body that are faulty and not the bulb, by carefully pulling the contacts up with tweezers you can rectify the problem but they often break, necessitating the fitment of new side lamp assemblies.

I have just had to renew the MOT (Dec 05) on the twinpoint and once again went through the dramas of getting the exhaust (Co2) emission readings good enough to escape failure. A helpful tip in some cases is to take the plugs out and clean thoroughly, then drive the car as many miles and at as high a speed as possible to clear out all the old deposits. When the catalyst is as hot as you can possibly get it, you then need an accommodating MOT station to test the car emissions fairly quickly and usually it just scrapes through..

For the previous years MOT I had the car checked out on a lap top by JPR (0208 447 3782) because the cooling fan stayed on and low speed the engine was not smooth. The lap top indicated that certain sensors needed changing. After changing the sensors the car emissions and drivability did not seem any different but aided with the lap top and cleaning of the plugs and other adjustments JPR managed to get the car well within the prescribed limits required.. This happens to many owners of twinpoints and MOT time is a worry especially as few companies have to hand the Rover diagnostic equipment to communicate with the Rover ECU. The closure of Rover and its dealer network have all increased this problem.