bear with me...there's a bit of a story with this one
a long long time a go, at a race track far far away.........
actually it was in the late 1980s at Amen Corner race track near Rufford Park....it's now a go kart track but back then it was a grass track circuit
so both my older brothers decide to have a go at grass tracking......one went the route of single seater space frame chassis with ever increasing powerful engines......the other went the cheap and cheerful Class 1 route
Class 1 was front wheel drive max 1100cc engine......in other words a Mini
in 1986 Neil acquired a Mini Clubman that was going to fail its MOT. it was a genuine little old ladies car.......the old lady in question had bought it new in the mid 70s, it hardly ever left the village where we lived, the local garage did all the servicing etc, when she gave up driving a guy bought it to learn to drive in.....again it never went far beyond the village boundaries even though he failed his driving test 10 times!...he gave up and by now the body shell was getting to the point where it was never going to get through the MOT without serious welding........and that's when Neil got it.......it was about 13 years old and hadn't even done 25k miles!
we stripped it out, added all the usual racing gubbins like roll cage and harness etc, did plenty of welding/strengthening and he went racing................was Nottingham Class 1 champion 2 years on the trot
by the end of the second season the shell was totally knackered.....so he acquired a standard MIni with a seized engine.....plan was to swop the engine with the one from the Clubman which was still running well....not as easy as it sounds as the Clubman engine/transmission is 3 inches wider and about 9 inches longer but with indiscriminate use of a Number 1 Adjuster it all fitted
so he went racing again...............half way through the season he ended up rolling it end over end 3 times.........concussion and broke his wrist in two places, car completely trashed.
so since i got back into this modelling lark he asked if i could do a replica of his Clubman......thing is no one does a Clubman kit in 1/24 so he's going to have to settle for the standard Mini .....and it's got an easier paint job too lol
so this should be an interesting one as I'm going to build a replica of a car i helped build for real 26 years ago!!...not sure how accurate it will be in the end
the date on the back of the pic is 4th of April 1988 and this is its first outing of the season cos its nice and clean
this was it a few hours later......must have been muddy that day lol
going to be using the classic Tamiya Monte Carlo Mini kit as it has noggly tyres
not going to bother with sprue shots since we all know what's in the box and I'm not going to using most of it anyway!! :P
a long long time a go, at a race track far far away.........
actually it was in the late 1980s at Amen Corner race track near Rufford Park....it's now a go kart track but back then it was a grass track circuit
so both my older brothers decide to have a go at grass tracking......one went the route of single seater space frame chassis with ever increasing powerful engines......the other went the cheap and cheerful Class 1 route
Class 1 was front wheel drive max 1100cc engine......in other words a Mini
in 1986 Neil acquired a Mini Clubman that was going to fail its MOT. it was a genuine little old ladies car.......the old lady in question had bought it new in the mid 70s, it hardly ever left the village where we lived, the local garage did all the servicing etc, when she gave up driving a guy bought it to learn to drive in.....again it never went far beyond the village boundaries even though he failed his driving test 10 times!...he gave up and by now the body shell was getting to the point where it was never going to get through the MOT without serious welding........and that's when Neil got it.......it was about 13 years old and hadn't even done 25k miles!
we stripped it out, added all the usual racing gubbins like roll cage and harness etc, did plenty of welding/strengthening and he went racing................was Nottingham Class 1 champion 2 years on the trot
by the end of the second season the shell was totally knackered.....so he acquired a standard MIni with a seized engine.....plan was to swop the engine with the one from the Clubman which was still running well....not as easy as it sounds as the Clubman engine/transmission is 3 inches wider and about 9 inches longer but with indiscriminate use of a Number 1 Adjuster it all fitted
so he went racing again...............half way through the season he ended up rolling it end over end 3 times.........concussion and broke his wrist in two places, car completely trashed.
so since i got back into this modelling lark he asked if i could do a replica of his Clubman......thing is no one does a Clubman kit in 1/24 so he's going to have to settle for the standard Mini .....and it's got an easier paint job too lol
so this should be an interesting one as I'm going to build a replica of a car i helped build for real 26 years ago!!...not sure how accurate it will be in the end
the date on the back of the pic is 4th of April 1988 and this is its first outing of the season cos its nice and clean
this was it a few hours later......must have been muddy that day lol
going to be using the classic Tamiya Monte Carlo Mini kit as it has noggly tyres
not going to bother with sprue shots since we all know what's in the box and I'm not going to using most of it anyway!! :P
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