Mini to Le Mans
Discussion
right well the car that i am supposed to be taken hasn't been finished! so im left with taking my tuned 998 all the way from bristol to le mans, i'll have to keep a good average of 70-75mph down the autoroutes. do people think that ill have trouble with overheating?
(time for some giant killing me thinks
!)
(time for some giant killing me thinks
!)No problems, although it does depend on the final drive ratio. I used to have a completely bog standard 998cc Mayfair with 10" Wheels and 3.1:1 diff. Get onto the motorway and put a brick on the accelerator and it would cruise at 85 all day without overheating. Fuel economy took a bit of a dent though
Wouldn't like to do too much motorway work with a 4.67:1 final drive. Went to Silverstone (from Plymouth) in my brothers 1380 with a 45 DCOE and straight cut box and drop gears. My ears were ringing for a couple of days afterwards.
Wouldn't like to do too much motorway work with a 4.67:1 final drive. Went to Silverstone (from Plymouth) in my brothers 1380 with a 45 DCOE and straight cut box and drop gears. My ears were ringing for a couple of days afterwards.
well it made it with no problems in fact it actually pissed off quite a few in our group as we could keep up down most straights and then on corners we could actually overtake (the guy in the caterham was not pleased!!) we got some cheers in arnage on friday evening giving it a few revs and on the way home went to the needle stop on my speedo!!! well chuffed
time to make it a small bore screamer now
time to make it a small bore screamer now
A bit 'off-topic', but a nice little story.
A few years age we were coming back from an International Historic Rally in Belgium with the 1071 Cooper 'S' on the trailer behing the Range-Rover service car, plus my BMW. (we got a class win, up to 1200 cc, and 8th overall).
We arrived at Calais and just missed one boat, so we had to wait for the next which was 90 minutes later. A short while aftr parking in one of the lanes a young French guy with his girlfriend drew up right alongside us in a 998 cc Mini which sounded really, really sick. He was going on holiday touring in England. He got out to look at my Cooper 'S' and we offered to have a look at his car for him. My two mechanics, my co-driver and I took his ignition system to bits. We fitted new plugs, cleaned and re-set the points, advanced the static ignition timing, re-set the tappets, richened it up a bit, put some air-tool oil in the carb dashpot, and it ran like a dream.
I think the little French guy was overwelmed and he bought us all a pint on the boat. It sure was his lucky day!
A few years age we were coming back from an International Historic Rally in Belgium with the 1071 Cooper 'S' on the trailer behing the Range-Rover service car, plus my BMW. (we got a class win, up to 1200 cc, and 8th overall).
We arrived at Calais and just missed one boat, so we had to wait for the next which was 90 minutes later. A short while aftr parking in one of the lanes a young French guy with his girlfriend drew up right alongside us in a 998 cc Mini which sounded really, really sick. He was going on holiday touring in England. He got out to look at my Cooper 'S' and we offered to have a look at his car for him. My two mechanics, my co-driver and I took his ignition system to bits. We fitted new plugs, cleaned and re-set the points, advanced the static ignition timing, re-set the tappets, richened it up a bit, put some air-tool oil in the carb dashpot, and it ran like a dream.
I think the little French guy was overwelmed and he bought us all a pint on the boat. It sure was his lucky day!
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