So, what can anyone tell me about Minis?
Quite a bit...
Alternately, can anyone recommend any good books on Minis?
Lindsay Porter's Guide To Purchas & DIY Restoration is a good
place to start, as is the Practical Classics Mini Restoration
book (can't remember the exact title, but PC is a British mag
that rebuilds wretched heaps of iron oxide into show cars and
publishes stories to pay the cost.) These are both excellent
sources of information on the Mini.
There's a Mini 850 (1960-1963, the owner's not sure) with an 1100 engine
and a Cooper head for sale here,
Sounds like the 12G295 head and 1098cc block out of an MG 1100.
A common retrofit into one of the small-bore Minis (my Traveler
had just such a combination). The 295 head is the best-flowing
head of the small-bore engines (1100cc and lower). Check under
the valve cover for a casting number.
and I and a friend are more than
vaguely interested in its value as an SCCA racer. The car's been
modified enough by past owners that I wouldn't mind hacking it further.
I haven't seen the car yet, so I have no details, and the owner was
less than knowledgeable, but it sparked my already budding interest in
Minis (I have a warm place in my heart for both tiny cars and A-series
engines).
Good choice! Minis are great cars in GT5, where the SCCA has
them classed right now; the class records at both Sears Point
and Laguna Seca are held by a Mini. They require only a tiny
amount of re-engineering (mainly additional chassis stiffness
and disc brakes, which were used on the Cooper S cars and are
therefore available fairly easily), and they are very much an
understood quantity in the racing world. The A Series engine
is also a good base for a racing car, as it has been hacked a
bit over the last 30 years.
Prices vary, but nun-rusted, running Minis seem to be selling
for about $2500 in only moderately ratty condition. They can
sell for as much as $10,000 in impeccable condition, or if it
is a historically important car for more than that, but $5000
plus or minus a grand or so seems to be the average price for
most Minis in very good condition.
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