Mini Sport Blog has a PR 3!

For all you web geeks out there,

The Mini Sport Official Blog has just received a Google Page Rank of 3 today! This is a great achievement and we are very pleased it has been so succesful over the last few months!

So what is Google Page Rank?

Google Page Rank can be basically explained as a numeric value between 0-10 that represents how important a page is on the web. Google counts on many factors to assign Page Rank and we have been working very hard behind the scenes to be able to promote the blog so effectively.

Mini Sport Rally vid - Jim Clark 09 part 4

Jim Clark 09 - ss3 Part 2 - Minisport BMW Mini Cooper S - Harper / Campbell

Mini Sport Rally vid - Jim Clark 09 part 3

Jim Clark 2009 - ss3 Ab'y st Bathans part 1 - Minisport BMW Mini Cooper S - Harper / Campbell

Mini Sport Rally vid - Jim Clark 09 part 2

Jim Clark 2009 - ss2 Bothwell - Minisport BMW Mini Cooper S - Harper / Campbell

Mini Sport Rally vid - Jim Clark 09 part 1

Jim Clark 09 - SS1 Duns - Mini Sport BMW Cooper S - HARPER / CAMPBELL

Mini Sport design Mini 50 logo

Mini Sport are proud to be the Title Sponsors of both the IMM2009 and Mini 50 which is being held on August 7/8/9 2009 at Cofton Park in Birmingham.

The Mini Sport advertising department were approached to adapt their own superb 50th logo to incorporate the Birmingham Mini Owners Club logo (BMOC). Of course we jumped at the chance to be involved with such a huge milestone event and the result is the fantastic logo above, which we hope does the Mini 50 and the event proud!

As Title Sponsors of both the IMM2009 and Mini 50, Mini Sport are currently producing many different items of merchandise which will be available at the show and we are sure will turn into sure collectors items in years to come!

Keep your eyes peeled over the next few months for updates on this very special event!

www.mini50.com

www.imm2009.com

Mini Sport at London to Brighton 2009

The London to Brighton was the first major show of what will be a very special and very busy year, the Mini’s 50th Anniversary.

The London to Brighton Mini Run is arguably the largest one make car show in the world. 2100 official Mini tickets, and the event is further attended by around 400-500 additional Minis who use the many public car parks in and around Brighton.

Improving on what is already the biggest show in the show calendar is a tricky business, this event is not just a static show, it is a lots of people and a lot of cars having fun on the Saturday in Crystal Palace, making a historic run at an ungodly hour, and only then do we take over the whole seafront for a great show.

Mini Sport arrived first on Madeira Drive in Brighton at 5am on Sunday morning in order to set up the 16m long stand full of hundreds of parts and accessories. Despite the early morning torential downpour which created havoc with the stock and tent, the day was hugely successful and we wish to thank all the Mini owners and customers who made the day such a great event!

See you all there next year!

www.london-to-brighton.co.uk

JACK NEAL 2009 Memorial Rally Report

FRAMOR's "FIRST LADY !"

The first running of the Jack Neal Memorial Rally held at Blyton in Lincolnshire was the latest venue for the Mini Sport Rally Team to compete again recently with the Aberdeenshire crew of Martin Page and "The Missus" Claire making the 900 mile round trip to compete to help raise funds for the Pendleside Hospice.

On this occassion, the four car Mini Sport Team had a change from the normal running with Mini Sports mechanic Mick Anderson driving Daniels Cooper 'S' and co-driven by his 15 year old son Ben. The Dawes brothers Ian and Gary swapped driving and co-driving roles for the day while John Cressey was co-driven by his mechanic Jim Constantine. Martin also had a first timer alongside as Claire vacated her usual role driving the Management car to make her co-driving debut in the rally car with him.

Here, Claire reports on her own experience of how it all went in the lesser known side of a rally car - the co-drivers seat.

With 12 tarmac stages to get through and a new mix of crews in the rally cars it was possibly going to be an eventful day. 

Having sorted all the paper work for the rally I was a little nervous going into the first stage with the responsibility of calculating times and reading the route through the intercom. I have been involved with the team for a few years now and have seen all the in-car camera footage from each rally but nothing prepares you for the assault on the senses that being in a rally car at full speed gives you. Its very noisy and the car is sliding sideways at ridiculous speeds. Its amazing.

I had a real insight into the job of the co-driver and saw just how important they are in the car. I nearly missed a time control coming out of one of the stages but realised in time and got us back there without any time penalty. 

By the second special stage I was a little more confident at calling bends and surface changes but had Martin laughing as for some reason I was compelled to tell him when I thought he should use the handbrake by shouting "handbrake, handbrake" about six times on the rather fast approach to a hairpin. 

Back in Service the car was given a good check over and I consulted Davie Stuart our brilliant mechanic on how much fuel to put in the car for the next few stages. The co-driver is also responsible for overseeing each service as the mechanics have to do any repairs within a specified time, calculated by me! If I had got the sums wrong we could have incurred time penalties. The responsibility is huge and so are the consequences if a co-driver gets it wrong.

Back out on the stages all was going well when Martin suddenly reported that the car had lost power. It was noticably misfiring. This is a real distraction for 'your' driver as I found out when Martin questioned the route. In these situations I had been told that the co-driver is the boss as he or she should know exactly what the route and timings are and should stick to their guns. At this point the co-driver would also be radio'ing the mechanics to give them advanced warning that something is up and to be ready for us in Service.

Thankfully I did stick to my guns and much to my own relief kept us on track. Unfortunately we had to suffer the misfire for three stages but Martin made the best of it and cracked on until we could make repairs.

Back at Service, Davie did a brilliant job of diagnosing and replacing split injector seals.....whatever they are! He was also kept busy when The Brother's Dawes came into service with a snapped drive shaft. Incredibly he singlehandedly removed the old broken one and replaced it in a matter of a few minutes. 

