Blinky

[Adrian Caspersz]

Blink Blink 15 ;-)

[Fredxxx]

How many years have passed since Project Blinky 1?

[John Rumm]

So many (about 3) he has forgotten its called Binky!

[Brian-Gaff]

Ablinky is a humorous name for a blind person. However I'm not sure why, since we tend not to blink more than anyone else does. Ey wobblers or something like that, or maybe something less funny? Brian

[Brian-Gaff]

Binky? Sounds like some gangsters Mol. Brian

[Adrian Caspersz]

Oops :)

[John Rumm]

In this case Brian is a series of videos by a couple of mad chaps attempting to shoehorn the engine and running gear from a Toyota GT4 turbo into a classic Austin mini. Needless to say its taking some very elaborate and skilled fabrication work to do!

(in fact their voice over and commentary is quite amusing, so you might enjoy it enjoy it even without the pictures!)

Episode one video link below:

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The classic one I saw was a Mini with a Rover V8 in the back driving the front wheels. At a road hill climb competiton. It produced lots of smoke from the tyres with very little forward motion.

A true Darwin contender.

[harry]

I did see a Minor 1000 with a Rover 3.5 V8 engine fitted. The only external clue was it said MINOR 3500 on the boot lid.

The engine fitted easily into the engine bay.

[Brian Gaff]

The question arises... why? I guess its like that Roller they put a Merlin Aero Engine into. What next, souped up lawn mowers? Brian

[Mark Allread]

Already around Brian - they are used for racing.

[Tim+]

Some people just love an engineering challenge and the amount of re-engineering involved is mind-boggling.

Of course it's also advertising for their business but watching them problem-solving as they go along is a joy to behold in this age of dumbed down television.

I think this will be a throughly useable car at the end, unlike the Roller.

Tim

[The Natural Philosopher]

FSVO 'usable'

Its built like a rally car.

[Tim+]

With four seats and central locking?

Tim

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Some seem to want to do it just because they think it can be done. Against all logical arguments. But good luck to them. It's the sort of thing I love to do too.

Far more likely to be a Meteor. They survived in much greater quantities.

There's an SD1 Rover with a Meteor engine. There's a video of it getting up to approx 160 mph. But not showing it attempting to stop from that speed. ;-)

The fastest standard one managed 135 mph with an engine 1/8th the size.

[Andy Burns]

I bet discussions with insurance companies will be interesting

Because that's what they're used to building, it doesn't actually have a roll-cage, but I think they designed-in some hard points for one "just in case" ...

[Chris J Dixon]

Most sources seem to think it was a Merlin

Unlike this rather nicer vehicle:

Chris

[harry]

No, cheaper than a normal car. They rarely have accidents. The proud owners are very careful with their creations. I had a similar V8 engined car myself thirty odd years ago.

Kit cars are also very cheap to insure by and large.

[harry]

[Dave Plowman (News)]

They are likely just reporting what the owner told them. Informed sources who've seen that car say it's a Meteor. Dodds often referred to it as a Spitfire engine - but Spitfires had superchargers, and wouldn't be a Spitfire without. There is something like a 4 times difference in power output between the lowest and highest power versions of that RR 27 litre V12.

Dodds had an earlier version of that car with an open body. Saw it in the flesh once. Not a pretty sight. ;-)

They do indeed seem to know what they've fitted.