SPEEDWELL More than 40 years ago, an agent for top Mini tuner

SPEEDWELL
More than 40 years ago, an agent for top Mini tuner, Speedwell,
put two boxes of promotional photos away in a storeroom. And that’s
Words Mark Robinson
where they stayed, forgotten but perfectly preserved, until now.
T
he 1960s were the golden
age of Mini tuning, with a
vast array of companies
offering a bewildering
choice of performance or
custom accessories. Whether you
wanted to go fast, look good, or ride
a bit more comfortably, there was
something for everyone. And
whatever you wanted, Speedwell
could probably sell it to you.
Formed by a group of racing buffs
in the late 1950s to build modified
cylinder heads for Austin A30 and
A35 engines, Speedwell rapidly
became the name in tuning the
A-Series. When BMC fitted that
engine to its dynamic new Mini,
Speedwell was quick to seize the
opportunity, its first conversions
appearing almost as the earliest
Minis rolled out of Morris and
Austin showrooms. Later catalogues
would boast of accessories that had
been on sale since 1959.
Of course, Speedwell also
marketed many of its parts for other
A-Series models, offering off-theshelf upgrades for the Austin 1300
GT and Austin A40 Farina. It also
dabbled with larger B-Series engines
and, through linking up with
California-based EMPI, supplied bits
for the aircooled VW range. But it
was the Mini that built the
company’s commercial success —
all the rest was just the cream on top.
The beauty of Speedwell was it
offered something for every budget,
and every need. “From the outside
your car will look little different
from any other apart from the small
Speedwell Badge,” boasted the
company’s 1961 Mini brochure. “But
a mile behind the wheel and you will
soon find out what Speedwelled
means. A Speedwell engine
conversion will give you the
performance you want at a price you
can afford.”
The catalogue featured
carburetion upgrades including an
additional SU — to add to your
existing one for a twin-carb set-up —
as well as Webers, and the very
desirable Amal motorbike carb
conversion. There were modified
iron cylinder heads, or alloy
replacements, high-lift rockers,
oversize pistons and liners, bored-
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Giving a Mini the treatment in
Speedwell’s workshop at
Cornwall Avenue, Finchley.
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The Finchley Road
showroom in North
London — now
demolished.
Exhaust system with ‘Supertone 85’
silencer cost £7/19/6 in 1965.
The slideshow tells the story of one
Speedwell customer, from browsing
through brochures (above) to visiting
Speedwell’s Finchley Road headquarters
and showroom where he is presented with
a tantalising array of improvements, and
eventually leaving as one very happy Mini
owner. The options cover all aspects of
the Mini, including exhausts (top right of
page), suspension upgrades ranging from
dampers to anti-roll bars (below), and
sports steering wheels, additional gauges
and fancy dashboards (below right).
Speedwell’s brilliance was in offering
something for every pocket, from the
most basic fuelling upgrades through to
complete, ready-modified, brand-new
cars. The price list even included a kit to
fit an additional SU, keeping the carb you
already had and fitting another alongside
it. With so much on offer, your biggest
problem was not staring at the salesman’s
unusual facial hair.
Keep looking at the
oil temperature gauge, and
don’t look at the beard. Don’t look
at the beard. Don’t look at the beard…
Speedwell had its birth in
modifying A-Series heads.
Light alloy wheel with
laminated beech rim.
Alloy cylinder head.
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out blocks, exhaust systems, brake
upgrades, suspension
improvements, sound deadening,
and interior accessories and
additional instruments. Parts could
be bought individually, or in many
cases as comprehensive kits. “You
will find it more economical to
purchase complete kits rather than
separate components,” the brochure
advised. The company would even
sell you a complete, brand new BMC
car, modified and ready to go.
From its base in North London,
not far from the Ace Café, Speedwell
distributed around the world, often
via local specialists and speed shops.
Which is where this fascinating
selection of photos fits in, shared
with us by German Mini enthusiast
Andreas Klein. The images on these
pages are reproduced from original
slides found among the leftover
stock of a closed-down car parts
business in Austria. Andreas bought
two boxes of the slides, labelled
‘Speedwell Slide Trade Show’, from
the former owner’s son. “I came in
“The very ultimate in
road performance,”
was how Speedwell
described its engine
builds. “Modification
can be carried out to
the customer’s own
engine or Speedwell
will supply the
complete engine.”
contact with him when he sold some
Speedwell brochures on eBay,”
Andreas says. “Some months later he
sent a mail asking if I would be
interested in these slides. I, like
anybody else, had never heard about
them and bought them.”
Exactly what the slides were for is
unknown. Andreas has shown them
to Mark Forster, the early Mini
performance guru whose Sprint is
featured in the previous article, but
even that has drawn a blank. The
label would suggest they were more
Twin SUs were just one of the fuelling
options. Speedwell also offered
Webers, and a pioneering Amal
motorbike carb conversion.
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Some of the slides offer
advice on how NOT to treat
customers. We hope.
Speedwell claimed its high
lift rocker set increased
RPM “without valve bounce”
by about five per cent.
Steel sumpguard.
Balanced crankshafts
to fit engines from
848cc to 1275cc.
“Keep looking at the brochure.
Don’t look at the beard…”
Ramstacks for SU carbs.
From the D-suffix on the customer’s Mini,
these photos must have been taken
between 1966 and 1969 — when
Speedwell in its original form was wound
up, although it continuted under new
management led by Graham Hill. Parts
originally developed for the Austin A30
gave Speedwell its start with tuning
Minis, as well as other A-Series powered
cars. The business also did well with the
Austin 1300 (our customer is examining a
1300 brochure to the left), and sold parts
for the aircooled VWs — although these
were largely sourced from Californiabased EMPI. As the 1970s dawned,
Speedwell had become part of Grand Prix
champion Hill’s expanding motor racing
and business empire, now also offering
parts for Ford. Sadly, it all came to an end
with Hill’s tragic death, when he crashed
while landing his light aeroplane in 1975.
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CENSORED
Insert risqué joke into
slideshow presentation here.
Interior includes veneered
DeLuxe Mini Dash Panel with
additional gauges, and electronic
rev counter in swivel-mounted cowl.
likely aimed at businesses selling
Speedwell parts than at the general
public. “Perhaps they were made for
dealers who were interested in
selling Speedwell products,”
Andreas says. “The pictures show
nearly all products, the offices, the
workshop and so on. I think
nowadays this would be a
Powerpoint presentation.
“The slides are very professional,
if you watch them in the right order,
you can see the customer coming to
Speedwell at the beginning, and
leaving with the modified car at
the end.”
Whatever they were for
originally, today they are a
fascinating insight into the early
days of Mini tuning, showing what
are today some of the most desirable
and rarest Mini accessories.
Thanks to
How much do we want to
walk into this shop right now?
Andreas Klein for sharing these photos with us.
Mark Forster, whose superb mk1-performance-conversions.co.uk
website provided background information for this article.
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