what did you do to your 944 today

[vitesse]

Well my post did say-well tuned-.

It had an Aquaplane aluminium head having huge combustion chambers a la Cooper S with KE 975 Sodium filled exhaust valves,Cooper S distributor,1.5" SU with red spring,appropriate needle on water cooled polished manifold,Janspeed 3 into 1 exhaust manifold,straight through central exhaust with Peco silencer,camshaft bearings line bored & reamed,hot cam,plastic fan,hot thermostat,Girling brake servo,Girling rally shock absorbers & brake linings,lowered suspension(shortened trumpets) & an Austin 1300 remote gearshift gearbox,needle bearing couplings replaced the rubber ones.

Sadly I didn't take pics of it in those days-pity really as I de-seamed it,lowered the steering column,fitted seat adjusters,quick release grille buttons & a rubber waterproof cover to the dizzie as well as respraying it an orange red shade instead of its original RAF blue

 

[blade7]

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt if you were going by the wobbly speedo needle [], a quick google suggests a Cooper 1275 S did around 95mph.

 

[vitesse]

Paul ,I recall the speedo needle was right round the dial which is all there was in those days p[link=https://www.theholidaycottages.co.uk/isle-of-man/6591lus]lus[/link] timing between mile markers on the motorway so the answer is yes comments based on the speedo.

I've forgotten most the stuff i knew about Minis but I'm sure the 850 liked to rev-it was of course nearly 50 yrs ago[&o]

 

[blade7]

I remember laying on the tank of my Kawasaki Z1R 1000, and the speedo edging up to 150mph nearly 40 years ago. I'm claiming that too then [].

 

[vitesse]

My dad's bigger than your dad & he's a policeman--springs to mind[]

 

[blade7]

My Mum is in the SAS ,the SBS and the Sweeney .

 

[944Turbo]

I had a 1275GT that I broke (several times actually!) but on one occasion as a quick fix I fitted a spare 850 but with twin carbs LCB etc from the 1275, that setup really liked to rev for an otherwise standard engine, was a bit rubbish at low revs though! Later I had a balanced 1380 with 276 cam, 1.75" SU electronic ignition etc. around 90Bhp at the wheels. I remember maxxing it behind an Overfinch range rover at an indicated 120+mph. I had also discovered mobil 1 by then (along with thermostatically controlled oil cooler) so my engines were lasting significantly longer by then, think I got around 35k miles out of that one before it destroyed the drop gears.

Tony

 

[vitesse]

Sorry,Paul but I don't want to meet your Mum[8|][:-]-you win though-(bl**dy) motorcyclists

Re' drop or transfer gears-at the time I was still working for Renold Chains based in the Black Country & as I may have mentioned on here had a Hillman Avenger-it had 2 resprays under warranty & during one absence I used 1 of the Renold Research Austin 1300;s-this was fitted with a Renold Duplex chain drive with special double acting hydraulic chain tensioner working on both sides of the drive chain-instead of the transfer gears.

This eliminated the backlash problem with the gears ,was highly efficient & as a result the car was startlingly faster than the normal cars-great fun to drive.

Sadly I never thought to ask if I could have my Wife's car converted -she drove the Mini everyday and & loved it.[]

PS;-If I remember correctly,I think the 1300 box had longer ratios in total which probably allowed the higher than expected speed when that engine could develop the torque to get there.

My father knew Tommy Cooper quite well.

 

[944Turbo]

Sounds good! my Mum had an MG1300 and I think that engine ended up in one of my minis complete with gearbox also an austin 1300gt. My most spectacular A series failure was in an allegro - it had an A+ 1275 and I broke the crank in half!

 

[Waylander]

my brother has an A35 with all frogeye sprite running gear including the wire wheels and a metro turbo engine, it has not moved out of his garage since 1986

 

[blade7]

Later I had a balanced 1380 with 276 cam, 1.75" SU electronic ignition etc. around 90Bhp at the wheels. I remember maxxing it behind an Overfinch range rover at an indicated 120+mph.

Tony

Did it have had a tuned up speedo too .

 

[vitesse]

What a shame-should be used-my 1st car was an Austin A30-eventurally had polished head ,twin 1.1/8 SU's,straight thro' exhaust terminating in a Peco go-cart silencer terminating under the passenger door,ABV bleed nipples all round ,Ford Popular cable adjuster on the rear brake cable from the hydraulic cylinder to the swiggle tree on the back axle( enabled brake balancing).

Saw a beautiful Austin A40 at a car show last time we went to Jersey,finished in Nightfire red-had full 1275S engine,front discs,pads,shock absorbers etc-still with original owner.

 

[944Turbo]

Later I had a balanced 1380 with 276 cam, 1.75" SU electronic ignition etc. around 90Bhp at the wheels. I remember maxxing it behind an Overfinch range rover at an indicated 120+mph.

Tony

Did it have had a tuned up speedo too .

Not especially used to check it with the roadside markers and a stopwatch, a Range rover does make a big hole in the air for a mini to follow in though. Those old school overfinches made a lovely noise cant remember what lump they used to swap in. (80s)

 

[vitesse]

In days gone by,my feeling is that speedos were reasonably accurate when cars couldn't go as fast as they can today when drivers are possibly protected a little by "tuned " speedos ( Paul seems fascinated by them [8|]).

Both our 924S's are very accurate when compared to GPS on my satnav whereas the BMW definitely has a generously tuned speedo.

 

[blade7]

Lol. There's no way my old Z1R was doing 150mph, just as around the same time my friends Escort RS2000 wasn't doing the indicated 120mph on the M6 when we were 5 up in it. You old Mini nuts remind me of when I was 16, and all the moped boys used to swear blind their Fizzy would do 60mph .

 

[944Turbo]

My speedo was modified, i had sprayed the front face yellow and used letraset to replace the numbers, I then did a check past 10 motorway markers with a stopwatch repeated a few times at various sppeds to check the needle was back in the correct location, it was pretty accurate.

I do remember my dad had a new mk2 cavalier and we were travelling with someone in a cortina, we passed them on the A3 doing 80 and he later accused the old man of being a hooligan as he was doing 85 when we "shot past him". The old man was / is a hooligan in a car but not on that occasion!

Something that relies on tyre diameter to give an accurate reading is always going to have a certain amount of error, especially if you start with fairly chunky tread.

Tony

 

[blade7]

The older we get, the faster we were [].

 

[vitesse]

Frankly when I started driving ,anything that had a 4 speed gearbox was fast!

 

[Eldavo]

Swore at it. A lot.

Looks like a piston ring might have gone, or a valve, or both. Taking the 996 to the Ring this week then June will be Marie Antoinette time for the Twbo - off with his head!

 

[blade7]

That's turning into one expensive biatch.