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DOWNTON CLUBSPORT
• BIKE-ENGINED TRIBUTE • PALMERSPEED SPECIALS • LEJOG ENDURANCE RALLY • DELUXE BUYING GUIDE • HIMLEY & IMM REPORTS • TOP TECH ADVICE
DOWNTON
CLUBSPORT
Retro tribute to
a great name
in tuning
BIKE-ENGINED
TRIBUTE MINI
In memory of a friend
PALMERSPEED
SPECIAL TRIO
The other Italian Coopers
ENDURANCE
MINI CHALLENGE
To the far ends of Britain
BUY IT
KNOW IT
FIX IT
DAVID
VIZARD
Tuning legend
writes for
Minimag!
MkI DeLuxe and Super
DeLuxe buying guide
MIM148.cover 1
Cooling masterclass:
improving the system
How to strip down and
rebuild your gearbox
£3.99 JULY 2008 ISSUE 148
MINI MAGAZINE JULY 2008
EEELL THE No.1 MAGAZINE FOR MINI OWNERS
FR
Y&S
19/5/08 11:25:03 am
CLASSIC TRIBUTE
Two
T
he perfect performance Mini? It
goes without saying that
nimbleness, liveliness, agility —
whatever you want to call it —
has got to be an inherent
characteristic, assisted of course by a
healthy dose of grip and traction. Obviously
it’s also got to be pretty fast; not crazy-fast,
as Minis have never been simply about
straight-line speed, but fast enough to keep
the car on the boil until the next corner
arrives. And, above all, it’s got to feel
focussed, full of character and always up for
it; that’s what Minis are all about after all.
Except that when you modify a Mini to
achieve such attributes, generally you end
up with something of a mess when
evaluated at any discipline other than the
one of going very fast indeed. Most people
are happy to accept such compromise, but
one person that was never happy with
sacrifices was Daniel Richmond. For him, a
car shouldn’t have become more noisy,
thirsty, temperamental or difficult to drive
simply because its performance envelope
was increased. And this is exactly why his
company, Downton Engineering Works,
achieved such a brilliant reputation for
tuning competition and road-going BMC
engines and, perhaps more famously,
building the hot Minis that they went in to.
Unfortunately Downton didn’t survive
the death of Daniel in 1974, and then his
wife Bunty, in 1976, but the company name
was revived in 1993 when brothers Stuart
and Paul Mickleburgh (who owned Symbol
Mini Company at the time) began trading
under the famous Downton
name. The operation
returned to what
Downton did best:
offering finely-
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CLASSIC TRIBUTE
worlds collide
With a perfect blend of performance and refinement, the
ClubSport 1.3i is very much deserved of the Downton badge.
Words Matt Zollo Photography Craig Pusey
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CLASSIC TRIBUTE
tuned and flawlessly-developed products
in limited numbers; the root of the original
company’s success had come from Daniel’s
and his employees’ skill at developing and
preparing tuning components and
performance cars in very small numbers,
fastidiously honing products to perfection.
It was an ironic consequence of its success
that, by the end of the company’s life, it had
turned into more of a large-scale
production line, churning out thousands
of mass-produced tuning kits for BMC’s
range — a situation that Daniel was never
happy with.
Quality counts
The new company also revived the
Downton ethos of performance and
refinement through engineering
excellence, and this car, the Downton
ClubSport, built in 1997 to celebrate 50
years since Daniel and Bunty purchased
the Downton concern, perfectly
encapsulates this. With the ClubSport they
managed to meld the attributes of that
perfect performance Mini without any
compromise or sacrifice, creating a wellrounded, well-resolved and reliable
package that still goes and feels like a hot
Mini. It may have 92bhp and an equally
useful amount of torque, but it starts first
time, every time, thanks to the single-point
injection. It might be able to attack corners
with the enthusiasm and gusto that every
modified Mini should, but it also does it
with a composure and stability that many
others don’t. And it may have the old
school looks of the MkI, but underneath is
an altogether newer, less tired, more solid
structure. Surely, the perfect Mini?
