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Well, I've been toying with the idea of getting rid of my mini with the other car so close to being road ready so here goes.
My MPI Sportspack mini was first registered in Nov 1999 when sold to a soldier in Germany. I'm the third owner and have owned the car for 15 years - I bought the car while serving in Germany too, in August 2003 when my son was born and we needed a second car. I imported the car into the UK in 2006.
The car had around 33k miles on it when I bought the car - its somewhere around 120k now (although the speedo reads 116k-ish).
When I bought the car there was already some minor signs of rust (Rover at its best!) and for the next few years I tried to keep on top of this before deciding I'd be better off letting it rust and then getting it sorted all together. On buying the car I did a bit of disassembly of the car and waxoyled every nook and crannie that I could get at. Around 2007 I was hit by an uninsured driver on the front right - not too much damage but it took over a year to get a payout (the car was insured, the driver wasn't covered to drive it). While waiting for this I had the tracking sorted and continued driving the car.
In around 2010 or 2011 I had the bodywork repaired - front panel & wings, windscreen surround, outer sills, rear wheel arches, rear valence, door skins etc, done by a mini specialist.
After around three years rust started to appear around the edges of the roof which I had corrected and resprayed at a more local bodyshop as I didn't want to risk holes in the roof panel. Since then I've watched the paintwork dull and rust slowly appear around the front seams and lower doors. As previously I decided not to continue getting these bits repaired piecemeal and have coated them in Krust (hence the black patches in the photos I'll attach). I fitted front wheel arch liners to the car when the bodywork was repaired to try and help prevent the crud from getting up into the arches too.
At the last MoT (Jan 2018) I needed to get some welding done on the left sill at the rear. Having washed and polished the car I had a look underneath, I think the car may need some welding on the outer sills at the front (i.e. just behind the front wheels) for the next MoT.
Hopefully the photos are of good enough quality to allow you to zoom in to clearly view and the information above give an accurate indication of the cars bodywork condition. If you require any other photos of any particular areas let me know.
Mechanically the car runs very well. As part of a college course I built a flow bench and ported a head for the car. The head has race spec valves (larger inlets). I got my calculations wrong for skimming the head and ended up with a CR of around 11.2:1 (higher than the 10.5:1 I was aiming for). Ever since fitting the head (at around 55k miles) I've run the car on Shell V-Power. I also fitted a maniflow LCB at this time and had polished the inlet manifold a little. From memory, on Slark's rolling road in Salisbury the car made 74bhp. This being the first head I'd done I was quite pleased to hear this! They did comment that the car ran a little lean over 4500-ish rpm but developed the kind of power and curve they'd expect from the spec and as the ecu couldn't deliver any more fuel there wasn't much that could be done but enjoy the car.
The car continued to be my daily driver and on leaving the Army I started a job which gave me a commute of 56 miles each way. After doing this for around 18 months the car lost power. Long story short, a piston had cracked between the ring lands (this happened at around 85k miles). (If you have the inclination you'll be able to find the questions I was asking at the time on this Forum!) I had done around 14.5k miles in that previous year in the car based on MoT mileage when the piston cracked.
I had collected a load of bits for my other project, so using those engine bits I rebuilt my first engine. So the car now has a 1330cc capacity (which helped to bring the CR down to around 10.7:1 I calculated), and is fitted with an SW5i cam. Around the same time I replaced the maniflow lcb (which had cracked in the 'Y') with an stainless manifold. While looking nice I've never been able to get this manifold to seal correctly with the exhaust - the car always passes emissions on the MoT but has constantly sounded as if it's blowing. Perhaps it's just me hearing things.
Not being able to do anything with the fuelling I haven't had the car on a rolling road since the engine rebuild, but as I only rarely rev the car out I'm not too concerned over this (and still can't do anything about it with the standard ecu) - this doesn't make best use of the cam admittedly but with 4000rpm equating to 90mph on the speedo that's not too bad. At the same time as I rebuilt the engine I fitted the rebuilt gearbox that I also had. This is fitted with a 2.9 FD (instead of the 2.7 of the standard MPi). This partly explains why the speedo reading and the actual milage of the car are a little out. The other reason is that on refitting the engine I routed the speedo cable incorrectly resulting in the speedo not working for around 3000 miles (estimated from my daily commute distance). The car runs approximately 20mph/1000rpm with this diff on the Sportspack wheels.
The engine was refitted at around 85k miles so has completed around 35k miles with this spec. For the first 3k miles or so the engine didn't use a drop of oil. At this point it started to use a little oil.
The engine has also developed an oil leak as my drive will testify.
The car has always been serviced ever 3000miles – 3500 miles since the change in final drive (to take into account the over-reading).
Other things.
The fuel gauge has never really worked since I bought the car. This hasn't been a problem for me - I know I can safely do 240 miles (recorded on the speedo) before needing to fill up and always carry a fuel can. The clock runs extremely slowly (moving perhaps 10 minutes a week).
I have fitted adjustable lower arms on the front suspension along with heavy duty tie rods. The front rubber cones have been replaced with springs and I have fitted hi-lo's all round.
The interior is the leather seats, 3 plus 3 clock wooden dash Sportpack version.
The interior is in good condition. Spending so much time inside the car commuting, I always tended to try and keep it clean.
I still use this car almost daily although my commute adds up to about 20 miles these days, and use it all year round (I have a set of winter wheels and tyres which I've used on the car for the past 8 years or so which I'll be keeping for my other project car).
I hope the above gives an accurate flavour for how the car has been used and enjoyed. Having had it for so long and still using it most days, I'm sure it would be a wrench to pass it on. However with my other project car almost completed - 8 years in the build and taking over a lot of my spare time, the mini isn't getting the attention it has in the past and I don't want to start another project yet (the mini) when the other car is finally on the road.
Now I haven't bought or sold a mini for so long I've resorted to looking on the net and in the magazines to establish a price - I'm looking for £3000 for the car and want it to go to someone who will enjoy and look after it as I have tried to, but could be open to offers. I'd like to see the car go to someone who has a history with mini's and knows how to deal with their foibles and will enjoy using the car.
Drop me a PM or email if you'd like to discuss the car or its condition or faults and foibles further and I'll pass on my phone number.
Many thanks,
Graham
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