The High Road

摘要

Thanks to Kirsty McLaughlin and the members of www. scottishmini.co.uk for organising an eye-opening dyno day out at Boness, near Edinburgh. Gone are the days when specially mapped ECUs and after-market injection were strange concepts. The availability of diverse engine management systems has made it quite a lot easier to get the best out of a non-Mini engine installation. And specialised knowledge among Mini owners is keeping up with the market. Probably the most surprising car of the day was Denis O'Brien's Clubman with a turbo 1.4 K-series, which reached a huge 189bhp before bursting the standard head gasket. It's not a pretty Mini but it's very effective as a test bed for the affordable K-series twin-cam, which has been very effectively treated to a turbocharger conversion. Honda VTECs won the day for the non-Mini-engined cars and proved just how well they produce power, without any mechanical modifications at all, that beats even some forced-induction engines. Top A was David Lamb's 1399cc Mini Works-powered car at 99.5bhp and the club average across the 15 Minis tested was 99.63bhp at the crank. Testers were Ecosse Peugeot's director, Matt Collins, and Greg Paton. Our thanks to The Mini Works' Simon Drew for technical analysis.