The spec would certainly
say so. The 1310cc
engine, built by original Downton
employee Brian Slark, was fitted with
balanced components throughout, uprated
bearings and Downton pistons, the
cylinder head benefits from a Stage 3 tune,
including stainless steel valves, silicone
bronze guides and a more aggressive cam,
and an uprated airfilter and Downton
exhaust system completes the tuning
picture; an uprated clutch assembly and 3.1
final drive ratio are the only modifications
to the transmission. The running gear
received an equal amount of attention
too. Adjustable Koni dampers,
valved to Downton’s
requirements,
are
The ClubSport melds the attributes of
that perfect performance Mini
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CLASSIC TRIBUTE
Well it had to be a Downton badge
really didn’t it?
The classic binnacle replaced the ’90s item for a
retro look, but modern seats and trim remain.
Downton
Daniel and Bunty Richmond took over the small
garage in the Wiltshire town of Downton in 1947,
and soon began specialising in tuning and selling
high-end luxury and sports cars. It was when BMC
found out about Downton’s work on its Minis that
the company’s direction changed. Daniel became a
technical consultant for BMC, and they started
producing BMC-approved tuning products.
However, his and Bunty’s untimely deaths lead
to the eventual demise of the company in 1976.
It wasn’t until 1993 that the Downton name was
revived by Stuart and Paul Mickleburgh, and it has
since been sold on again, in 2004. The company
currently sells Downton-branded merchandise
and Mini products via the www.downton.com
website, although restoration and tuning work is
also still available.
fitted, along with a rear anti-roll bar and
solid subframe top mounts, whilst camber
angles (thanks to negative camber front
bottom arms and rear back-plates) and
castor angles have been set using custom
setting acquired after much testing and
development. 6x12 Minilites (running
165/60 tyres) enable the fitment of AP
Racing front callipers over drilled and
grooved discs.
The aesthetics do a fine job of celebrating
the Downton name too, and if anything the
attention to detail from a cosmetic point of
view is even more impressive than that
from a mechanical one. The green details
and black Group 5 arches on the Rover
White Diamond body give it a distinctive —
if not majorly original — look, and the
details — such as the leather bonnet straps,
chrome details and MkI-look rear lamps
and front grille — give it a suitably
Downton-era-look; although there are
far more contemporary carbon-fibre
panels underneath.
Then there’s the interior, which certainly
provides the refinement levels that
Richmond would demand. The green
theme continues inside, even down to the
stitching on the (optional, for £1000)
Alcantara trim which covers the majority
of the interior, including the Downton
lightweight BMC Works-type bucket seats;
even the FIA-approved rear rollcage didn’t
escape the Downton green brush — although
the steering wheel, 130mph central speedo
and dash-mounted 8000rpm rev-counter
did. A Downton-numbered plaque can also
be found on the crossmember, next to the
driver’s seat, and on the engine rocker cover
— which is painted… Downton Green.
The car we have here actually sports
number 001 on its plaques (around 30 were
made in total), which means it’s the car used
to showcase Downton’s ‘new’ abilities to the
press back in 1997 — including us. The
article was published in our August ’97
issue and, unsurprisingly, our findings
suggest that we really rather liked it. It was
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CLASSIC TRIBUTE
obvious to us that Daniel Richmond’s
refusal to accept any sacrifices in
refinement was an obsession shared by the
new custodians of the Downton name. “The
engine is an absolute joy, powerful and
smooth,” we said. “The suspension is an
excellent compromise — soft enough to
soak up road imperfections, but stiff
enough so that the car won’t wander off and
land you into a hedge,” we raved. The quote
that best summed-up the Mini’s wellrounded abilities, however, was this: “The
Downton ClubSport works because
everything about it has obviously been very
well thought out and a balance has been
maintained. Anybody could take the
different parts and bolt them together, but
at the end of the day, it’s getting all the
disparate parts to work together that
matters.”
Richard Williams sold a Westfield to buy
MkI items give the ClubSport
a retro look.
001, so it’s had a lot to live up to. He bought
it from a professor who had bought the car
from Downton immediately after it had
carried out its press car duties. The
professor chose to replace the BMC bucket
seats (because he couldn’t fit into them...
stop sniggering at the back) with Downtonbadged Corbeau recliners, and had rear
seats fitted as well. Richard has carried out a
few sensible jobs and added a few of his own
touches in the three years he’s owned the
car too; a few days were spent applying
Waxoyl to the underneath and injecting it
into the sills and doors when he first got it,
and he added the four front fog lights, as
well as a helmet net and fire extinguisher.
