Description
1992 Rover Mini 1275cc - Complete High Specification Specialist Rebuild Costing £20k+ - Rust Free - New High Performance Engine
There are different levels of Mini and different qualities of Mini. To bring a Mini to this level and quality would and did cost a multiple of the advertised price. There is around £20, 000+ of documented receipts (not mentioning personal labour and receipts not documented) and a full photographic history to show the quality of the workmanship.
She has a custom built 1275cc engine (600 cam) and gearbox built and supplied by a Mini Land Mini Specialists which has now covered and is just bedding in at 5500 miles.
That engine has, this summer, been taken to the renowned Aldon Engineering (Mini people will know) for a rolling road tuning session where it produced 78bhp and recorded a top speed of 110mph. For reference, that is approximately 100% more bhp than a 1000cc, 52% more bhp than a standard 1275cc and 23% more bhp than a Cooper engine, and that is assuming that all of those engines are brand new and haven’t experienced natural bhp loss due to wear.
Combining near 78bhp with under 600kg of weight and that iconic, rally winning, classic Mini handling is terrific and/ or terrifying fun.
Moving away from her driving experience, her bodywork is excellent, without rust, without filler. She was taken to Mini Mine Classic Mini Specialists to have all new panel work and paintwork, including the correct, vented sills. Then to Richmond classics for the fitment of a ready built new rear subframe. Even better, and if you are a car person you will appreciate this, that work was completed seven years ago and she remains in the same condition now, a testament to the stellar preparation put in and her usability and bodily reliability moving forward, rust is not just just going to appear.
On her exterior she is finished with new JBW OS4 Turbo super wide alloys, wrapped in the expensive premium Yokohama tyres and surrounded by custom made Sportspack arches to ensure no wheel rubbing. She also has adjustable HI Lo’s, so that you can play with her ride height. Then you have some new chrome work for the classic sparkle and the Halogen lighting upgrade so that you can actually see the road. If you were super picky you might find some slight blemishes on her wheel arches where they were attached.
On her interior, you can lift the carpets and see perfect, none rusty, body coloured floors, covered by a new carpet. Her headlining is brand new. She has brand new FIA spec, remarkably comfortable, Cobra bucket seats and harnesses, with new subframes supplied by Mini Spares. Her steering rack has been lowered. At current, she is prioritising weight reduction and FIA rally specification, but does come complete with her dashboard, door cards and interior heater if required and the seats could easily be swapped out for standard.
Onto the boring stuff… a recent 12 month MOT with no advisories, full engine service, full brake service (recently new), new radiator, hoses, water pump, thermostat and coolant service, HPI clear (no accidents), fully tuned carburettor (Aldon Engineering) and there should be no electronic or other faults. She has done a genuine and low 66, 000 miles, albeit this is of little relevance because everything was pretty much newly replaced during the restoration and has done less than 5500 miles.
She comes with a huge history folder with over £20k of receipts, these aren’t complete but include the important receipts for the engine, bodywork and Aldon Engineering’s rolling road session. She also comes with a paper photo album and CD with all of her restoration photographs. Reading the history folder shows you how much care has been taken and how much the owners have been wiling to spend on getting routine maintenance professionally carried out and I love to see this. The beauty about Mini’s is that you can fix almost anything in 30 minutes with a beer and nuts budget, but her owners knew how to spend money to ensure everything was properly and professionally done. They owned her for near enough ten years.
Other upgrades include Hi’Lo’s (easily adjustable ride height), a HIFF 44 carburettor with K&N filter (better fuelling), RC50 exhaust with Mini Sport LCB (better gas flow and exhaust tone).
