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May 15, 2012 18:16:36 GMT
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Great little eBay score today ;D - just got one and a half sets of NOS Mini nudge bars for £20 (2 rear's and one front) I guess some of you youngsters won't remember but these were all the rage in the '80's - I had them on several Mini's back then. These are new old stock and have never been fitted but have picked up a few marks in storage over the years. I'll probably get them powder coated - can anyone recommend a powder coater near Woking? Came with original instructions - made by T T Lyle, Mitcham, Surrey. Quick Google suearch suggests they are no longer there.
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Currently driving a 1972 BMW 1602 as my daily. Don't ask about previous cars - there have been way too many and I stopped counting at 160!
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Sept 10, 2013 19:03:50 GMT
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Just found this thread again and realised I haven’t updated it for about a year and a half, so here’s a quick rundown on what’s been happening with my Mini’s. The black Cooper Classic remains my pride and joy, only making rare appearances when the sun is shining! Mileage has leapt up to a massive 11 thousand from new. I decided to put it back to a more standard look so it has lost the Revolutions which have been on it for the past 2 years and this week got treated to a shiny new set of Minilights. The red Cooper I bought in April 2012 didn’t stay long – I had about 5 cars at the time and couldn’t justify keeping it. My son had been driving my old Clubman Estate..... but needed something better and more reliable when he started working after leaving college so the Clubman Estate got sold and replaced with a year 2000 Mini Se7en Mechanically the Se7en is identical to my Cooper Classic but with different trim and this one has done a lot more miles My son went off to Australia for a year’s back-packing in June so he’s left me to use the Se7en as my daily driver. Have to say I’m loving it but it isn’t exactly practical, as you can’t get anything in it so it might go into storage until he’s back or it might get sold – haven’t quite decided. Today the Revolutions which used to be on the Cooper found their way onto the Se7en, I think it looks miles better than the original pepperpots.
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Currently driving a 1972 BMW 1602 as my daily. Don't ask about previous cars - there have been way too many and I stopped counting at 160!
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Aug 15, 2015 21:36:52 GMT
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Right, I haven't updated this thread for a while so thought I should. My son came back from his extended tour of Australia, New Zealand etc and began using the red Mini Seven again about a year ago.He got a job which meant occasional commuting round the M25 so the Mini Seven wasn't ideal and was sold and replaced with a BMW 3 series coupe. Not as retro but I have to say it's a nice car to drive. The black Mini Cooper continues to make infrequent trips out of the garage to the odd show. It's still pretty much immaculate and even though it is now 15 years old it has still only done 13k miles. For a short time about 6 months ago I considered selling and through word of mouth in the Mini scene I was contacted by someone desperate to buy it. But........... When it actually came down to it I just couldn't bear to sell it. It's been in the family from brand new, it's a beautiful and rare car as they actually made far less of the 'classic Coopers in the last year of production than the Cooper Sports (the ones with the bigger arches and 13" wheels). It left a potential buyer disappointed and I don't like to mess anyone about, but sometimes you realise a car really is 'a keeper', and will always be. That said, I'm now thinking that I really should use it a bit more and really get the most out of owning it. I'm therefore considering a John Cooper S conversion. John Cooper Garages (as most of you will know) turned the humble Mini from a small family runaround to a giant killing race car in the '60's. In 1990 they again revived the fortunes of the Mini by developing the factory Mini Coopers which were in production until the last cars rolled off the production line. Mike Cooper (son of John) still runs the company and last year they brought out their own Cooper S conversion kits which take a standard Cooper from 62bhp to 90bhp. There are full details here if anyone is interested............ www.cooperconversions.com/I'm seriously tempted to get mine converted - anyone had theirs done and can give an opinion? I'm lucky enough to have this as well, but it's a bit juicy to use all the time so I want to make the Cooper more of a driver's car than it already is......
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Currently driving a 1972 BMW 1602 as my daily. Don't ask about previous cars - there have been way too many and I stopped counting at 160!
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craig1010cc
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,993
Club RR Member Number: 35
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Aug 16, 2015 18:45:08 GMT
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I've had 2 MPI's, both sportspacks though (and Yukon Grey ). My 1st was stock when I got it and I ended up putting a stg4 head, 1.7:1 rockers ect on it and it made just over 90BHP and went well. My 2nd was a Si conversion. When we rolling roaded it, it was struggling to get over 80BHP (which is pretty common with the '90 BHP' conversion), but the power delivery was much nicer than the previous one, and much better than the stock. Made the tall gearing on MPIs work well as it had enough low end grunt to get it moving (which the previous one lacked) but plenty to pull it along at M way speeds (used to sit at 90 easily and would pull if you wanted to overtake ). Only thing I would look at is an oil cooler if your going to do many M way miles (in its few a year it'll do) as the oil temp gauge on the sportspack used to get quite far over.
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its near to the end of production, so i'd be keeping it as standard as possible
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craig1010cc
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,993
Club RR Member Number: 35
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Aug 17, 2015 11:30:29 GMT
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its near to the end of production, so i'd be keeping it as standard as possible true, but I can't see a proper Si conversion devaluing/ diluting its originality as it could have been spec'd with it from the factory. Plus it is all reversable at a later date
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Aug 17, 2015 16:51:26 GMT
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its near to the end of production, so i'd be keeping it as standard as possible That's what's making me think twice! It's done under 13k from new, never had (or needed) any paintwork done, drives really well - I even carefully stored the original exhaust when I swapped it for a stainless one a few years ago. I even put the original Rover CD player back and took the Revolutions off to put original Minilite type wheels back on - just to keep it all original looking.
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Currently driving a 1972 BMW 1602 as my daily. Don't ask about previous cars - there have been way too many and I stopped counting at 160!
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