Shaun’s son Charles Rainford has been at Goodwood today to take his ARDS course. He turned 16 in July receiving his MSA starter back for his birthday. Today he took his test passing with flying colours. Now for some track time in his red Lenham Le Mans.
Ian Gray’s ’62 Mini pickup sleeper is done and back with it’s owner. When it came in it was very standard and quite well worn in. We’ve repainted the engine bay, built up new subframes with Cooper S discs, poly bushes and Hi-Lo suspension, built an overbored 998cc engine with Speedwell head, Shorrock supercharger and a 5 speed Colotti gearbox. The difference is enormous with a surprising amount of power and a very positive gear change.
In his 27 years of Mini restoration our bodyshop manager Ian Goodwright has never seen an original mk1 Mini shell this good let alone a genuine early Mini Cooper S shell with right hand tank. The term “never been welded” has been used liberally in the past but this shell truly has never been welded. There is not a single seam on the car that is bubbling up with rust. Everything is original including the sills, wings, scuttle, a-panels and the proper mk1 rear seam covers (anoraks will know what that means). You can even see shiny bare metal under the door hinges. An extraordinary find from the dry climates of sunny California and imported only weeks ago. Unfortunately somebody has cut a few holes in it for speakers and the like but once we are finished with it it will be immaculately presented with a new coat of paint ready for its rebuild.
Although Dave Griffith’s newly acquired Triumph TR4 is a well proven and successful historic racer it is showing some signs of wear and tear. Before the season ends we are giving the car a fresh prep. New front brakes were in order along with a better rev counter, light weight Recaro seat and Sabelt harness. More work will be carried out over the winter.
Local car enthusiast Tim Abbott has spent some time racing Caterham’s but really wanted to get into something historic. He has consider many vehicles and at last the right opportunity has come along in the form of a 1965 BMW 1800ti. The ex-Richard Postins car is a well campaigned and successful racer having competed at Goodwood Revival and winning a U2TC championship. The car has not been used for a couple of seasons so the first thing to do is give it a thorough prep before Tim takes the car out at Brands Hatch for a shake down. We welcome Tim to the CCK family and look forward to racing with him. With Tim’s new acquisition we now have two BMW 1800ti’s to run next season.
