Newsletter 35 - October 2003

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Clermont Ferrand for the dash to Orleans (toll 22 euros). As soon as we leE the autoroute we were totally lost, but navigang by the sun (if it's behind you you're going north) we managed to get on the map again. A couple of days in Sees (lovely old cathedral town) found us in the company of brits again; we had only met one English couple since leaving the hotel on our first morning. Then back to the ferry (on me again) for Portsmouth. We drove off (with crate of wine) at 9pm into a downpour (hood down of course), and had to resort to a few miles of fast driving to keep out the worst of it before we could erect the shelter (first me in 2 weeks) to connue home in the dry. Fourteen hundred miles door to door. Overall impressions The Auvergne is certainly worth a visit for the scenery food and villages. Open air driving can be hot work at such high temperatures, and it was interesng that it was all ntops (presumably with a/c) south of Normandy. But you can’t beat fresh air motoring in our opinion. Our bums were a bit sore at the end of it; those potholes aren’t soaked up too well parcularly when heavily loaded. Fluid consumpon: oil, none detectable; coolant, none detectable; petrol, around 37mpg; wine, many litres. No overheang despite hot weather, steep gradients and heavy load (the CT packs a Fiesta rad). Not a spanner or screwdriver was wielded during the fortnight. A memorable trip. John Hammond. John, thanks for the ar#cle, and the photos. That is the way to treat a Minari, take it for a long, well loaded and enjoyable trip on rela#vely traffic free roads. Great fun. I am Dear Peter, MORE ON MINARI Page 16 Letter to Which Kit From Minari-International Further to your Which,What, When article in August edition of Which-Kit I am glad to be able to inform your readers that Minari is not dead but only hibernating, albeit for a little longer that we had first hoped!! Minari International Limited acquired the residual tooling and design rights from the liquidator of Minari Engineering Limited early in 2000 . The Minari name was subsequently registered as a trademark with the full agreement of Minardi Formula One team. Unfortunately, the liquidator did not have possession of the production tooling for the Road Sport and RSR models which meant we had to work with pre-production tooling that had been originally been used for the Minari Mk1. It has proved quite difficult to recreate a satisfactory full roadgoing model like the Road Sport from this early tooling. We have
therefore decided to concentrate on producing a track day sports racing model that has the potential to be SVA compliant, the car will still utilise Alfa Romeo 33 running gear, engine and transmission, but the less attractive features of the Alfa donor e.g eccentric wiring will be phased out! Steve Greenwood (Quantum Extreme Chassis designer) has designed a new fabricated front subframe which will provide an adjustable front suspension still using the Alfa struts with coilover racing springs, and we are developing a revised rear suspension set up still based on the Alfa components but uitilising a stiff fabricated steel structure to provide improved location for rollover bars/race cages and safety harnesses. This should simplify the process of satisfying race circuit scrutineers and SVA inspectors who seem less familar with GRP monocoque structures and like to see some cold steel! Last year Richard Ashby penned a radical makeover to the car's front end and currently that is being tweaked to be less vulnerable to trackside kerbs and sleeping policemen. Although a prototype featuring full depth doors was developed the move away from full roadgoing design has meant that we will probably despense with doors and bond in the half height door mouldings to produce a central monocoque tub very similar the MInari RSR race cars that are still competing successfully in the Auto-Italia race series. Richard Ashby has also designed an attractive once piece dashboard with centralised instruments to enable both right and left hand drive versions to be manufactured. Hopefully, a revised fully adjustable pedal box and longer steering column will result in a more conventional sports racing driving position that larger guys like myself will be feel more comfortable with, a half screen will complete the package thus dispensing with the need for heater and wipers. When will all this be finished Well our company has relocated to North Cambridgeshire quite close to Jim Dudley's Tiger Cars and our main activitities continue to be in IT and Technology Consultancy so Minari- Racing, as the project is now designated, is not our highest priority. We are currently in discussions with a potential European based partner as the popularirty of Alfa 33 in the Benelux region could develop an attractive market for the kit. We also have an agreement with Mettisse cars that production cars/kits could be manufactured in S.Wales once we have sorted out the final specifcations and I really hope that by the end of this year we will have the first pre-production car running. We have donated a prototype kit to Brooklands College so hopefully when term time returns the college will make progress with getting their own Minari running in 2004. A new website is planned by end of August the domain name is:- www.minari-racing.co.uk My contact details are:- Michael Anthony Minari-Racing Page 17
Page 1 and 2: Minari Owners Register News Le er N
Page 3 and 4: could give me any advice for this t
Page 5 and 6: wire, allow to cool. Lead can be pl
Page 7 and 8: Enjoy your Minari Dave P.S. you wil
Page 9 and 10: eady to fit, all of the dirty work
Page 11 and 12: I went to Tredegar House, Newport,
Page 13 and 14: Cee Une Voiture Ce Je Montė Moi Me
Page 15: …………this (look and be jealo
Page 19 and 20: Heading South for the ‘winter’
Page 21 and 22: Following day, YB returned South an
Page 23 and 24: First loosen the top 3 nuts and bol
Page 25 and 26: Children, they can be so perceptive
Page 27 and 28: Contacts/Helplines Members who have

Newsletter 35 - October 2003

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