Tag Archives: Mini

£24 Complete Including Packing – Mini Ridgeway Sports Conversion

Soon after starting Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the sleepy little town of Farnham in Surrey close to where I went to school once had a budding motor industry, first by finding out about the Abbots of Farnham Coachworks which amongst other things was responsible for a Fraser Nash BMW body, the bodies of several Bristol’s and several Ford’s, then I found out about the cute little 2 cylinder Carden.

Today’s story began a couple of weeks ago when I was looking at a facebook page called I Love Farnham Surrey where I stumbled across today’s photo’s of a 1979 gathering of Mini’s in Farnham’s central car park posted by Stephen White.

I did not notice anything particularly special about the car park behind the bank where I opened my first bank account until the Mini with the special nose caught my attention. It turns out to be a Ridgeway Sports Conversion a £24 fiber glass kit that was marketed by the Ridgeway Rd, Garage in Farnham.

The garage was owned by a Mr Lawrence who’s son Richard had such a nose on his own Mini as did his Uncle who raced his Ridgeway converted Mini at Eelmor Plain near the Army Training Grounds just outside Aldershot.

Stephen tells me the meeting was arranged so that he and his friends could go to Donington Park in convoy to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Mini.

I’d like to thank Stephen White for kindly allowing me to use his photo’s and Colin Cole for identifying the Ridgeway Conversion.

Thanks for joining me on this £24 Including Packing edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now.

Supercharged Map Reading – BPMC Navigation Exercise

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At long last the 2012 motor sport season has got under way, though not in quite the way I have ever experienced ever before. A couple of weeks ago I was informed that Bristol Pegasus Motor Club (BPMC) Membership Secretary Bob Bull was looking for a navigator to take part in the January BPMC Navigation exercise. I got in touch with Bob and he kindly agreed to take me along on Friday despite the fact that I have not read an Ordnance Survey map in something approximating 4 decades, since being introduced to the modern talking route finder a couple of years ago I have rarely had use for any kind of map at all !

This event was organised on three levels Beginners which included Bob and I, Novices for those competent at reading maps who were given an additional false origin exercise, a tulip reading exercise, a map feature reading exercise and herringbone reading exercise. Finally for the Experts there were map reading, false origin, tulip not in the correct order, map feature an a herringbone exercise. I’ll come back to the more difficult exercises in a future blog.

Photo Courtesy Dick Craddy

Bob kindly came and picked me up on Friday night in his ‘daughters Mini Cooper S’ a tidy supercharged model that would be ranged against the Mazda 6 of BPMC Chairman Andy Moss with co driver Chris Goodchild (above) ,

Photo Courtesy Dick Craddy

the Peugeot 106 Rallye of Chris Thompson and Alan Dillamore …

and the Ford Fiesta driven by Martyn with his teenage daughter Katie Davies doing the co driving. We all met with the event organiser Dick Craddy at map reference 494 943 on O/S Map 162 for a 19:30 start.

Bob and I arrived at the lay-by nice and early and wondered if we might try navigating by stars on what was a clear and dark night on the Welsh Boarder.

Once everyone had arrived and signed on Dick went through some basics about not using anything other than normal driving lights, observing the highway code at all times and he warned us that the local constabulary had been informed of our presence and that we should expect to see them at anytime, before handing us our instructions. In our case a list of fifty 6,7 and 8 figure map references with questions about features we could expect to find when we reached them.

Photo Courtesy Dick Craddy

Before setting off we plotted the map references and after the first dozen I realised I had forgotten to label them so we had to start again, nothing like starting at the bottom of the learning ladder. After what must have been nearly an hour I had about half the references plotted and Bob put the Supercharged Mini in gear and off we set towards our first map reference a junction in Mynydd-bach where we had to find out how many miles the sign post to Brynbuga read before heading in the opposite direction towards Shirenewton !

So far so good but then things soon started to get complicated, somewhere between reading the map and looking for clues as to where we actually were I missed a junction and we found our selves on a single lane track facing Chris Thompson coming from the opposite direction ! Chris kindly backed up to let us pass, somehow, it still escapes me how, we managed to do a figure of 8 and ended up back in Shirenewton. Doh ! we retraced our steps and found the junction we missed, found the correct answers to the questions and headed on toward Llanvair Discoed and found the answers to around a dozen questions before deciding to call it a day and heading to the final meeting place a pub next to Tintern Abbey. Note to self not all pubs are marked on an Ordnance Survey Map as PH (Public House) or Inn.

Needless to say we did not do very well coming in well and truly last, but Bob kindly offered to redo the exercise with me in a couple of weeks. They say practice makes perfect so if all goes well we will be back for crack at the next Navigation event a little the wiser.

