Background

I have raced minis since 1984 at the tender age of 14 when I started in Autograss with a Class1 mini. From that I moved on to the modified classes with 970, 1071 and 1400 minis eventually making the big step to circuit racing with the Mini7 club.

Having done a stint with a 998 Mini7 around the end of the last millennium I had to take a break for the obligatory marriage/kids/divorce but then, finding myself at a crossroads I decided I wanted to go racing again, and what I really wanted was to build and race what I’ve always considered to be the pinnacle of mini racing – a Miglia.

But how was a skint bloke going to manage that? Basically, I had to have a 3-year plan. Firstly, I sold anything ‘mini’ from my garage that I didn’t need. Secondly, I started a second job moonlighting as a doorman. Thirdly I knew that I was going to have to accept that I’d be using second hand parts where possible. Luckily having always raced with nearly no money I was not scared to get my hands dirty and do all the work myself including building engines, gearboxes, welding and bodywork. Still, it was going to be a real challenge!

I found the ex-Graeme Davis Mini7 shell that had seen better days, and I managed to get a very old spec ex-Rupert Deeth miglia engine off eBay. After a couple of years of hard work, wheeling and dealing  I had my very own mini miglia. Considering my very thrifty methods, that first miglia turned out quite well. Despite having a tendency to kill gearboxes it was good enough to get me a few decent races, and when I later switched to the Libre class it even had a few poles, race wins and fastest laps culminating in a second place in the 2018 Libre championship missing out by a measly 2 points.

The New Car

In 2019 I witnessed a huge accident at Thruxton when Dan Budd rolled his car. He escaped unscathed thanks to his substantial Owens Fabrication roll cage, but looking at the aftermath it was clear that my car wouldn’t protect me in the same circumstance. Upgrading my existing cage would be a compromise, so it was time to build a new car.

Now these cars are not cheap, and I was still not in a position financially to order a new build so it was going to require a couple of years out whilst I built it. I managed to find an abandoned project for a fair price. It was a bare shell with a new Custom Cages roll cage fitted. However, it needed everything else doing like cutting out all the redundant standard brackets, removing under-seal, as well as fabricating a new bulkhead air box etc etc etc…

I decided early on that I wanted this new car to be as good as I could possibly make it so I saved every penny I could and bought the best parts I could afford when the bank balance allowed me to. Having friends in the mini racing trade allowed me to get a few subsidised parts. Racing is a brotherhood and we all try and help each other get out on track ‘quid-pro-quo’ style. I really wouldn’t be able to race without doing it that way. So, it had as much out of the Owens, Jimnet and Curley catalogues as I could possibly afford. All painted up the shell looked a million dollars, but it was the engine I was most excited about…

My old 1293 miglia 5 port was very reliable and competitive in the Libre class, but I fancied doing something a bit different and challenging. Ever since I’d seen the Howley OHC head in the Vizard book back in the mid-80’s I’d been drawn to the more exotic side of mini tuning. A couple of mates were running the BMW K1200 16v conversion, and given the free nature of the Libre regs my mind went into overdrive with the possibilities. From the start it was clear that getting power would not be the biggest problem but converting it into grip most certainly would be. When all is said and done, we need to get all that power through a 10 inch wheel with a 7 inch wide tyre (originally designed for about 95BHP), so some creative tuning would be required.

I didn’t want to buy an off the shelf engine. I wanted to build it myself so I could understand it fully, so I used the services of a few mates dotted around the country. Specialist Components are the market leader for these BMW conversions so I ordered one of John’s race spec heads along with his steel rods, forged pistons and a conversion kit. Minispares provided the steel crank, Simon at SMMC did the block work, Stu at KAD did the jackshaft, steel mains caps and line boring, Billy at Wilpower balanced the rods and did the deck heights, and Frank at Anderson Race Engines did the dynamic balancing.

