Racing Minors

Sharman Posted Today, 19:02

GTB

It looks to me as though it is a Minor body over a something or other frame, the driver appears to be sitting over the rear axle, the track all round is exceedingly wide and the front axle line looks well forward, suggesting an engine centralised as much as possible.

Not a Racing Minor, a bitza which has had Minor body parts used to hide its knickers.


I don't agree...have a look back at some of the other posts here...the common theme is racing minors and some like the Morrari were quite radical in their day...if you want an argument (arggh, never mind  )
 
(now put that stick down and step back from the cage! )

Crikey Mikey, I thought this was only a Minor Disagreement.

GTB

Whilst I respect your opinion (misguided though it is), I need the stick to keep poking the colonials in the ribs whenever they get too uppity.....and I can't find the emoticons but I'm sticking my tongue out.

A Happy New Year to all.

Ahhhh the plain-Jane, emoticonless, black and white forum strikes again
 
 Meilleurs vœux to you too Monsieur Sharmione

(As for you Mackie, oil deal with you when I get a round tuit)

I like racing Minors.......it's even better beating them.

Edited by GMACKIE, 29 December 2013 - 22:01.

They look like Holden wheels so possibly Holden suspension and grey powered? ....sure looks like a racing Minor to me

I agree, it is a Sports Sedan, probably Holden powered.
You don't expect anyone in the late 60s to be racing with a A series BMC. Yet alone a sidevalve!
Many had B series, Holden, really anything with more power.
The only thing raced with a A series was a Mini.

QED It is not a racing Minor in any, as I described it earlier it is a bitza with a pretty dress.

Try again. Posted and it did not happen.
Since many car companies lay claim to a modern 'Touring Car' in many series world wide Lintons pic is a Morris minor with a few suitable mods.
A Volvo Stupid Car will have a V8 and rear drive instead of V6 and front drive. Yet alone 18x11 rims and all the composite panels. Makes that Minor minimally modified,
The NZ Morrari probably was a little more modded

Lee

As has been pointed out the driver of that car is sitting somewhere over the rear axle, my guess is that the position is of necessity as whatever unit drives the beastie is centrally mounted in a space frame. Hardly modified, more in line with special saloons. a pal of mine now sadly deceased had what looked from the outside, like a Capri. internally there was a spaceframe holding a 7 litre V8, what was called Silhouette Racing.

Lee
As has been pointed out the driver of that car is sitting somewhere over the rear axle, my guess is that the position is of necessity as whatever unit drives the beastie is centrally mounted in a space frame. Hardly modified, more in line with special saloons. a pal of mine now sadly deceased had what looked from the outside, like a Capri. internally there was a spaceframe holding a 7 litre V8, what was called Silhouette Racing.

This is outrageous...why hasn't there been a Royal Commission into this flagrant disregard for originality in racing

Edited by 275 GTB-4, 29 December 2013 - 21:07.

This is outrageous...why hasn't there been a Royal Commission into this flagrant disregard for originality in racing

I will stoutly defend my views on the right for a Morris Minor to retain its' identity, after all if I was trying to sell a bastardised box of bits as a numbered birdcage Maserati there would dozens of people saying I was out of order.

Sauce for the goose.........

Lee
As has been pointed out the driver of that car is sitting somewhere over the rear axle, my guess is that the position is of necessity as whatever unit drives the beastie is centrally mounted in a space frame. Hardly modified, more in line with special saloons. a pal of mine now sadly deceased had what looked from the outside, like a Capri. internally there was a spaceframe holding a 7 litre V8, what was called Silhouette Racing.

Yes, a Traveller. It was his company car when he worked for the family brush business, ISTR.
Roger Lund

Confirmed as correct in quotation marks from Brian himself half way down this linked page and referred to again more correctly as a Traveler on the top of image 9/9 below the 312PB on this linked page

The driver of that car is alongside the centre pillar, look at the angle. Even in 68 the rules precluded moving the driver bac very far. The back of his seat was no further back than the leading edge of the back seat. Again look at modern tourers, back 2 feet and almost on the centre hump.
As for silouhette racing,,, again,, look at modern Tourers. Where NOTHING is original.
And as I said before, a racing Minor in 68 is a contradiction in terms. Underpowered underbraked eco box transport. Though modified with a bigger engine, brakes, wheels etc made them a fairly numeric model on the grids in that period. And remember a Minor 1000 was only discontinued here in 66. As a production racer it was against Minis! yet alone Cortinas. Cars 2 decades newer in design with double the power to weight ratio. Yet alone pushing far less air.