If you live in the Bristol area and fancy having a go at this entertaining low cost sport why not check out the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club site join the club for just £10 and give it a go. The next BPMC organised Navigation Exercise is on March 16th.

Congratulations to Andy and Chris who easily won even with a deduction for being previous winners !

My thanks to Bob for his patience and taking me along, Dick for organising the event and providing some of the photo’s for today’s blog.

Thanks for joining me on this Supercharged Map Reading Edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Rare Mini Variation – Ogle SX1000

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After serving as a decorated and honoured Supermarine Seafire pilot in the Second World War David Ogle DSC MBE attended the Central School of Art to study Industrial Design.

On completion of his studies he worked for Murphy Radio and later Bush Radio where he was credited with the design of the TR82 transistor radio.

In 1954 David founded his own industrial design studio which has been credited with the design of all manor of wheeled transport from Chopper Bicycles (1970), through the Reliant Scimitar, to award wining truck cabs for Leyland Road Train vehicles.

In 1959 Ogle design started building the first of three series of glass fibre bodied cars the 1.5 built on a Riley Chassis with a BMC (British Motor Corporation) motor of which eight were built.

In 1962 Ogle launched the SX1000, as seen here at Goodwood, initially a conversion built around a customer supplied Mini and later built around Ogle acquired Mini’s.

It is thought 66 of these vehicles were built with the last one leaving the factory in 1964. The slippery Coupé was capable of 110 mph when fitted with a top of the range Mini Cooper S engine.

After David Ogle died driving an SX1000 on the way to Brands Hatch and car production at Ogle had been wound up the SX1000 body moulds were sold to a boat builder in the Midlands who exhibited his self named Fletcher GT at the Racing Car Show in 1967.

Today with only 26 of the original SX1000’s thought to have survived Nostalgia Cars in Taunton Somerset produce identical replica SX1275 models as kits for Mini enthusiasts.

Thanks for joining me on todays SX1000 edition of ‘Gettin a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Goodwood Revival #7 Jaguar Foxbat

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In the last of this series of blogs about the Goodwood Revival, today we are looking at a unique Jaguar XK150.

The XK150 was launched in 1957, updating the XK140 with a one piece windscreen, higher wing line over thinner doors and wider bonnet.

The XK150 was powered by the same 3.4 litre double overhead cam iron block straight 6 motor which was available with a standard 180 hp or with an SE spec 210 hp featuring a modified cylinder head.

Initially the XK150 was slower than the XK140 until the introduction of a 250 hp ‘S’ motor featuring triple carburetors and straight ported cylinder head.

Legend has it that this 1959 car belonged to an industrial chemist in Swindon called Geoffrey Stevens in the mid 1970’s. Mr & Mrs Stevens wanted a car that could carry their two Labradors.

Over a period of two years from 1975 to 1977 Mr Stevens set about restoring his rusty XK150 and grafting the back of a Morris Minor Traveller onto the back of his car turning it into a shooting break, with enough space to carry his dogs.

The rear lights come from a Mini Traveller, apparently the badges on the boot were hand cut by my Stevens.

The Foxbat came up for auction at Goodwood with an estimated value of £30,000 – £35,000, surprisingly it did not find a buyer.

Thanks for joining me on this Foxbat edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me tomorrow when I’ll be looking at some of the vehicles that took part in last weekends Palos Verdes Concours, if you think you know your motorcars you might be surprised at some of these most of which I had not heard of until Geoffrey Horton sent me his photo’s. Don’t forget to come back now !

More Mini Fun – ABS Freestyle

The Real McCoy – Mini Cooper S

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Mini Cooper S, Prodrive

The 1964 Monte Carlo Rally boasted a superb entry including factory backed vehicles from Citroen, Ford, Mercedes, Saab, Volvo, Volkswagen and a fleet of 6 works Mini Coopers.

Starting from Athens, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Lisbon, Minsk, Monte Carlo, Oslo, Paris and Warsaw, the field converged on Rheims in France and from there on to 5 competitive stages and a couple of laps of the Monaco Grand Prix track.

The Ford Falcon Sprint of Bo Ljungfeldt won every stage of the rally including the laps around Monaco but in those days the overall results were determined by a handicapping system which translated stage times and engine size into points which meant Ljungfelds 305 hp 4.7 litre 289 cui Falcon did not have a sufficient time margin over the 70hp 1071cc / 65 cui Mini Cooper S seen here crewed by Paddy Hopkirk and Henry Liddon which was declared the winner of the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally.