The first meeting was at the 2022 Brands Hatch Mini Festival, and to be fair, ‘new car blues’ doesn’t even cover it! Problems with a misfire (duff injector) and a bad seating position causing missed gears (NOT good with a race car) all made for a terrible debut. Later in the year a run at Silverstone showed some promise with a pole position but a mystery fuel starvation caused 2 DNF’s. A highlight was a class win at the 2023 Fastest Mini in the World race at Brands, but the fuel starvation was annoyingly still there.

A trip to the Emerald rolling road in Norfolk was to be a turning point with the engine side. Dave Walker and the boys are bona-fide geniuses and spent all day and most of the evening getting the best out of it. It seemed like a different car and I was excited for 2024.

Behind the wheel at the first race at Donington it felt so much quicker. The fuel starvation issue was cured and I was feeling at one with the car for the first time. I’d never actually raced at Donny before but somehow, I managed to get in the class lead for a little while before settling behind the leader with a master plan of making a move on the last 2 laps. Sadly, I didn’t get that far as an oil pipe failure caused a big end failure halfway down the Craner Curves. Expensive – my season was over before it had begun ☹.

I missed a few rounds whilst I fixed the engine. Dave at DY worked his magic on the crank, and John at Specialist Components supplied a set of new rods. It wasn’t until the British Touring Car Championship round at Thruxton that I was able to make a return. Without any testing and not having raced there for 6 years I was over the moon to stick it on pole. Race 1 was short lived when the oil filler cap came off and was spraying oil everywhere. So, in Race2 I was starting from the back, but by lap 2 I was right behind the class leader looking to pounce when the race was stopped due to a huge shunt right in front of me with Nick Paddy. We did get going again, but my ill handling car (loose radius arm) caused me to have a huge 2 wheeled moment at the chicane – all live on ITV! I managed to scoop it up and finish but it was another case of what might have been.

My final race of the year was at Castle Combe’s Historic Festival. Again, the car was flying all through pre-race testing, but an alternator failure in qualifying followed by a 3^rd gear failure in race 1 put an end to my weekend.

I write this on the eve of the 2025 season and I’ve spent the winter fixing and improving various weak links. When you put nearly 4 times the original horsepower in these cars you break things that don’t usually break. It’s been a huge learning curve! But I genuinely believe the car has huge potential with a bit of reliability engineered in – something I’ve been working very hard at!

As always thankyou to Minispares for supporting me – I don’t think I could do it without you guys. Also Peter Hills, Endaf Owens, Sam Summerhayes, Jim Lyons, Sean Fraser, Clare Fraser and countless others 😊   

Car Spec (built by Ian Fraser)

1989 Rover Mini shell

Custom Cages full miglia weld-in roll cage

Curley carbon dash, boot floor, door cards, bonnet, bootlid, fibreglass front end

Lightened and strengthened front and rear subframes

Owens Fabrication fuel tank

KAD Alloy 4 pot calipers

Minispares Competition suspension yellow rubber cones all round

Owens Fabrication rear anti roll bar

KAD adjustable rose jointed bottom arms & tie bars

Quantum dampers front and rear

Genuine homologated Hilo’s front and rear

KAD adjustable rear camber brackets

Corbeau carbon seat

Owens Fabrications gearchange

Emerald ECU

Race Technology Dash

Jimnet wiring loom

Force Racing 10×7 wheels with Dunlop Slick or Wet race tyres 

Engine & Gearbox Spec (complies with Mini7 Club Libre rules)

1380cc built by Ian Fraser

Specialist Components BMW K1200 full race cylinder head, big valves, sprint cams

AT Power throttle bodies, Bosch green injectors

Fusion Fabrications bespoke exhaust manifold

Full Maniflow Miglia twin silencer exhaust system with reverse megaphone

A plus block with 4 bolt steel caps

Omega forged pistons

Minispares forged steel crank

Specialist Components lightweight steel rods

Ultralight flywheel assembly, grey cover, AP Racing 4 paddle plate

Swiftune dog gearbox

Minispares roller straight cut drop gears

ATB Limited Slip Differential

MED crank pulley

Minispares hi-torque starter motor

Brise race alternator 

Large Owens Fabrication built alloy radiator and header tank

Davies Craig electric water pump

Silicon Hoses all round