I am thinking about selling the car I have owned since 2000. It has always been garaged. I am not using it enough and the sort of journeys I’ll likely be making in the future mean that I’ll need a different type of car. I also have two Appias to muck about with and there is only so much time. I am offering it to LMC members first to see if there is any interest. The car is taxed and running extremely well, and is in very good condition, except for needing a respray.
The car was built in 1966, with the 1216cc engine. Except at the moment it has a S1 1298cc in it. I have competed with the car throughout my ownership in hill-climbs and sprint and some regularity rallies. I bought the car in Australia from Phil Speer in 2000 and Graeme O’Connor of Lambda motors sorted it in 2003 (including welding the sills and footwell subframe boxes which are very solid). I then moved to Newcastle and then Dave Bell of Autolink looked after the car. From 2003-2010 I competed quite a lot. The car is basically standard with an OMP roll cage. I have OMP race seats (ok for club level but out of date for racing) and seat brackets but it has refurbished standard seats in it at the moment. The front wishbones are not standard: Lambda motors did something with these or put some trick ones on. The car has been converted to S2 front brakes callipers.
In 2015 as I was getting back into competition a valve broke off and caused some damage to the original 1216 engine. There followed essentially a mini restoration. This involved sourcing and making good a 1298 engine. This was eventually achieved and the engine is now running very well and running in some new piston rings. The subframe was dropped as part of this process and some welding to the outriggers was done by the MG owners club in Cambs.
More recently Tanc Barrett has sorted about £4k worth of issues and the car is running very well, with an electronic ignition and electric fuel pump. The car now has aluminium boot, bonnet and doors which all fit very well (Tanc has fettled the door apertures). The doors have S2 quarterlights fitted, but all the S1 door furniture will come with the car. The steel doors etc will also come with the car as will the original steel wheels, as will the set of machined Flavia Cromodoras with Yokohama race tyres. The car sits on Auto Stil wheels with new Continental rubber. The car runs Dellortos 34s, and I have a set of good Solex 34s spare. There is a set of very fresh Solex 32 carbs to go with the 1216 engine courtesy of Brian Hilton, and the original Solex 32 which are basically fine. I have a spare a 4 speed gearbox and many other bits and pieces.
The original 1216 is dismantled ready for a rebuild, and I have started this process by getting the block machined, honed and painted and a new set of pistons.
The car needs preparing for paint and then painting. One of the reasons I am offering this on the forum first is that it could potentially be sprayed a different colour from the Mendoza blue LA15 it is currently. As part of the mini restoration I cleaned and repainted most of the underside of the car with Tetraseal. I also resprayed the engine bay which turned out really well. The bodywork is good and I had the rear wings replaced in 2006, or thereabouts, when the rear of the car was also resprayed. I have some spare Bill Lewis front wing arches, but I don’t think it’s quite necessary at this point. There is some filler in the car, but there is no rust that I am aware of, and I have always sorted the welding and body work whenever there has been an issue.
I could go on. This is not a car with hidden problems, but something I have used a lot over the years and is in very good condition. I have all the receipts for the work I have had done over the years, and this will certainly be for many more thousands that I will get for selling the car. It needs a respray, but it will be a very desirable car once this work is done.
I am open to offers.
s.down@bham.ac.uk or 07920547142
