Don’t let the plasticky feel of Carbon-fibre fool you – the woven graphite inside the resin makes the stuff as electrically conductive as metal. Obviously that’s no real issue to go-faster car builders, who love the lightweight yet strong material, but it can catch a few people off guard every now and then. Unfortunately that includes Andrew Horne, who was happily relaxing at home, blissfully unaware of the shorted-out wiring under the bonnet of his project Mini and the inevitable fire that followed. Thankfully a neighbour alerted him of the inferno in time to extinguish it and save the car, but it made one hell of a mess of the front end. By this point Andrew had already put a fair amount of time and effort into his Mini project, and a mere engine bay fire wouldn’t stop his enthusiasm; it actually spurred him on to rebuild it better than before. The melted front end was strippe back, the engine removed and sights set on building a big-power turbo A-Series motor to compete with the fastest drag racing Minis in the country – quite a step up. We travelled up to see how this behemoth of a Mini is progressing so far, and were certainly wowed by the dedication to ultimate weight saving and ultimate power. The subframes have been swapped for Force Racing titanium versions, there’s lightweight composites all round, then trick suspension and brake upgrades to tame an estimated 250bhp. Of course to get this much power from an A-Series you need real commitment to the cause, because let’s face it, it’s going to be seriously stressed out, even if it only needs to run for quarter of a mile at a time. In this case it'll be getting a stonking turbo, nitrous oxide, fuel injection and a twin-cam 16-valve head from a BMW motorbike. We think Andrew may be slightly bonkers, in the best possible sense. Not only is he planning on a building a 500bhp per tonne Mini, but to also start attacking some local hillclimb and sprint courses. That might see some revisions to the spec, so he can go round corners without constantly lighting up the front tyres. First things first though, he’s getting married in July so it needs to finished off and buffed-up for the photos. That’s not very much time at all… So is this a road-going Mini? It was originally built as a road car and I used it to go to work on nicer days, not all year round, but it was still used regularly. It was quite standard with a MkI style, but then I started going down a more modified route, cutting the front end off and bolting on a carbon-fibre one. I got the rear beam from Force Racing, and I’ve been collecting lots of parts ever since. We’ve got a Paul Smith Mini as well, so the aim with this one is to have a bit of fun. We heard it was damaged in a fire? Yes I’d been to a local nighttime meet, came back in for some dinner and a while later someone came banging on the door. We ignored them at first, but they kept at it and it turned out to be one of the neighbours in a panic because the Mini was on fire outside. If it’d happened 15 minutes earlier we would have been out and about in it, and it didn’t have a fire extinguisher at the time, so it was fortunate that it was outside the house because we put it out before the fire service arrived. What caused it? My bad wiring was the cause I think – I’m OK with building up the car but wiring’s clearly not my thing. It had rubbed through on the front end, shorted out on the carbon-fibre weave and set it on fire. All of the resin went up in flames and started dripping down and setting fire to everything else. I'm pretty lucky that it’s still here in one piece. You must have been devastated… I had all the bits to put it back on the road, and it was always going to get a new engine that winter, so I decided to do it early. The shell itself was OK, just that the smoke and fire took the paint back to metal on the front. And then you went with a better engine? Yes, still a five-port but with nitrous. It was always going to be purely for drag racing, but now I’m hoping to go for more sprint events and hillclimbs. Eventually I’d like to try Time Attack and have a couple of rounds when it comes to Croft. It’s just the cost involved that’s holding me back at the moment. Have you built anything like this before? No only this one; it’s been ongoing for nine years now. The ideas have come from all over, with inspiration from lots of other cars that I've seen from going round the shows. What’s the engine now? It’s a 1293 built to very similar specs as The Don, Force Racing’s drag racer. We’re aiming for 250bhp with the turbo, although in theory it could potentially go even more than that. Carl Austin at Force Racing built the engine, or he did all the machining at least, then I went