Irish Mini Owners Club

Here is the edited highlights video for last weekends Hewison Trophy National Autotests in Sahen Media, Sligo and Oranmore, Galway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnsKRium ... e=youtu.be

Thanks to all the lads on here who marshaled on Sat, its not a big sport so we really appreciate you all standing out in the rain and doing the dirty work so we can have our fun!


If you want to see more videos etc from the series we are constantly updating out facebook page, just give it a like

https://www.facebook.com/hewisonautotest

Excellent video

Great video was at galway was very impressed wit wat they could do never seen it before. Slightly fell in love wit it. Could be something for me to look into

wouldnt be expensive to get started if you have parts lying round, lots of autotest cars started out as rolled road cars. Mine did!

Fantastic video .
Delighted to help out . ( I have been helping with autotesting in Sligo since the mid 80s) .
And again thanks to IMOC members who turned up .

Some photos from Sligo

Cheap, guy did I not hear your car was a 5 digit number to build?? Was up at the beginners championship a couple of weeks ago, great craic. There was older men turning up in their daily drives and doing it.

Is there anyone around galway doin it? Will have to look into something in da new year. Would like to give it ago.

spud1979 wrote:Cheap, guy did I not hear your car was a 5 digit number to build??

I wasnt referring to my car i was talking about getting started.

Not that its appropriate for you to be telling me my own business on a public forum but yes, in the 6 years since i started autotesting the total cost upgrading my car including labour (im not a mechanic) would be up (just) into 5 digits. I wouldn't consider that to be bad considering that ive done over 150 events in that time. Show me another form of motorsport where you can run at the front of the top class in the national championship for less.

There is a bit of a difference between running at the front of any championship and building a car to start off with. Its such a specialised sport that it takes a few years until you're running at the front, we started off with an ok car then upgraded it as we went along.

What you would need to start is:

Shell: Fibreglass flip front, any extra weight cut out, (no point in preparing the shell half arsed and having to do it again)
Subframes: strengthen the front a bit and lighten the rear as much as possible.
Engine & box: A std 1275 will be fine for the first year or even 2 as will a std diff. Move 1st to and 2nd to where 3rd and 4th are in the gearbox and block off 1st and 2nd.
Brakes: Cooper s 7.5 inch setup with servo and dual reservoirs. (brakes are really important to get right)
Suspension: set of decent shocks and hilos all round lower the front as much as possible leave the rear as is

If you could do all the work yourself you could have a very nice beginners car for less than €2k. After building the car it could then be upgraded as it went along, minifins, alloy rear hubs and swingarms, adjustable front suspension, hardened driveshafts, etc. Then you have a great handling car that would be easy enough to sell on if you decide you dont want to take the plunge of buying an med 1430 and quaife diff.

Considering that in autotests you can double drive you can half your costs by doing it with a friend. (autotests are all at one venue and its one car at a time, rules allow for 2 people to enter individually and drive the same car)

Compared to almost every other form of motorsport its very very cheap.

Great bit of info there. Helps me alot in considering all da factors. . Still think its worth da money.

Don't get me wrong it is a very cheap sport towards other motor sports. As I said at beginners day out you had lads turning up in charades, micras and taking out the spare wheel and back shelves for the event and then driving them on off home afterwards. Might be something I'll consider in the future taking part in again.

Fantastic video, I have to say a very social day out, great to see a mini being driven with such skill