Minis and Imps

[pallmall]

The Mini raced everywhere, and often extremely modified. Here is the Dave Gilbertson version on the dirt at Palmerston North Speedway.


And a few of my photos that were published in NZ Hot Rod.

[Graeme Farr]

Gee what great photos. There was an interesting comment back a page or two about the PDL Mini gearboxes. I am fairly sure they had Colotti boxes from Italy. Also had Colotti pawl type LSD's which were a copy of the Jack Knight one I think. Robertson Stewart Snr reputedly picked up the gear when he was picking a Ferrari (275GT?) from the factory. Enzo was a friend of Colotti.

The gearboxes were a disaster - more problematic that the Jack Knight 5 speed used in Barry Phillips, Mary Carney and Peter Sharps 1000cc cars. PDL changed back to 4 speeds but kept the diffs which worked well. In fact when the Robert Stewart car was sold (in parts but with a new shell) the owner whos name escapes me, converted it to a road car and still used the diff.

If you look at the photos you can see the car was sometimes LHD. It had special rack with two pinions - and master cyl sets. It could be changed quite quickly for rh or lh tracks. Presumably the photo here is Bay Park as it is LHD. The Stewart car went south (Queenstown?) but seems to be lost now.

The Collins car (1000cc - Stewarts was 1300) survived a bit longer. Went to Palmerston North and maybe Wanganui then was sold to someone who rolled it at Bay Park. It was possibly reshelled but its after that it seems to have got lost too. Shame as they were great looking cars.

I also see some photos of Aussie Minis which came across - Brian Foley beat the PDL car so Stewart Snr bought his engine!

[Steve Holmes]

Gee what great photos. There was an interesting comment back a page or two about the PDL Mini gearboxes. I am fairly sure they had Colotti boxes from Italy. Also had Colotti pawl type LSD's which were a copy of the Jack Knight one I think. Robertson Stewart Snr reputedly picked up the gear when he was picking a Ferrari (275GT?) from the factory. Enzo was a friend of Colotti.

The gearboxes were a disaster - more problematic that the Jack Knight 5 speed used in Barry Phillips, Mary Carney and Peter Sharps 1000cc cars. PDL changed back to 4 speeds but kept the diffs which worked well. In fact when the Robert Stewart car was sold (in parts but with a new shell) the owner whos name escapes me, converted it to a road car and still used the diff.

If you look at the photos you can see the car was sometimes LHD. It had special rack with two pinions - and master cyl sets. It could be changed quite quickly for rh or lh tracks. Presumably the photo here is Bay Park as it is LHD. The Stewart car went south (Queenstown?) but seems to be lost now.

The Collins car (1000cc - Stewarts was 1300) survived a bit longer. Went to Palmerston North and maybe Wanganui then was sold to someone who rolled it at Bay Park. It was possibly reshelled but its after that it seems to have got lost too. Shame as they were great looking cars.

I also see some photos of Aussie Minis which came across - Brian Foley beat the PDL car so Stewart Snr bought his engine!

Graeme, excellent first post, some brilliant info in there. And interesting to know what happened to these cars after their PDL duties.

[Steve Holmes]

The Mini raced everywhere, and often extremely modified. Here is the Dave Gilbertson version on the dirt at Palmerston North Speedway.


And a few of my photos that were published in NZ Hot Rod.

Gavin, the Dave Gilbertson Mini speedway car was restored a few years ago wasn't it? Amazing that it survived.