down and put it all together with him. I was happy to build the engine but I didn’t want to make a mistake – there’s been a fair bit gone into it and I didn’t want the risk. Will that not be undriveable? Yes, it may well be! As time’s gone on I’ve slowly moved away from the drag racing and really fancied some proper racing. York’s my closest drag strip, then Shakespeare County, and York doesn’t have the best strip. Will the nitrous be used as well? It’s staying for now but I can't see it getting used – it will have more power than it needs anyway. Have you done most of the work at home? Yes that was the plan. Everything I’ve tried to do myself, like making the exhaust, and it’s all been done in my uncle’s garage. Obviously I bought a lot of the stuff like the subframes and suspension, but the welding and respray I learnt to do myself. It’s not had anything done to it in this new garage yet, I just brought it here after Christmas and I’ve had to work on the Paul Smith a bit too. You’ve gone all-out on saving weight then? Yes pretty much. I’ve gone for a carbon-fibre front end, roof, doors, then stripped out all the back seat and replaced the panel with aluminium. The aim is around 500kgs – that’s where I’d like to be but it’ll be quite difficult because the engine is quite a bit heavier. Well, not the engine itself but all the turbo install, the extra cooling and pipework. Who made the rear seat panel? I spoke to M-Machine over in Darlington and one of the old panel beaters formed the bulkhead for me. I wanted to keep it all looking standard-ish. To be honest I don’t really like the wide arches but you’re stuck on that one as they’re 7x10s on there and anything narrower wouldn’t cover them. Are you sticking with 10s? It’s going to need a wheel change to get the power down. It’s probably going to have 13-inch wheels and slicks. I’ve got some other wheels to try at some point. What’s going on with the front intercooler? Originally I didn’t have a trailer license, so a lot of the front end revolved around the A-frame mounts. Now that’s all changed and it’ll be trailered instead, which means I can go for the intercooler and rad up front. I’ve been trialling a few different bits and will have to see about fitting the front end back on. It might even need a Clubman front, but we’ll see. What’s next? I’ve got this idea to take it to my wedding at the end of July. So I need to finish off the build, wire it up then sort the mapping as well. It’ll probably get trailered there to take a picture but it would be good to get it there at least. Do you need the seat so far back? It’s a bit unstable with all the power up front and so little weight in the back, so I’m trying to sit as far back as possible, seeing as I’m probably one of the heaviest parts of the car! I might even try to re-make the steering column to sit further back still, then go for a floor-mounted pedal box to bring them closer. Are you planning to compete in Mini Miglias? No I just liked the sticker and needed something to fill the gap. Eventually I’d like to have a go at something like that, but it’s probably going to be a bit too powerful now. The trouble is, with the spec of the car it’s a bit extreme for a lot of race series. The carbon-fibre roof puts it into a sports libre class, then with the 1275 turbo you’re into one of the highest classes there is. In hindsight it should have been a 998 turbo, but at least I’ve got some good stuff on it that can be transferred over to a new build eventually. A new build…? Yes I’d like to fit a fully welded-in rollcage, then once that’s in I might build a whole new engine to make it eligible for more series. Once I’ve got it running again I’ll start the process of making it more track orientated. What have you done to the suspension? It’s got coil-overs all round, aluminium hubs and Mondo Sport steering arms on there, but to be honest until I get it running I won’t know if all of those bits are what it needs. There’s going to be a lot to sort out, although everything’s adjustable so that should hopefully help to get it handling well. I’ve also bought a set of corner weight scales to get that side of things perfect when it’s back down on its wheels again. And the brakes? Mini Sport four-pots are on there for now, with KAD discs on the back. They worked really well before and there’s not much to stop anyway. Even with the five-port engine you could feel the rear end start to lift when hard on the brakes. I’m not sure if it was in the air but you could certainly feel it go light at the back! There’s a bias valve in there and it’s got pretty much no brake pressure to the rear – they don’t do a great deal.
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