I remember watching the Minis race at Lime Rock and Bridgehampton. I never could
understand how such a diminutive car with such a tiny engine could kick butt so
decisively. Why, I've seen them beat some Porsches that were pretty hot. To me
the
best part of Mini races was to guess which way, side to side or front to back,
they
would roll if things got a bit too out of control. then the driver would get
out of
the car, flip it over onto its tires, and go right back out to embarrass more
big
iron.
Jim
Rocky Frisco wrote:
> James H. Nazarian wrote:
> >
> > Your story is a perfect example of why MG's and other LBC got such a bad
> > reputation for reliability. The dealers were irresolute idiots and
>incompetent
> > too. The fact that many of us rebuilt and maintain our MG's to a state of
>utter
> > reliability causes me to suspect that if there were a moderate number of
>trained
> > dealer mechanics to service the cars way back then, the cars would have
>earned
> > the reputation they deserved instead of the one they got. It is clear to me
>that
> > the big revolution the Japanese brought to automobiles was not that they
>could
> > design and build a better car; it is their requiring the training and
> > certification of the dealers' mechanics and service departments.
>
> I tend toward agreeing with this, especially if you add the stupid
> decisions by BMH executives that effectively killed off the British
> motor industry, the same kind of total idiocy that (IMO) runs Rover/BMW
> now. Perhaps one mitigating factor in my case would be that we ran
> "improved production" in Canada, a unique set of rules that had our 1275
> Mini Cooper S's regularly beating the pants off full-race Camaros that
> had just swept Sebring and other American tracks. My 850 Mini would do
> 105 mph and Bill Brack's 1275 S was clocked up the back straight at
> Mosport at 156 MPH in 1966. Blowing the engine in an MGA was just
> something you had to deal with two or three times a season, no matter
> how well you built them. I just assumed the twincam was a bit more
> delicate when abused to that extent. My story happened after I had run
> out of engines that year.
>
> -Rock
> --
> Rocky, JJ Cale Band & Pratchett Books: http://www.rocky-frisco.com
> Rocky's Mini Cooper Page: http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/6437/
> Mini Books: http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/6437/rockboox.html
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