Nothing you say there has any bearing on my contention that something powered by anything but an A series BMC engine is removed from contention as a pure Racing Minor. I have not looked at your profile but I suspect you were not there in the heyday of tintop racing when we saw everything from 100E Fords to 236 Armstrong Siddeley Sapphires being bullied round the circuits. It was club racing at its best and anything that came later was tinged with, if not corrupted by, commercialism. 

And I was looking at the angle, look at the exaggerated track and the filleted infill of the front wings.

I see where you are coming from - but where do you draw the line?  I don't know the full story of the Minor: I know it originally came with a side valve engine, followed by A-series OHV engines in sizes from 800cc (I think) to 1100cc.  But it never had a 1275cc engine as standard.  But many race that way in historic racing because someone 'could' have done so in period.  There were various overhead valve conversions for the side valve engine available in period, including one by Alta.  In period some were supercharged.  Do we accept these modified cars?  Essentially they are still Minors.  At the extreme we have period specials like the famous New Zealand Morrari which was, I believe, a grand prix Ferrari chassis, engine and running gear with a body from a Minor.  This raced in period in a class of racing that permitted such cars so it should be eligible for some form of historic racing.  A special saloon with a Holden engine, Minor body and whatever in between should also be eligible in the form raced in period.  But what about a re-creation or replica? 

To my way of thinking, they all have their place: a 9-year old would have seen them as "a car like Mum's but hotted up".  And we are talking nostalgia. 

Admittedly my view would change if I were racing a standard car or a period car against modern modified specials (however you care to define them)

Now lets stop bickering folks! "Proper" Minors still race regularly, and are absolutely brilliant fun.

Our "Bluebell" has 38 seasons behind her, and is all steel and no body mods, 1000cc and all BMC bits. I'll post a few links if I'm allowed, but meantime - when did a Morris Minor last win a race outright? Thanks to the great, late Bill Stone (and thanks to Dave O'Neill for posting his video) search for "Pre-57 Classic Saloon Car Championship race at Mallory Park" on You Tube.

Damn, I've spoilt the ending!

Now lets stop bickering folks! "Proper" Minors still race regularly, and are absolutely brilliant fun.

 

Our "Bluebell" has 38 seasons behind her, and is all steel and no body mods, 1000cc and all BMC bits. I'll post a few links if I'm allowed, but meantime - when did a Morris Minor last win a race outright? Thanks to the great, late Bill Stone (and thanks to Dave O'Neill for posting his video) search for "Pre-57 Classic Saloon Car Championship race at Mallory Park" on You Tube.

Damn, I've spoilt the ending!

I'm not bickering, I'm trying to shine the light of the blessed Sir Alec onto the facts in a fashion which even a bunch of colonials and ex-colonials can empathise with !! I think I last drove a Minor in 1960.

I'm not bickering, I'm trying to shine the light of the blessed Sir Alec onto the facts in a fashion which even a bunch of colonials and ex-colonials can empathise with !! I think I last drove a Minor in 1960.

Not bickering? Down hear we call a spade a spade....troll, thread high jacker, excreta agitator, whatever....

now, your words prove you to be a lightweight, but are you a southpaw? (that could explain a lot about your lineage!  )

http://adb.anu.edu.a...ames-jimmy-8398

Not bickering? Down hear we call a spade a spade....troll, thread high jacker, excreta agitator, whatever....

 

now, your words prove you to be a lightweight, but are you a southpaw? (that could explain a lot about your lineage!  )

http://adb.anu.edu.a...ames-jimmy-8398

Where I come from we call a spade a bloody shovel. I have got a full cousin in Victoria (Traralgon) who, when he last visited us in France where we now live, proved to be a chip off the old family block and knew all the right words, not necessarily in the right order though. They (the family) were farm labourers out of Lincolnshire who took to navvying, helping build railways from Yorkshire to Lancashire.

And I haven't high-jacked the thread, I'm just trying to keep it pure, the high jackers have introduced miscegenation, crossing GM and Ferrari with BMC will never work, the offspring will be sterile.