With my new found confidence and the cars performance improved we went into the final stages. With practice from the previous special stages, I was now calling all the bends fluently and even throwing in my own made up calls of "handbrake at will !" I think I was starting to put "my driver" off a little as he kept laughing at this for some reason!

The feeling of crossing the flying finish on the last stage was absolutely amazing. I have looked at the in-car camera film and all you can hear is me cheering and clapping! I had finished my first ever rally as a co-driver and we came in 5th in class and 20th overall which I'm really chuffed about.

The co-drivers role is often overlooked by the motorsport media but I have now doubt that its a full team effort in and out of the rally car. I had a fantastic day and a great insight into the job. The rally also raised £2000 for the hospice.

A huge thanks to Martin Cressey and all the other co-drivers for their patience while I badgered them with questions and to the lads at Framor Garage and Mini Sport.

Claire.

Mini Sport new CNC Centre

Here is a quick snap to give you all a taster of our new CNC facility. 

The concrete floor has just been laid and we are in the process of installing 2 new machines shown above and also the new laser etcher CAD machine.

The other 3 CNC machines currently in use are being moved over in the next 3-4 weeks giving us a total 6 CNC machines and a huge capacity for the design, development and production of a huge rage of products and components.

Due to fully open by the end of June, I'm sure you will agree this is an exciting time for Mini Sport!

JIM CLARK NATIONAL RALLY 2009

The National Jim Clark 2009 rally will start from Duns and complete one circuit of the day one Lammermuir stages in the half light of a Scottish summer’s evening before returning to its Kelso base for the night. On Day two the rally will following the International competitors for most of the route before finishing a little earlier again back in Kelso.

The rally takes place over 2 days, starting on Friday 22nd May.

In preparation for the rally, both the Harper and Cressey MINIs are being checked over and rebuilt at the moment so they are ready for the competiton.

Good luck to the Mini Sport Rally Team who have two MINIs entered, #131 Daniel Harper/Chris Campbell and #138 John Cressey/Stan Quirk.

www.jimclarkrally.com

4 Pin Diffs on the Machine!

The Mini Sport 4 Pin Differential is also on the CNC machine this week. The picture above shows the diff casing being machined at Mini Sport Head Quarters in Padiham, Lancashire.

Product Description:

Available as Pot joint, Rubber coupling or Hardy spicer types.

Re-occurring problems with the standard differential especially under competition circumstances prompted us to design and develop the 4 pinion differential. Engineered and crafted from an innovative design in high specification materials to give a very tough and hard wearing component.
Highly recommended for all disciplines of motorsport and modified cars.

buy Mini Sport 4 Pin Diff

Mini Sport Rally vid - Mull 2008 Scridain

Mini Sport Rally vid - Jack Frost 09

Mini Sport Rally vid - Mull 08 Gribun

A new batch of alloy swivel hubs

This week sees the latest batch of Alloy Swivel Hubs hit the CNC machines at Mini Sport in England.

Here you see the part machined swivel hubs stacked ready for the next stage of machining which will be completed by early next week. Later in the week will see them going for hard anodising and then at the end of the week they will be shipped out to waiting customers.

Product Information:

Only 0.71kg per hub. Suitable for all disc brake Mini's, come as a complete kit with uprated ball joints, Specially modified Cooper S steering arms, locating dowels and mounting bolts

Mini Sport Alloy Swivel Hub Kit

New CNC Laser Etching

Mini Sport are due to launch their very latest CNC machines which will revolutionise the machining processes already in place.

The new Laser Etching machine allows text, images, logos, graphics and even photos to be machined onto nearly every product Mini Sport produces in house.

This picture above shows the Mini Sport 1.5:1 roller tip rockers wearing their new laser etched Mini Sport logo. 

Laser etching allows much smaller logos and information to be machined into products like rocker arms whereas previously this would have had to be machined in to the face, much the same as the face of the 4 pot caliper. To give you an idea of speed, the laser etcher can etch in the Mini Sport logo on a batch of 5 rockers arms in 5 seconds!

Keep you eyes peeled over the next few weeks for more exclusive Mini Sport products sporting the new laser etching logo!

Mini Sport Roller Tip Rockers

Mini Sport at Brighton!

Mini Sport are preparing thousands of parts and accessories to make the 5 hour trip to Brighton this weekend.

As one of the official London to Brighton 2009 Show supporters, Mini Sport will be proudly making an appearance this Sunday on the front at Brighton.

The London to Brighton Mini run is one of the biggest convoys of minis worldwide and begins at Crystal Palace Park in London and makes its way down to Brighton some 55 miles away. Departing early Sunday morning and due into Brighton late morning/early afternoon depending on traffic of course!

The L2B run is a firm favourite of many mini enthusiasts and Mini Sport will be there to celebrate with the thousands of mini owners in this superb event.

London & Surrey Mini Owners Club’s London to Brighton Mini Run is the biggest and best Mini event in the show calendar. Taking place each May it attracts entrants from all over the world, and it is a fantastic opportunity for owners to show off their pride and joy, and the public to take in the spectacle of around 2,500 Minis as they make the 55 mile pilgrimage from Crystal Palace Park, London to Madeira Drive on Brighton’s seafront.

Once in Brighton the event takes over the whole seafront and has many attractions including Autotest demonstrations, Show ‘n’ Shine, Traders and lots more.

This year we will be celebrating the Minis 50th Anniversary in style and making the London to Brighton bigger and better than ever! On this website you will find news and updates, galleries from previous events and a plethora of information to help you enjoy the event. Ensure you visit on a regular basis to be kept up to date on the latest event news.

For further information see the official website here