Lovely car and like the subtle mods that will make it more fun! I had a Riley Elf for many years that I played around with, also I had an Austin Allegro with the 1275 A series that was surprisingly good fun too! My tips for extra enjoyment on a Budget:
1) Rust-proof the sh!t out of it so it stays as lovely as it is now: that means dealing with any loose underseal and any surface (or worse) rust now while it's still fairly mild / dry outside, installing some inner front wing liners to protect your A panels / A posts / front wing seams, and of course thoroughly injecting wax into all box sections everywhere! In fact it's worth paying the money for a professional to go over it thoroughly (I use a company called Rust I think), unless you have the equipment and absolute confidence to do this properly yourself. Minis are such rot traps and any skimping on this is madness!
2) Sound-proof it to the max, again spending some money carefully on this will yield great results ( actually the points mentioned above such as wing guards etc.will help with this too!). You'll really enjoy using the car on fast / longer journeys then.
3) if you want a further amount of power without sacrificing tractability then I recommend you take the head to be skimmed to up the compression to around 9.7:1, clean up / smooth out the combustion chambers and ports plus match the manifolds exactly to the head (your David Vizard book will help greatly with all of this). Done sensibly and with care, you'll gain both power and economy when cruising.
Following on from the last point - the engine oil has to work hard even on a standard car thanks to there not being that much of it even when filled to the maximum mark and also due to it being required to double up as gearbox oil. I'd recommend you keep a close eye on things with gauges for oil pressure (if not fitted already) and perhaps oil temperature if you will be doing lots of motorway work (use a cheap Smiths gauge on eBay, they do come up from time to time, you'd need to buy a sender new most likely). You can buy one of those attractive gauge holders that sit under the dash next to your knee to mount them tidily. While on the subject of gauges, a rev counter is a must for maximum enjoyment too!
Just my thoughts, good luck with it, absolute cracker.
1) Rust-proof the sh!t out of it so it stays as lovely as it is now: that means dealing with any loose underseal and any surface (or worse) rust now while it's still fairly mild / dry outside, installing some inner front wing liners to protect your A panels / A posts / front wing seams, and of course thoroughly injecting wax into all box sections everywhere! In fact it's worth paying the money for a professional to go over it thoroughly (I use a company called Rust I think), unless you have the equipment and absolute confidence to do this properly yourself. Minis are such rot traps and any skimping on this is madness!
2) Sound-proof it to the max, again spending some money carefully on this will yield great results ( actually the points mentioned above such as wing guards etc.will help with this too!). You'll really enjoy using the car on fast / longer journeys then.
3) if you want a further amount of power without sacrificing tractability then I recommend you take the head to be skimmed to up the compression to around 9.7:1, clean up / smooth out the combustion chambers and ports plus match the manifolds exactly to the head (your David Vizard book will help greatly with all of this). Done sensibly and with care, you'll gain both power and economy when cruising.
Following on from the last point - the engine oil has to work hard even on a standard car thanks to there not being that much of it even when filled to the maximum mark and also due to it being required to double up as gearbox oil. I'd recommend you keep a close eye on things with gauges for oil pressure (if not fitted already) and perhaps oil temperature if you will be doing lots of motorway work (use a cheap Smiths gauge on eBay, they do come up from time to time, you'd need to buy a sender new most likely). You can buy one of those attractive gauge holders that sit under the dash next to your knee to mount them tidily. While on the subject of gauges, a rev counter is a must for maximum enjoyment too!
Just my thoughts, good luck with it, absolute cracker.
