Morris Minor Owners Club

Think you may well be pleasantly surprised Paul. You should be able to get insurance for around £150 on a modded minor

You should be able to get insurance for around £150 on a modded minor

I'd be surprised if a 19 year old can get insurance for a Standard Minor for £150 let alone a blown one.
I've heard Most insurance companies will overlook bigger cc's much easier than turbo's and super's.
I'm hoping my latest aquisition (2 litre Fiat) will not be hard to insure. The hard part should be deciding which Minor to fit it to!

That looks incredible!!!!! 19 with a car likethat is a dream to most. I am 32 now and cant wait to get my turbo traveller up and about!

thanks aussiemike, im looking forward to surprising one or two nova drivers at the lights.

I have a set of wolfrace alloy wheels, 13x5j Im not sure whether to fit them or not. I want it to be a street sleeper, but will the alloys give it away? what do people think? also need to fix radiator leak, finish bleeding brakes (very squishy pedal) and put all the interior back in. I also have no method of holding the bonnet shut

Picky

rayofleamington wrote:

You should be able to get insurance for around £150 on a modded minor

I'd be surprised if a 19 year old can get insurance for a Standard Minor for £150 let alone a blown one.


Ray if you had quoted my comment in full you would have realised that it was specifically directed to Paul.

Good news is - there is NO emissions test for your car because of it's age - it's just 'visual'. In other words - if it burns oil and blows out clouds of blue smoke it will fail. You WILL need much better tyres and therefore wheels - I found this out yesterday several times on a very wet RSAC 3 Lochs run - when the cornering and braking were both seriously limited by the ancient spindly tyres on my warmed up Traveller!

are you sure they only "test" the emissions like that? it is smoking a little at the moment, put i did put alot of oil in the cylinders before firing it up. radiator not connected yet so can only run it for 2mins at a time. i assume u are running radials bmc? im on the look out for a cheap anti roll bar to improve the handling.

Picky

Ray .. it was specifically directed to Paul.

having no idea what Picky's real name is, and as your post followed Picky's it was an easy mistake for me to make - sorry!

I personaly like street sleepers. When I was your age I had a mini clubman estate with a 1275 engine which wasnt a problem because it looked like a standard set up.

The wolf wheels may give you away but I think you may need the extra rubber on the road with your set up... make it fast but make it safe

I think that the whine from the 'charger' miht also give him away!!!!;)

yes I really like the idea of a street sleeper, rather than having a car look faster than it is. as mine is old english white, "a wolf in sheeps clothing" is a suitable description


the supercharger does make a bit of noise but only when you rev it up (the supercharger is going at twice engine speed remember) so when idling it does not stand out much. until the lights change

fixed radiator leaks today, so im almost ready for the road but the brakes are really really squishy

Yes - emissions is just visual. That initial smoke will soon clear up!

i hope so. if not then ive got serious problems.

now thinking about tyres for these alloy wheels, they are 13" and either 5.5 or 5" wide, thinking of fitting 175/70/R13 tyres, want the best grip so going to get fairly decent brand aswell. are these going to give me lots of roll on corners?

Picky

A 70 section tyre will give more roll than a lower ratio say 60 or 55. However this is also dependent on the rest of the suspension system and how much roll this allows in itself. What other running gear mods have you done, brakes sound a bit concerning at present.
Remember you can have mechanical grip and physical grip which should complement each other. I'd be tempted to go 55 or 60 section maybe a michelin track day tyre (good wet or dry) and look at making the mods available for suspension to give mechanical grip. Front end geometry settings will help loads here along with a well located and damp'd rear axle.

Thing is I want the revs to be lower than standard 1098 engine/diff, so that the engine is revving less at cruising speed, I have installed a 3.9 diff but as the alloys are smaller diameter than standard wheel if I fit 55 section tyres then the wheel diameter is so much smaller that the revs are the same as with the old wheels and old 4.2 diff!! I have a pair of 7" wide wolfrace alloys, if I fit these as the rear wheels, how would it affect handling having an extra 2" of tyre? I imagine 7" is too wide for a light car like the minor.

Picky

Can you recap on the running gear, is it minor pcd.
I wouldn't run anything wider that a 5-5.5" on standard studs and would limit tyre width to 175's. Go wider only if you go Ford etc. Why not fit a set of 15"'s with 50 section tyres.

How do you go about setting the timing and fuelling on something like this?

It can't be as easy as 'bolt on - drive off'. Looks like a top job though.

I am pretty much on my own regards fuelling and ignition timing, as I have never seen any one else with a setup like mine (although im sure it has been done before.) I will get hold of an mg metro turbo carb needle, as that is also a blow through HIF44 and forced induction, and 1275cc. Im going to advance/retard the ignition a bit at a time and then do acceleration tests inbetween and optimize it through that. At the moment it is close enough so that it starts and revs up in neutral, but as you can hear in the video the idle is a bit rough, and I dont expect much power yet when actually driving under load. I still need to bleed the brakes, so frustratingly I cant drive it yet!

Why not fit a set of 15's with 50 section tyres.

I wonder where I would get some of those I have completely exhausted my finances building the engine, (custom made parts are not cheap) so I really have to stick with the wheels I have for the time being.

Picky

I would go with the 175/70 tyres on the Wolfrace wheels - low section gives very rough ride and easy tyre damage, 70 section is a good compromise and will still give you the gearing you want. Low section also doesn't look 'right' on a Minor!!

great job - if you get it to drive as well as it appears to look then you'll have a winner

re: wheels: personally I think 13" is too small a diameter as they look a bit lost in the minor wheel arch. Besides, if you are are interested in reducing revs you are going in completely the opposite direction! You want one thing but do something that results in the opposite! You can sometimes get cheap(ish) 15" sets on ebay so set up a search tha looks automatically and keep your eye out!

Good luck