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  1. I think this will be the right place..... Hi all, long time listener first time caller. So here goes... January last year I entered my first grass motorkhana with my Daily commodore wagon. Something I'd been wanting to do for a while as the old man rallied when I was younger, but gave up because it was too expensive. I Had an absolute ball, even though my car was far too big to maneuver, staggered wheels made me under steer everywhere and my p/s pump gave up by the end of the day. So I cracked open the savings and decided it was time for a project car. It had a few conditions... 1)It had to be a bit of an investment(ie. If I had to sell it I wouldn't lose too much money) 2) Not too hard to find parts for and simple(ish) to work on as I wanted to learn on something that I didn't have to drive every day 3) Able to be more competitive than my commodore around cones haha After considering a few options including a very good offer from a mate trying to sell his NA8 Mx5. I kept coming back to Mini's.. Namely Japanese ones, as most were already well spec'd with a 1275 injected engine and don't seem to have as much rust as some of the older ones. I'd also kinda always wanted one after going for a ride in a couple when I was a teenager and now in my 20s I'm in a slightly better position to have my own. After a few months and a juggling of finances, this gem popped up for sale locally. Which I promptly set about acquiring. The dealer had already had spent a fair bit on it, tidying it up and bringing it up to standard to pass compliance. From Japan it had a performance exhaust of some sort, Coil spring adjusties (lol) with cert, the flares and 13x6 Watanabes. All stuff I would've done eventually anyway so that was a bonus.... A few months later a winter motorkhana came up, this time on Tarmac in the top carpark at Hampton Downs, I did a few things to the car to prepare it, including replacing the absolutely shot (and downright dangerously perished) tyres with Yokohama A048's for max grip (would recommend) Had an awesome day yet again and managed to come a long way in my driving. Having never owned a fwd car got a bit of practice pulling the handbrake to get around those tight corners towards the end of the day, once I built up a bit of confidence. Still a ways to go yet though. Car did awesome too with the only real problem being my new gear knob almost coming off in my hand on one of the earlier runs. I spent the rest of the winter continuing on making the interior a more comfortable place to be. Ordered some floor mats from Japan. Got some different seat brackets from minisport, a genuine Italian Nardi wheel from Driftworks in the uk to show how everyone JDM I am. A Steveston Motor co steering wheel drop bracket, and the most pita thing.. A Custom sort of trim matched Cobra Clubman fixed back seat (never shipping a seat from overseas again ) Things were going well and I was taking the car for the occasional drive to work etc. til around October. I managed to get into an accident in my Commodore. The Mini became my daily while it was at the panel beaters. That was going well for about a bit over a month until I lost clutch pressure one afternoon on the way home from work. The day before it was booked in for a wof. The old man came through the with sos call and we (well mostly him) spent most of the night bleeding it up to get it usable. We swapped cars as he has starts at stupid o'clock and has no traffic to contend with on his commute. Once I got my daily back it just sat in the corner of the shed as by this stage it was close to Christmas/New Years. As with most people around that time of year, money/spare time were required in other areas and I was pretty over it. Until I was camping with some mates at the start of January and saw my new friends at the Pukekohe Car Club were holding the first round of their motorkhana series, the same series I had entered in the Commodore last year. From the comfort of my tent I ordered a new clutch master cylinder thanks to classic mini spares in Te Puke. Also joined the club for future events. After a bit of a mission squeezing around the air con unit and working under the dash Dad and I got it in. Its still leaking out of the slave cylinder a little. Its a mission to get to with everything crammed in the little engine bay. But seemed to hold pressure and not cause any problems. so we were good to go. And vowed to do it properly once the series was done. I completely underestimated how hard it was driving on grass. I was still running the A048's as I don't have anything else, which probably didn't help my cause. But again learnt lots about driving, car didn't miss a beat, even the clutch! So a successful day. I drove it around for a bit, again, the odd trip to work etc. As I really enjoy driving it. Round two of the motorkhana series came up and it was only a few km from my house so I thought I've got nothing to lose. Set to adjusting my handbrake and thought I will push it home if I have any major clutch problems. I wish that second photo was better quality. Again another awesome day. Thankfully no pushing required either. Had some tips from the old man and a few of the guys that knew what they were doing, including a fella named Craig who won the event in his Mini. Learnt lots about car control and am sort of getting the hang of the handbrake now. I was doing reasonably well until I couldn't crack one of the last courses of the day which put me back. Consistency seems to be the key here. So this about brings us up to date. Car is still very much drive able. I put a new grille on it at the end of last year as well as using rivnuts on the flares and a few other little things. Lockdown induced boredom made me paint the old grille black and take the spotlights off to clean things up a bit. I'd like an Italian spec black Innocenti grill one day, but this will do for now. I've got a huge wish list of things from Japan and England that I'll get underway once this level 4 is over. I was going to wait until the last few motorkhanas were over, as there was two more rounds planned and didn't want to have the car out of action. But now I can take some time and do it properly. Which is kind of why I left it when it shat the bed. The engine and subframe will be coming out as the gearbox has had a crunch into second since I've owned it and there is a few oil leaks (typical). So that will be getting rebuilt with new Baulk rings along and will be throwing in a new clutch slave. . Wanted to do everything at once. Already got some new tyres on there way thanks to Hyper's 40% off and free shipping lockdown sale and hopefully another set of wheels lined up too. If you've read all of this, thanks for sticking with us this far. I've learnt so much already. Definitely no regrets.
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