89' 1293 turbo project
Turbo Mini Forums

Well thought it's about time i'd show you all my project... pretty long story first but here we goooo...

I got it way back in 2006, it's my first car :) i used to see it everyday when walking to school and absolutely loved it! When i was learning to drive my dad said he knew of a mini for sale... it was the same one, and i had to buy it! It was in a bit of state as the guy had been in a crash and thats why he was selling. Even though it had been smashed i still thought it was an absolute bargain it had lots of extras and a whole folder full of reciepts including a new rear subframe, alarm, new dampers etc basically everything had been replaced or upgraded on the car over the years.

The chap i bought it from worked at a bodyshop and i asked him to do the repairs.. a few weeks later and it had 2 new wings, a panels, front panel, bonnet and the front end resprayed.


Alot has been done to her since then, the main thing was the old 1098 engine i had in there blew up 500 miles from home, she was off the road for 2 years! Since then she has been off the road up until january 2010 when she was reborn.. well she lived again anyway!

Whilst she was off the road i rebuilt the engine and rust was found, looks wise it looked terrible but the engine was sound.

1293 A+
21253 pistons
arp con rod bolts
centre main strap
standard 12g940 head with 33/29mm valves
SW5-07 cam
Alloy vernier duplex gear
Balenced internals
hif44
minspares torquemaster inlet manifold
k&n cone filter
maniflow stage 2 manifold
maniflow centre exit exhaust system
65DM4 Electronic Dizzy

GT ratio box
3.1 Fd
x-pin diff


I ran the engine for not even a 1000 miles, then come August 2010 when one night i left my lights on and killed battery and then decided i was going to take it off the road and completely rebuild it and supercharge it...i quickly saw the light and decided to go turbo instead! Although i loved the look of my mini i had always wanted to make it my own.
I tired my best to work on it, but working outside, with no transport, work commitments and lack of spare time wasn't very fun, and my friend who could weld went travelling to Oz. i knew i had to get help from somwehere.

July 2011
I decided to take it to my local mini specialist, mintec mini spares. Very helpful, friendly, talented bunch of guys.
In a way i was a bit dissapointed as i wanted to do all the work myself and whenever anyone would ask i could be very proud and say that i did it all, but by taking it to a specialist at least i could get it exactly how i wanted and at a much better quality then i could ever do and in a much quicker timescale!


plan is to fit a GT17 turbo, RTS clutch, cast omega pistons, straight cut box and drops. Keep the boost low for as long as i can, and modify the head at a later date when i feel i need more power.





Anyways enough boring talk, heres lots of pictures and where we're up to now.



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at mintec mini spares

stripped





sandblasted




new sills
























alloy fuel tank

Edited by jamestar on 27th Sep, 2013.

Looks really good

so what is the plan with the bodywork? colour?

Going to be ford olympic blue, black roof and black w&p deluxe arches, mk1 bonnet with morris cooper grill and possibly a front spoiler and sitting on a set of 10s

Then toying with the idea of a variiation on the britax cooper decals, basically just the black stripes and no sponsor decals

well its been a long time since my last post!!!

heres where we are up to now...


full T45 rollcage welded in, diagonal, harness bar, doorbars, and swaged front gussets added

rear arches tubbed

swaged rear valance fitted

seat bars in

rear seatbelt mounts removed and swaged panels fitted instead

rear parcel shelf holes welded up

arches have been dry fitted - because of the way wood and picket arches attach we had to make a new lip for them to sit on - the front arches had been cut for when 13" wheels were fitted, and the rears needed a new lip forming that went out and down, so that the wheels wouldnt catch the arches once it was lowered because of the tubbing

new engine steady bar made

wiper motor mounted inside



Got myself a matty manfiold, alloy plenum made with some help from t@z and we're just mocking up the engine bay at the moment with the intercooler and ducting.




















next on the to do list is get a rad, find a suitable dashboard, buy and dry build everything thats gonna need holes making before shes ready for paint!

thanks for looking.

well shes upside down, few bits needed welding which were easier to do whilst shes on the spit, all the other welds have been ground down too. I'm in the process of gathering everything for underneath thats going to need holes drilling etc so that she can get painted underneath whilst shes on the spit.

my radiator has arrived and my dashboard too, if anyone can guess what the dash is from then you'll win.... nothing

Dash looks quite similar to my old mk4 fiestas one, and I'm liking the look of the radiator, where did you get it from?

I was thinking ford. Or maybe Saxo.

It's coming along. What's the plan for the dash?

The rad looks smart James, should fit nicely.

Both wrong with the guesses on the dash I'm afraid :)

Plan is to get it to fit first and then go from there, the first dash I originally wanted didn't exactly go to plan.... but we don't talk about that do we Tupers

I really like the look of drift car/touring car interiors that are stripped out but have the standard dash but with extra gauges and switches. So that's kind of the look I'm going for, I know that probably doesn't make sense as its not a standard mini dash and nor is it a drift/touring car!! I just like the look

I'll be popping in on Tuesday Chris, so fingers crossed the rad and dash are ok

Seat arosa maybe

BHP sells engines, but Torque wins races!