Hello World
This Blog (which has been recreated/reposted after a few annoying hacks into Wordpress on my own website!) will follow the (probably slow) build process of converting a standard 1978 Leyland Mini Clubman 1100cc into a street legal, EFI, turbocharged sleeper in Perth, Western Australia
I grew up around Minis thanks to my Dad restoring, amongst other cars, both a genuine 1969 Cooper S and a 1972 Clubman GT. I loved the idea of a small car with excellent performance and handling and my first hand love of Minis was with a 1972 1100cc Clubman with hydrolastic setup - purchased in 2003 and semi restored. It was sadly sold to pay for half of my wedding in 2007. I loved the car but was never a fan of the seemingly constant tune ups that the car & carby required. Since then, I’ve had plans to do things bigger & better.
The Toyota Starlet GT has a 1331cc turbo engine (4E-FTE engine) with 100kW out of the box is widely known for it’s tuning potential. To fit the 4E-FTE engine into a Mini is not a new thing but it is to be the engine conversion for me. Thanks to a few folks on http://www.ausmini.com/ forums and and Matt Power (http://www.mpdesign.id.au/ - as some view to be one of the pioneers of a well known, strong and purposeful subframe design to house the Starlet engine) documenting their builds, there has been some invaluable knowledge passed onto myself and others.
For me, this build will probably be a few years in the making and a balance act with my gauge pod business, but am looking forward to the challenges that I face and will certainly be the single biggest technical challenge I have faced in many years.
The list of items to complete for this conversion is massive but it’s all one step at a time. I hope this page will give others the confidence to attempt such a conversion.
This Blog (which has been recreated/reposted after a few annoying hacks into Wordpress on my own website!) will follow the (probably slow) build process of converting a standard 1978 Leyland Mini Clubman 1100cc into a street legal, EFI, turbocharged sleeper in Perth, Western Australia
I grew up around Minis thanks to my Dad restoring, amongst other cars, both a genuine 1969 Cooper S and a 1972 Clubman GT. I loved the idea of a small car with excellent performance and handling and my first hand love of Minis was with a 1972 1100cc Clubman with hydrolastic setup - purchased in 2003 and semi restored. It was sadly sold to pay for half of my wedding in 2007. I loved the car but was never a fan of the seemingly constant tune ups that the car & carby required. Since then, I’ve had plans to do things bigger & better.
The Toyota Starlet GT has a 1331cc turbo engine (4E-FTE engine) with 100kW out of the box is widely known for it’s tuning potential. To fit the 4E-FTE engine into a Mini is not a new thing but it is to be the engine conversion for me. Thanks to a few folks on http://www.ausmini.com/ forums and and Matt Power (http://www.mpdesign.id.au/ - as some view to be one of the pioneers of a well known, strong and purposeful subframe design to house the Starlet engine) documenting their builds, there has been some invaluable knowledge passed onto myself and others.
For me, this build will probably be a few years in the making and a balance act with my gauge pod business, but am looking forward to the challenges that I face and will certainly be the single biggest technical challenge I have faced in many years.
The list of items to complete for this conversion is massive but it’s all one step at a time. I hope this page will give others the confidence to attempt such a conversion.
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