33 EJB is thought to have been built in 1963 and crewed by Hopkirk and Liddon to 3rd overall and 3rd in class in the 1963 Tour de France prior to winning the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally.

The car belongs to the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon and is seen here at the Prodrive workshops because the engine was not running properly.

Like the Revenge Mini Replica I blogged about some months ago 33 EJB also has it’s Replica’s like this one built in the USA.

Finally I’d like to correct an oft repeated error reference the registrations of the works Mini’s on the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally seen in the 5th paragraph of this link.

What ever BMW or anyone else may say the registrations of the works Minis on the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964 were as follows :-

33 EJB #37, Hopkirk/Liddon, Cooper S, 1st overall/1st in class.
570 FMO #182 Makinen/Vanson, Cooper S 4th overall/2nd in class
569 FMO #105 Aaltonen/Ambrose, Cooper S 7th overall/3rd in class
477 BBL #39 Baxter/McMillan, Cooper 43rd overall/2nd in class.
18 CRX #187 Thompson/Heys, Cooper S crashed
277 EBL#189 Mayman/Domleo, Cooper S crashed

My thanks to Alan, Tim, Stephen, Darren, Fred at The Nostalgia Forum who helped me out with the registration numbers.

Hope you have enjoyed to days Handicap edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Top Class Mini Racer – MINI Cooper S R56

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When I first started spectating at motor races Mini’s were a feature at many meetings including the very first meeting I went to where my Mum’s boss George Barkhuizen won the days feature handicap race in a beige Mini with a white roof and a fuel barrel hanging out of the boot thanks to a recalcitrant boot lock out in Zambia. Mini’s were also raced in Britain in spec championships including the 850’s seen here at Silverstone usually producing tight racing and close finishes.

1977 World Grand Prix Drivers Champion James Hunt prepared and raced his own Mini when he first got the bug using extreme weight saving measures such as not fitting windscreen wipers. Today spec racing Mini’s like David Kirkpatrick’s seen at a track day here are very much alive and kicking despite having been out of production since 2000 as indeed are many non spec Mini’s with all sort of non standard Mini power units.

On Sunday at the PistonHeads meeting in Cowley I had the opportunity to familiarise myself with the latest in retro MINI spec racing with this MINI Cooper S R56 prepared by OX4 Racing for Chris Oakham who races in the top tier JCW Class of the MINI Challenge.

This spec racer is of course light years ahead of an original spec racing Mini, the JCW division calls for turbocharged 215 hp motors up from the standard R56 192 hp thanks to upgraded induction, exhaust, Electronic Control Unit (ECU) and race spec intercooler.

To help keep the wheels on the road and all that power in check these vehicles are fitted with KW suspension, limited slip differential and 6 (six) piston front brake callipers.

17″ control racing tyres, slicks or wets, are mounted on Dynamic rims.

Too make sure every one plays fair the Mini Challenge has dedicated championship scales, enforced ‘parc ferme’ rules control fuel, limits on the number of tyres used and to keep the driving standards up each vehicle has an on board camera allowing officials to a valuable source of evidence should things appear to get out of hand !

To complete the purpose bred racer look the JCW Class vehicles have an aero package to play around with too !

On the Lo ‘E’ Nuf Vee Dub Club site Chris Oakham the driver of the #51 Mini Cooper S R56 is known for lashing up Mini’s and ripping up cats’ eyes with his Passat in between his racing activities. Chris took the #51 to victory lane at Snetterton and finished 6th in the JCW Class rankings last year, it is still unclear what his plans are for this year but I’m sure you will all join me in wishing him every success.

Any one wishing to join in the fun here is a link to the Mini Challenge prospectus. There was a MINI Challenge try out day at Brands Hatch on Saturday 29th January which included trials for novices, those keen to continue could gain medical certification and attend Approved Racing Drivers School courses the same day in order to qualify for racing licences.

If you missed the boat and are interested in taking part you could try sending an e-mail to the address on the Mini Challenge home page, they seem particularly encouraging to fresh recruits. Wishing all competitors a fun and safe championship.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s recruiting office edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you will all join me again tomorrow for a look at one of my favourite BMW’s. Don’t forget to come back now !

Gettin' A Li'l Psycho On Tyres

Art Tidesco blogs on all things motoring

Tag Archives: Mini

£24 Complete Including Packing – Mini Ridgeway Sports Conversion

Supercharged Map Reading – BPMC Navigation Exercise

Rare Mini Variation – Ogle SX1000

Goodwood Revival #7 Jaguar Foxbat

More Mini Fun – ABS Freestyle

The Real McCoy – Mini Cooper S

Top Class Mini Racer – MINI Cooper S R56