1970 BL Mini - Works 4wd

Lot details
Registration No: UN-REG
Chassis No: T.B.A.
Mot Expiry: None

This is the only 4-wheel drive Mini ever built by the factory, by Abingdon-based Special Tuning to be precise, who created this one-off specifically to win the televised Lydden Rallycross for British Leyland. Lord Stokes commissioned the former Comps Department boffins to come up with a Ford Capri 4WD beater which they did in less than two weeks - the car offered here being seen by millions of armchair punters winning its debut race at Lydden!
The four-wheel drive components - taken from a Mini-based experimental military vehicle, the Ant - were fitted into a Mini Clubman bodyshell, which has a longer bonnet to better accommodate the crossflow aluminium head and four Amal carbs of the ultimate 1293cc Cooper S '8-porter'.
Following the 4WD Rallycross ban, this unique Mini was acquired from BL in 1977, being converted back to FWD for the 1978 season, the engine powering a lightweight car which came second in the 1979 British Championship. Happily, all the original parts were carefully stored until 1999, when a period-correct restoration was undertaken employing original shell and rebuilt 8-port engine producing 124bhp. Since completion, it has been successfully demonstrated at the 2001 Silverstone Rallysprint by one of the original drivers Hugh Weldon and has been fully authenticated by Basil Wales, former Manager of Special Tuning who built and ran the car in the early 1970s. It is being sold as a running and extremely historic off-roader, both diffs being locked.