You Need This: A Mini Born to Battle Goliath

The folks at Mini Tec have been creating really fast Minis for 14 years now, usually using Honda power. And that's exactly what they did this this rather humble-looking British Racing Green Mini. It's propelled by a Honda B16 VTEC engine–like what you’d find in a 1999-2000 Civic Si.

But they went …

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I want this, and to be in the world from "I am Legend" so I could drive all day, every day with no one in the way.  

No, I would never tire of it.  

After watching binky and looking at the fenders on that green car I can't help but just feel like they really cut corners by not narrowing the honda wheelbase

In reply to Robbie :

Nick is also building Binky to be mainly a street car (they've spent two episodes so far on the HVAC, for example) whereas this green car looks to be more of a track car.  

I would want to flare it even more :) I think its awesome

Flares are fine but there are much better looking ways to do it than this.

Ian F said:

In reply to Robbie :

Nick is also building Binky to be mainly a street car (they've spent two episodes so far on the HVAC, for example) whereas this green car looks to be more of a track car.  

I don't really understand builds like this, it's got no interior/trunk space and poly bushings underneath, so it's got to be pretty miserable on the street, but it's also got a sketchy looking bolt in cage and style buckets with 4 point harnesses.  Almost seems like more of a show car than anything else.

There is some tidy packaging going on there. I love the way the muffler's nestled into all the stuff on the undercarriage.

I'm not bothered by the notion of urethane bushings on the street; this isn't a comfy cruiser. I liked what they did for sharpening up my 2002, and it was only a small bump in NVH with everything else going on. Similarly for the seats and belts, which, assuming they're like the Schroths, are livable on the street (if less convenient than retracting 3-points). The seats seem like a nice combination of support and style.

Seems like a reasonable set of choices for a fun-street/autox/occasional-track-day car to me... I think the cage would be tidier welded, but I'm under the impression that bolt-in doesn't necessarily mean sketchy. And it looks like those door bars might be removable, which would make it much more streetable.

Binky's way cooler, but can you imagine the price tag on that thing if it came up for sale? (Dangit, why no wide-eyed emoji? And why does the "cool" one look more like it's wearing thick glasses than shades?)

I love it. Those Fortech flares are what you used to see in SCCA GT5 and the GTL minis.

It seems like the a high proportion of folks who convert a Mini to FWD VTEC power, end up putting it up for sale soon after. There are always cars for sale, though not usually AWD ones.

I've been in that car and it is awesome.  The owner had it built as a "weekend track car."  I'm surprised he is putting it up for sale.  If my V6 Mini wasn't so much fun, I'd consider buying it.  Life IS too short to be driving boring cars. 

Something something, Moog from MCM has something like this, and while that guy tends to be pretty excitable, he seems genuinely in love with his B16 Mini. Perhaps there's something special to that mix...