Minis and Imps

[Steve Holmes]

1 what is dial up? are you referring to the technology of internet access 10 years ago?
2 wel known phrase snooze you loose
throw in
he who hesitates is lost
every race car I have bought has been instant
IF i took the effort to go see the car I have either bought on spot OR called next day and put my offer on table
anything after that and i didnt want it or was not interested enough in it having seen it
I have bought many cars off fotos from hysterical FFords to Gp C cars

you pass this way once in your life and now a race car is dead for 2 reasons
1 a fkwit bought the car
2 you deliberated and you even went to see the car so why did you not move yer lips there n then- you obviously wanted it at the price advertised otherwise you would have stayed at home
I do not think I can forgive you for your actions unless you can ply with me leg of lamb supper followed by lots of beer/wine port whiskey and many story's of racing in NZ followed with photos
so be warned no leg of lamb no forgiveness

Well if he wasn't feeling bad before, he will now! Ha ha ha.

And yes, dial-up, long since gone in most 1st world countries, but still active in some 3rd world countries...........and NZ!

[Paul Wilkinson]

Has this wee beast got any history? Seem like a bit of a strange transplant...

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used...-509421895.htm

[Shano]

Man that thing would be a handful.

[Milan Fistonic]

This is what happens when the clutch in a Mini lets go at the end of the back straight at Pukekohe.

The bits smash their way out of the bell housing...



...and on their way up through the bonnet...



they clobber the master cylinder leaving you with no brakes and you leave the track at high speed...



...and end up in the tyre barrier.

[Steve Holmes]

Woah! I wonder where the pieces of high speed flying metal ended up?

[Paul Wilkinson]

I am certain that there is no cooler Mini currently for sale anywhere...


http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/spec...-509854439.htm





1966 Broadspeed Mini
Only 26 ever built this is the only known racing Broadspeed Mini in the world.
A very unique car with lots of history.
The 1380cc motor produces 140 hp has done only 2 race meetings since a complete rebuild is fitted with an AKM 7 port crossflow cylinder head,forged pistons,lightweight conrods,steel maincaps,paddle clutch,4 speed dog box,limit slip diff,electric water pump and 2 oil coolers.
4 pot alloy calipers,vented discs and alloy drums,front and rear sway bars.
This is a very quick car and heaps of fun to drive.1min 19sec at Hampton Downs
1min 22sec Manfield.
Has a C.O.D. and complies to schedule K
for Classic racing.
More photos and info available

At $25k it's a bargain I reckon!

[Steve Holmes]

Here is the car a couple of years later, in 1971. Colin has picked up sponsorship from Boyle Motor Co. Note, because he had no money, he couldn't afford to buy the fibreglass bolt-on flares the other teams had, so welded on some flares instead, then ran the original trim pieces around the edges.

[kiwi285]

Here is the car a couple of years later, in 1971. Colin has picked up sponsorship from Boyle Motor Co. Note, because he had no money, he couldn't afford to buy the fibreglass bolt-on flares the other teams had, so welded on some flares instead, then ran the original trim pieces around the edges.

Was this the same Boyle Motor Co based in Cambridge. I seem to remember that they did sponsor someone racing a BMC product

[AMCO72]

Kiwi285....... the Boyle Motor Co.....BMC....became Rozema Motors, then Bowie-Keith Motors, and Bruce Bowie gave some sponsorship to Angus when he was racing the Mini......'MINCER'... at Mystery Creek in Hamilton, in the early 1990's, and also later when he got into Mini 7's.

I remember Bruce making a valid point, that although his company might be known in the Waikato, once Angus was racing outside his home turf, the name Bowie-Keith motors meant nothing, and so the sponsorship money did not create any feed back in the way of sales etc. A competitor really needed a nationally known brand name sponsor to be worth anything, and it was hard to get back then as Colin obviously found out.......and indeed it has always been hard to get.

So perhaps the firm, which had been a well known garage in Cambridge for decades, had a history of interest in Motorsport.....Model A's to Mini 7's....
The site is now occupied by Wrightsons.

[Impy1]

Hi all. Been lurking for a while and am amazed by the wealth of knowledge here!

Anyway, here is a pic of my father at Oran Park in his Imp. Thought it would fit right in this thread

Not a lot of info known about the car. I can tell you it was black with gold pinstripes. Oh, and his name is Geoff Birt.

Hope someone knows of him or the car...................

[Steve Holmes]

He may have struggled to get the magazine coverage of the guys in front of him, but he did get some media time for all the wrong reasons when, at Pukekohe, Roy Harringtons Imp blew its engine to pieces during practice at the NZIGP meeting, and Colin, following closely behind, slipped on the oil and slammed the bank heavily. Although the newspaper clipping said he was unhurt, in fact, he'd damaged his back.