Edited by Sharman, 30 December 2013 - 21:28.

Wouldn't "Racing Minors" be a form of child abuse?

Sorry......just trying to lighten this up a bit.

Nothing you say there has any bearing on my contention that something powered by anything but an A series BMC engine is removed from contention as a pure Racing Minor. I have not looked at your profile but I suspect you were not there in the heyday of tintop racing when we saw everything from 100E Fords to 236 Armstrong Siddeley Sapphires being bullied round the circuits. It was club racing at its best and anything that came later was tinged with, if not corrupted by, commercialism. 
And I was looking at the angle, look at the exaggerated track and the filleted infill of the front wings.

Where I come from we call a spade a bloody shovel. I have got a full cousin in Victoria (Traralgon) who, when he last visited us in France where we now live, proved to be a chip off the old family block and knew all the right words, not necessarily in the right order though. They (the family) were farm labourers out of Lincolnshire who took to navvying, helping build railways from Yorkshire to Lancashire.
And I haven't high-jacked the thread, I'm just trying to keep it pure, the high jackers have introduced miscegenation, crossing GM and Ferrari with BMC will never work, the offspring will be sterile.

And I haven't high-jacked the thread, I'm just trying to keep it pure, the high jackers have introduced miscegenation, crossing GM and Ferrari with BMC will never work, the offspring will be sterile.

Ohhh dear, give that man someone quinine...he's delirious! (gone troppo to use the vernacular)

If you feel so strongly about Maurice Minors (in this fluff-allowed thread) why not take yourself to the Historic Research area and start your own little thread and let the rest of us philistines enjoy some minor related  reminiscences?

Oran Park 3rd January 1970...side view...the front seat floor rails are really long, that's all !!!

There is a RALT link to racing Morris Minors. Ron Tauranac's brother Austin raced a Minor at Bathurst and other places in the 50's.
I'm not sure if it belongs in this thread because the cylinder head wasn't standard. it had a Mazengarb OHV conversion to the side valve engine.

But then again, should Minors with "Austin" A-series engines even be in this thread?

There is a RALT link to racing Morris Minors. Ron Tauranac's brother Austin raced a Minor at Bathurst and other places in the 50's.
I'm not sure if it belongs in this thread because the cylinder head wasn't standard. it had a Mazengarb OHV conversion to the side valve engine.

But then again, should Minors with "Austin" A-series engines even be in this thread?

Austin racing a Morris...Riley? [or is that really?]

Austin racing a Morris...Riley? [or is that really?]

Good Lord, Nuff [ield] said.

"Fix It Again Tony!"

I can understand liking the 1100 part but the FIAT bit has me confused.

I can understand liking the 1100 part but the FIAT bit has me confused.

I can understand liking the 1100 part but the FIAT bit has me confused.

I should perhaps hand in my 1100 badge and swap it for a 1368.
 

Heee heee runnin out of overbores there Mike  

Apologies for this Minor deviation...

I don't recall ever seeing a competition Minor until I came across Trudy Slater's example at Shakespeare County Raceway a couple of years ago.

According to the blurb on this youtube clip  the car is a "road race moggy minor cosworth 4x4, mountune spec, 200 block, 7.2.1 comp yb, holset he1 turbo, seimens black injectors, modified skyline intercooler, 100 shot of nos, ran 11 second quaters with t34 on without gas. Running in to be setup by norris motorsport looking for 10's..

A tad faster than my Golf I suspect   

Oran Park possibly June 1968...
 
Morrden/Holorris? anglebox and brick...

The same car isn't it?

As mentioned above by Lee.

Coventry Climax engined Minor built by Lyndon Duckett in Melbourne in period, not yer average Morrie! (Chester McKaige)...

https://primotipo.co...3/morries-rule/

Edited by MarkBisset, 05 August 2020 - 04:36.

Hi Jon,
I do not have any photos, but I do know that one was in use on the west coast of America in 1952. It appeared at Pebble Beach and Golden Gate with John Cox, then at Madera with Carl Ganschow.
On the East coast John Price raced one at Vero Beach and at Watkins Glen in the same year. One also appeared at Sebring in 1952.
Back in 1950 4 Minors were run at Sebring.
Hope this is of help.
Terry

Can anyone remember the nickname of the Ganschow car?

Edited by nicanary, 05 August 2020 - 09:10.