“It has the perfect combination of
reliability, performance and classic looks,”
he says. “I’ve had four Minis, two saloons
and two Pick-ups, and done all of the usual
stuff to them, but when you do the 1275cc
conversion and that kind of thing they
always seem so temperamental afterwards.
This has had a fair bit of work done to it as
well, but it’s the first Mini that I’ve had
that’s been every-day reliable — with the
single-point injection it’s turn-key reliable
every morning.”
Fast and reliable
It’s not just the combination of
performance and reliability that Richard
enjoys. “We went to the Mini Action Day at
Castle Combe and were racing around with
new BMW Minis. People watching said
everything was screeching around the
corners apart from this, which looked like it
was cruising around composed and silently.
It’s because Downton have set it up so well;
they stress not to mess with the setup
because obviously it took them a long time
to get right. And the brakes are brilliant,
Downton Green painted alloys may not be
strictly original, but look ace.
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CLASSIC TRIBUTE
which is a first for any Mini I’ve had before!
I don’t get to use it that often, but when I do
get it out on the kind of roads I have around
me [Richard has Dartmoor on one side of
him and Exmoor on the other] I really have
a laugh.”
Basically, then, he agrees with everything
we said about the car more than 10 years
ago. Mind you, our words of praise for the
ClubSport certainly weren’t the first the
press bestowed on a Mini sporting a
Downton badge: when Autocar got hold of
860 MW, a Downton-tweaked 1088cc Mini
Cooper, in December 1961, they clocked it
at 103mph and wrote an article titled ‘MiniTon-Bomb’, explaining how it was easier to
drive, quieter and more
economical than the
standard version.
Sounds familiar,
doesn’t it? In
actual fact, it was Autocar’s experience
with 860 MW that prompted Alec Issigonis
to request a drive of the car, which very
quickly lead to Daniel Richmond
becoming appointed as a technical
consultant for BMC and Downton
Engineering Works supplying modified
engine components to BMC’s competition
department.
Downton’s cars always did speak
volumes for Daniel’s engineering skill and
expertise, ably holding true his motto of
performance and refinement through
engineering excellence — precisely why
this car is a fitting tribute to the Downton
name and the man behind it.
TECH SPEC
ENGINE 1310cc A-Series, fully balanced (crank, rods,
pistons and flywheel), uprated bearings set, Downton
10.5:1 compression ratio pistons, Downton camshaft,
Stage 3 modified cylinder head with silicone bronze
guides and stainless steel valves, sport airfilter,
twin-exit exhaust system with cat.
TRANSMISSION Standard four-speed manual with
uprated clutch assembly and 3.1 final-drive ratio.
BRAKES AP Racing front callipers with drilled and
grooved discs, rear drums with uprated shoes.
SUSPENSION Koni adjustable dampers front and rear,
rear anti-roll bar, solid front subframe top tower
mounts, negative camber front bottom arms and rear
back plates, Downton camber and castor angles set.
WHEELS & TYRES 6Jx12-inch CR Minilite-style wheels
with Yokohama A510 165/60/R12 tyres.
BODY Rover White Diamond with Downton Green roof,
Downton sports wing mirrors and wheel centres,
ClubSport graphics on bonnet, boot and sides, black
Group 5 wheel arches, carbon-fibre bootlid and bonnet,
leather bonnet straps, quick-release boot clips, MkIlook rear lamps and front grille, chrome-effect rear
numberplate light, chrome window wipers and door and
boot handles, alloy racing flip fuel cap.
INTERIOR Corbeau reclining bucket seats with
Downton logos, rear seats trimmed in black leatherette
and dark grey Alcantara, Alcantara doorcards with
Downton Green door details with enamel Downton
logos, Alcantara rear trim panels and dashboard, green
stitching throughout, black velvetone carpet with
green piping, FIA-approved rear rollcage in Downton
Green, centre dial speedo rated to 130mph, dashmounted 8000rpm rev-counter finished in black.
d cars the
As with all Downton modde
que on the rocker cover.
pla
a
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wit
ed
ClubSport is fitt
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