This back injury has hampered him all his life, until, at Queensland Raceway in 2012, during an Australian Trans-Am race, he was shunted from behind by another car under brakes. The crash put Colin in hospital, and the Camaro required a complete rebuild. But, amazingly, the shunt had also realigned his back from the Pukekohe crash all those years ago, and for the first time in 42 years, he no longer suffers back pains!

[ERC]

#216 This is a Broadspeed REPLICA... Bernie Hines had a chopped "Minisprint" that he had raced in NZ but was initially denied a CoD. He then got hold of a set of rear body moulds (I believe from Australia) and built the Broadspeed replica shown. Quite why it was turned down initially is anyone's guess (I have my theories...). The original Mini Sprints were produced in the UK and sold new, through Stewart & Ardern, BMC dealers, so the car should have had a CoD in its original form.

We clocked it in Broadspeed form on radar at Pukekohe at 129mph a few years ago, the lowered roofline and deseaming aiding aerodynamics considerably.

Fantastic car and driven well and has now been sold (to Christchurch I believe), but it is important to differentiate between a replica and the genuine article.

These are the genuine article. Note the other Mini variants in the background, including my favourite - the yellow Unipower.

[Russ Cunningham]

#216 This is a Broadspeed REPLICA... Bernie Hines had a chopped "Minisprint" that he had raced in NZ but was initially denied a CoD. He then got hold of a set of rear body moulds (I believe from Australia) and built the Broadspeed replica shown. Quite why it was turned down initially is anyone's guess (I have my theories...). The original Mini Sprints were produced in the UK and sold new, through Stewart & Ardern, BMC dealers, so the car should have had a CoD in its original form.

We clocked it in Broadspeed form on radar at Pukekohe at 129mph a few years ago, the lowered roofline and deseaming aiding aerodynamics considerably.

Fantastic car and driven well and has now been sold (to Christchurch I believe), but it is important to differentiate between a replica and the genuine article.

These are the genuine article. Note the other Mini variants in the background, including my favourite - the yellow Unipower.

There was a genuine Broadspeed kicking round at one stage. I remember my father buying it to resell in the 60's. From memory he was less than impressed with it but I did score a Broadspeed badge that was in the glovebox. The car was burgundy back then. Who knows it may still be somewhere in NZ.

[Steve Holmes]

I was sent the following photos just recently by Colin Warrington. These days Colin races a '69 Camaro in the Queensland based Australian Trans-Am series, but, growing up in New Zealand, he raced a Mini in the 1,000cc class in NZ saloon car racing.

As a young bloke he was racing on a shoe-string budget, so tried to make up for his lack of funds by driving the wheels off his race car. Colin's Mini was painted white with a bright orange bonnet and bootlid. The car also had a vinyl top! If anyone on here has any old photos of this car, he'd love to see them, as he was always just behind the main guys in his class; Barry Phillips, Rod Collingwood, Rex Hart etc who grabbed all the magazine coverage. So he was rarely featured.

Here is Colin at his first event, in either 1968 or '69, trying hard and cocking the inside rear wheel:

[John McKechnie]

Thanks for posting those images of our boy Colin.I took 2 years of motoring mags out to HD on the chance he would find something. As a no name driver there were too many minis then for any mention of him.

[Ellis]

Neptune Racing's Jim McKeown raced a black one. Saw it at Calder. Beechey also had the odd drive of it.
Pic has been posted earlier in this thread...

A single frame shot from my 8mm movies at Calder pits

[ERC]

I think that the (metallic?) burgundy base with a silver roof was a Broadspeed colour combination and would have been my first choice had I gone ahead with doing a replica - which I did start, but using a Riley Elf as the base, as the rear overhang was the right length.

[Habu]

[BMCBOY]

[Imp Wagon]

I've recently got back from a holiday in the UK and while there i caught up with my old friend and former saloon racer, John Homewood who used to race Imps in the 1000cc special saloon championships over there in the 1970's with a huge amount of success over the years, regularly beating many bigger engined cars including the 1300cc Minis (the BDA powered ones too) and in the process winning a lot of championships and set a heap of lap records. Famously in a wet qualifying session at Brands Hatch circa 1975, John put the little Imp in the middle of the front row between Gerry Marshall in baby Bertha and Nick Whiting in the FVA Escort and then proceeded to chase Marshall around the track for a few laps until the track dried and he eventually finished 3rd. John showed me a pile of old black and white photos so I took shots of a few of them on my camera and thought I would put a few up here.
Cheers, Simon.

This shot shows John in the Rawlson bodied Imp leading Ginger Marshalls alloy bodied, Imp-powered Mini countryman, circa 1976


Here he is dicing with Jeff Ward's Imp and unknown Mini


Circa 1972 on pole at Brands Hatch with Terry Attoe's Mini outside him. John won the Kent messenger championship from Attoe that year