November 2013 the call came through from Goodwood “we are putting on a Group 1 touring car race, we need a Mini, can you create one?.......oh by the way the race is in March!”
It was decided to build the 1978/79 British touring car championship winning Richard Longman 1275GT. The original car still exists remaining just as Richard stepped out of it in 79 and would be sacrilege to rebuild the car to modern day race standards. Leave this beauty as is!
The race was on......Fortunately we had a complete 1275 GT road car in stock stored down at Glyn’s farm so he set about stripping it down and getting it off to the Body prep shop. First impressions were the shell was in great shape having been dry stored for around 10 years but someone had been there before us! Blasting then revealed some previous dodgy repairs that had been well coved by filler. New floors, door shuts, inner & outer A panels, wings, front-end amongst some other panels were required.
A phone call was put through to Keith “God” Dodd at our old friends Minispares and the new “Heritage” panels were on their way. The “Tin” work was pushed through quickly to the exacting standard we’ve come to expect of our pre-66 cars. The shell was collected 10 days before Christmas bang on target!
Once back to our workshop the Minispares 2.2 turn rack was fitted with the original column and a dummy seat shell from Corbeau along with our Swiftune steering wheel boss and with my preferred Sparco wheel a comfortable seating position was determined. The steel seat frame could then be fabricated and welded into the floor. Leaving the dummy seat located, a shoulder seat belt bar can be fixed into the new cage for maximum safety at the correct height. The very next day the shell was delivered to Richard Wager who instigated the Roll cage through Chris Ludlow who made a fantastic job of the simple 6 point weld in design. Chris pulled out all the stops and had the job done before Christmas day!
After Christmas the shell was then back to us and a “dry build” was under taken. Fitting complete front and rear subframes, dummy engine, tank, battery and exhaust system so all the necessary holes, brackets, cutting, trimming and tweaking can be done before any paint goes on the car. The shell stripped back down again and ready to be delivered to the paint shop by mid January. Off to Altered Image coachworks for the final prep and paint. The colour was matched from an original door off an earlier Patrick motorsport Longman GT loaned to us from Dave Boswell. I have to say Duncan did us proud with his attention to detail and super fast turnaround to produce a superb finish. We had the shell back in not much more than a week!
While the shell was away it was now time to final prep the subframes/running gear then powder coat. Minispares supplied all the parts we needed to build the drive train, adjustable suspension and braking system. A speedy build is now in order so having compatible and quality components is a must!
Behind the scene the engine shop was being equally stretched to fit in the powerplant into an already hectic schedule. A spec had been decided on once Goodwood released the rules. Crankshaft was free although stroke must remain as standard so the spectacular DC5-2 package was chosen. The 310SP camshaft to suit the fast flowing nature of this historic circuit was also chosen. We created the iconic split Webbers to represent the period. All the Quaife transmission components were Super finished for any friction advantage. Dyno results proved it to be an absolute “Stonker”!! Dressed up with all its ancillaries and running a 2 core rad along with auxiliary cooler she was ready to fit.
In a 4 week period the shell was transformed into a virtually complete race car by the team at Swiftune, Phil especially put his heart and soul into building this magnificent race car in time including making a bespoke wiring loom!
Original dash and door trims remain for that cool GP1 feel and even a copy of the Longman rev counter pod mounted on the dash.
For the finishing touches......Gp1 Minispares arches fitted neatly shrouding the wheels. Justyn at Jellyfish designs painstakingly re-created the Patrick Motorsport livery in vinyl. The end result is an absolute copy of the original sign written paintwork. Well done Justyn..... Stunning work!!
The first test at Goodwood on 6th March was such a sweet moment to drive her for the first time. Frans our Koni “guru” had come over to set-up the bespoke dampers he had created for the GT, the difference was staggering to feel only small adjustments! Bill Sollis was even on hand to put his years of experience in to the set-up. Throughout the whole day the car ran faultlessly. There was however one problem....the tyres! We had scoured the world to find the original GKN Silverstone 12” wheels but the only tyres Goodwood allowed in the race were Dunlop so the only choice is the CR65 L rubber. The same as we have to use in 10” for the “65” car. The end result was some pretty wild slides as the tyre struggled to keep grip with its very tall side wall, hard compound and tread movement at the higher corner entry speeds. An hour spent in the Goodwood office confirmed we needed to find and alternative tyre for the race based on safety grounds. Dunlop had pushed forward the use of the “post-historic” race tyre but that was only available in 13”. It was agreed that we could now change the size to 13” but the Dunlop was way too wide. We had to be quick as we were testing again the following week. Again Minispares leapt to the challenge and organised for Minilite to send 13” wheels to Swiftune and amazingly tracked down 4 off A048R Yokohama soft compound tyres and had them overnight delivered direct to us. To run alongside these we had Avon “all weather” dread tyres to try. Back to Goodwood for the 2nd test. Both tyres offered a much more stable ride and proved to be half a second quicker than the CR65 but the powers that be deemed the 048 tread pattern to be too modern so final choice is the Avon.
Again the car ran beautifully and turned many a head with its good looks!
Members Meeting race Weekend is the 29th/30th March and as much as I would love to say we stand a chance of winning the reality is hopefully a top 10 finish overall against the super fast 3.0 Capri’s, Rover SDI, RX7’s and Camero’s......but we’ll be giving them everything she’s got!!
Thanks again to Keith, Justin, Alex and all at Minispares for their valued support.
Nick.
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