An American in Brighton You may recall in an ancient issue of Mini Tech News, the picture of a strange chap in a hat, caught at a Californian Mini meet. the caption of 'Would you buy a used car from this man?' was particularly cruel, as Donald Racine Esq. is, in fact, the American agent for Mini Spares, with his Mini Mania shops based on the western and eastern seaboards of the United States. Read more
Northern Exposure Mini Spares North, the expanding northern arm of Mini Spares Centre, will be expanding still further before Christmas. After 9 months of operation, we are pleased to report that sales from our northern operation in Harrogate have exceeded all expectations. Manager Neil Booth is seen here, absorbing the finer details of his store's performance, against the local competition. Read more
Serious Rallying Success advertising it's called. Making the most of your victories, no matter how significant, by shouting about them very loudly. The formula Is simple: Get yourself a car that can finish, driven by someone reliabllsh, turn up and win your class, then shout about It from the rooftops. Read more
Wheel of Fortune If there is one aesthetic accessory that commands more debate, confusion, and disappointment it has to be the wheel. Since the inception of the Mini, if any manufacturers have produced a vast array of different designs and' sizes of wheel rim.Many are now defunct, although some of the rims still surface through garage clearouts and the like .. Many of the rims specifically made for the Mini generally fit with no problems, others have been adapted from a rim made for another vehicle. Read more
Archi-Types While we were compiling the arches page for the new Parts and Accessories catalogue (it will happen soon honest), we came across some interesting arch pictures, together with explanations: Bodywork has to be cut away for extra large wheels to be fitted, and wheel arches can also be modified as the fibreglass arches cover large areas.Some of these kits have ended up on road cars (might be illegal) but most are fitted to out and out racers on either space frame bodies or superlight shells. Read more
Mini Spares Centre News Two big rally stories have broken for this issue:- Our man Trevor Godwin's magnificent finish in 1000 Lakes rally (2nd in class, 42nd overall), puts those processional wins in the British Championships into perspective. He was competing against a class field in a seriously tough international event. Good on you Trevor, and Good Luck on the RAC! Read more
The X-pin concept grew out of development work carried out by David Hirons in the mid Eighties to resolve the problem of persistent diff bevel gear and carrier failure on rear wheel drive Ford Escorts and Lotus Cortinas. The torque capacity of the diff could be increased by adding two extra bevel gears.
Read moreThe world famous 5 speed close ratio gearbox design project was engineered for Mini Spares by David Hirons.
Using over 58 extra parts plus extensive machining the 5th gear is technically an overdrive gear 0.882-1 which equates to 3.037 when using 3.44 crown wheel and pinion.
Read moreOver the last few years we have developed this gear kit to be the ultimate for the rod change gearbox! Although there are many advantages to using a straight cut gears, often their disadvantages outweigh the advantages....
Read moreMore and more people are building highly modified Minis, some with engine conversions, others fitting items such as the Mini Spares 8 Port, all these parts can make fitting a speedo cable drastically difficult, and with limited availability of the correct combination of speedometer worm....
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