Minis and Imps

[spinner32]

re the Vuyk Stiletto. Did it not start life as a Imp with 2 litre Cortina motor before being converted to Stiletto and BDA powered. It was the coolest car on the OSCA grid then. Rumour has it that one day a road Stiletto was seen in the pits at Timaru, and for some reason the Vuyk's car's roof was 1 1/2 inches lower than the road car, even though the OSCA rules said standard body!!!
My memory says that Jac Mac raced an Imp many moons ago with a push rod Ford in the boot. Perhaps Jac can enlighten us.

[Jac Mac]

[color="#0000CD"]Yes Im pretty sure Barry's car originally was a 2 litre SOHC Ford before the BDA, I cannot remember seeing the car race with a saloon roof though. Barry rang me to see what I thought about the idea of building one with the SOHC but I must have been having a MSI financial hiatus at that time as I never saw the cars early races, had a couple of brilliant tussles with Barry @ Wigram one year ( V8 Cortina vs Imp), my own Imp went to Gary Jenkins for a couple of years before it disappeared into the Brumby rust collection centre.[/color]

[Grant Ellwood]

[color="#0000CD"]Yes Im pretty sure Barry's car originally was a 2 litre SOHC Ford before the BDA, I cannot remember seeing the car race with a saloon roof though. Barry rang me to see what I thought about the idea of building one with the SOHC but I must have been having a MSI financial hiatus at that time as I never saw the cars early races, had a couple of brilliant tussles with Barry @ Wigram one year ( V8 Cortina vs Imp), my own Imp went to Gary Jenkins for a couple of years before it disappeared into the Brumby rust collection centre.[/color]

Might be having a senior moment but didn't the Vuyk Stilleto end up in Bryan Bates possession?
.

[Jac Mac]

Might be having a senior moment but didn't the Vuyk Stilleto end up in Bryan Bates possession?
.

[color="#0000CD"]Not sure, but a bit more info in posts #200 thru #204 on this thread. [/color]

[Paul Wilkinson]

Might be having a senior moment but didn't the Vuyk Stilleto end up in Bryan Bates possession?
.

Yes it did, with a rotary engine. Aparently it was parted out and scrapped by Impwerks some years ago. They used to advertise that they had some of the original bits and would build a replica if someone wanted....

[Paul Wilkinson]

[video=youtube;ZBjY3VdX5Oc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBjY3VdX5Oc[/video]

God bless Youtube - this is the best thing I've seen all week.

[Shano]

That thing's quick!

[Greg Mackie]

That Bathurst video is great.

There is an Imp behind me, I'm sure.....I could see it in the mirrors! Eastern Creek - South Circuit.

[Grant Ellwood]

That thing's quick!

Who is driving that Imp, Jim Richards, Kimi Raikkonen ?

[Oldfart]

Seemed like a fair few gear changes upwards through the box?

[Oldfart]

Who is driving that Imp, Jim Richards, Kimi Raikkonen ?

Well, one of them had history with Imps

[seaqnmac27]

Might be having a senior moment but didn't the Vuyk Stilleto end up in Bryan Bates possession?
.

Hi Grant, no not a senior moment, sorry about the delay in reply, You are absolutely right, it was in Bryans hands for a while, during his ownership, the car was repowered to a rotary with the aid of Bob Homewood, who keeps saying he will tell that story. My uncle, Gordon McBride was Bryans mechanic at that stage.

[Bryan]

I knew a guy Alex Isbey- he would have been one of the best Mini drivers.He had a 998 Cooper , but could easily beat Coopers S on rallys and hill climbs. He decided to build a super Mini. Got a 1500 Maxi motor 5 speed. Modified it -big zephyr valves , webbers...

John, any idea which Zephyr valves he used? Be interesting to compare to the factory World Cup Maxi engine.

[John McKechnie]

Bryan- I understood at the time -mid 70s- they were Zephyr- possibly one of the Halliday Bros may know, or his codriver at the time may know. If he does, I am sure he will post here

[Oldfart]

Alex co-driver/part owner of the Mixi does not post on here. Hallidays certainly built the motor and other bits of it. It has been discussed thoroughly on touring stages on Targa

[Bryan]

Alex co-driver/part owner of the Mixi does not post on here. Hallidays certainly built the motor and other bits of it. It has been discussed thoroughly on touring stages on Targa

I have to confess to being a bit of a BL geek , so I'm intrigued about what was done to the E4 by the Hallidays and how well it worked.

Previously, the only competition use I knew of for the E-series was the twin-carb 1500 E4 1970 World Cup Maxi, and the stock E6 in the 1974 Bathurst Marina. Lynx did a lot of work for Leyland in Australia, and listed manifolds for single and twin Webers for the E4 and triple Webers for the E6. And BL fitted twin Webers to the MG Maestro 1600 in the 1980s.

[Steve Holmes]

That Bathurst video is great.

There is an Imp behind me, I'm sure.....I could see it in the mirrors! Eastern Creek - South Circuit.

Wow Greg, this is a really cool photo! Your VW has quite some attitude going on here.

[Bryan]

One of my colleagues is the son of the late Ted Dutch, who raced an Imp (#74) at Pukekohe in the late '60s and early '70s. The car was destroyed in a fire at Reg Cook's workshop.

Does anyone have any photos of the car?

[SPman]

The Mini that.....senior moment - the deaf engine balancer out Kumeu way - Ted Thompson? - grafted a twin cam Ford engine onto the Mini gearbox. I can only vaguely remember it, but, does anyone know anything about that?

[Ross Hollings]

Ted sure did do that,remember seeing it when he ran it at Western Springs Speedway when they had a meeting featuring circuit racing cars.Went alright to.Can not remember how reliable it was but it did not feature as a "giant killer' that i remember.He balance parts for the Minimax for me when we rebuilt the motor after a blow up !!!.Out in the woops of Kumeu is correct. RH