Description
1983 Austin Mini 1275cc
A beautiful tax and mot exempt example with a newly fitted high power 1275cc engine which we bought as a rebuilt unit and excellent gearbox. More than the advertised price has been spent recently on renovations. I’ve detailed these below, before discussing small improvements you may or may not want to make.
(a) The Engine
We fitted a reportedly fully rebuilt 1275cc engine which cost £1500. This is the high power unit. It has now done around 70 miles. Behind the wheels this feels like the late Metro engine with 70+ bhp. The engine was set-up by a well known engine tuner this week, it’s beautiful to drive. The gear-box reportedly isn’t rebuilt, but is tort with none of the usual synchro weaknesses and a recently new clutch.
(b) The Renovations
The previous owners spent £3-4, 000 renovating her interior, the pictures speak for themselves. Another £1000 was spent on new 13” deep dish alloy wheels, wrapped around new tyres and surrounded by Sportspack arches. She has suspension and HI Lo upgrades, a sports exhaust and servo braking.
(c) Behind the Wheel
Accelerating rapidly, beautiful, it’s terrifying behind the wheel, combining 600kg of weight with the iconic Monte Carlo rally-winning classic Mini handling.
Possible Small Improvements
Arriving with ourselves just before Christmas, we would usually make all of the below small improvements and retail her for around £10k. Our team are booked up now into the coming year and it would be good to find her a new home. She is 43 years old. The following improvements are not strictly necessary, they probably represent improvements you could make to most Mini’s, but ideally she would go to someone who would like to improve her over the winter.
(a) Beautiful from every angle, a solid shell and floors, solid subframes, but a few paint chips etc around the edge of the scuttle, a small bubble at the bottom of the rear quarters where it meets the arch.
(b) The previous owners paid £200 for a triple instrument cluster (from a later classic Mini), the rev gauge appears not to be connected, could be a wire.
(c) The standard classic Mini oil leak from the gear linkage and gear shaft, she won’t run out of oil, but fix this if you have a nice driveway.
(d) Currently driven using MOT exemption, previous owner worked on her with her local classic car specialist, but would benefit from an MOT.
(e) Some blue smoke after starting her after hibernation, cleared as she warmed up, likely dry piston rings.
(f) Her previous engine (why we bought a new one) failed at 66, 666. 5 miles, don’t buy her if you are superstitious :).
