The workshops saw another interesting project delivered when Stefan arrived in his 1963 Mini.

 Unsure of what he wanted Bill and Lee sat down with him and worked through a plan for the car.

 
 
 

The final spec of the car is to be a road legal historic touring car. The car was stripped back to a bare shell and the restoration started to commence. With regular visits from Stefan he started to get excited and made the decision to change the engine spec to include a monster 1460cc fuel injected Arden 8-Port engine. The car will receive a new paintjob in Almond Green with a snowberry white roof.

In-between the major restoration work Bill Richards Racing always have some very nice cars turn up for tune ups and minor work to be carried out which the team normally do while the customers wait.

Recently a very nice MGB GT turned up for a new fuel pump to be fitted followed by a service and tune. The customer drove the car away later in the afternoon looking forward to some nice reliable drives out in the British countryside.

When Nick Dove from Radical sportscars made the decision to take up historic rallying he made the smart choice in picking a Mini Cooper S. Nick managed to purchase a MK1 S that Bill Richards Racing had built over 10 years ago.

The car was dropped of at the workshops with Nicks request that it be bought up to current regulations and any work needed to make the car competative and reliable was to be carried out.
 
 
The Mini enjoyed a good service, new extinguisher system, Cut out switches and various other parts. With the car fully set up and tuned it was returned to its owner ready for its debut season.

The workshop had an interesting visit from Simon the plumber who wanted Bill and Lee to restore and recommission his rare MK1 Cooper S. The car had been owned from new by the Actor Martin Shaw (famous as Doyle in the professionals)

After Lee had finished some welding and panel work on the car it was given a top paint job in Tartan red with a black roof.

 
 
Whilst the Mini was in the paintshop Bill set to building an 8-port engine for the car using Amal carburettors and various period accessories. Once the engine had been completed it was run up and tuned in a test jig prior to being installed in the newly painted body shell.

After the christmas break one of the first jobs to make its way into the workshops was the very successful historic rally Mini Cooper S of Alex Leens.

The Mini needed a full engine and gearbox rebuild after competing in countless, hard fought rallys. The team removed the engine and Bill set to work getting the power unit back in top condition. With some development work also carried out Bill Richards Racing are expecting this Blue Bullet to be at the front of the time sheets over the next few seasons.

The team were called on to carry out a body restoration on Benita Harvey’s MGB GT called Arthur which had started to show signs of age.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The car was duly stripped of all is bright work, windows and other trim before having 2 new front wings fitted and various repairs carried out. The MG was then treated to various new coats of Blue paintwork before being fitted back together with new trim.

Benita took delivery of the car just before Christmas as an early present to herself.

Bill Richards Racing were called upon to work on something a little bit different when they recieved a call from the owner of a Morgan replica. Its Ford power plant refused to run cleanly so Bill quickly worked himself into the engine bay where he worked his magic.

The Morgan was soon in fine fettle and sounding as it should. As with most of the tune ups it was turned around in very short time and the customer drove away happy.

Bill Richards racing got a call for help from Chris the artist who owns a beautiful Wolseley Hornet used for track days as he was unhappy with the engine performance of his engine.

Bill set about building one of his bullet proof track day 1380cc engines with a fully built box for Chris to fit back in the Hornet. Chris is one happy customer and can be seen terrorizing a circuit near you.

A fabulous Mk1 Cooper ‘S’ with little or no power and dire handling problems was next for us to tackle, the power plant was removed and modified to a high standard rally specification.  Liners were fitted into the old block and bored to + 020 (1293).

While the engine building was taking shape Lee set to work and stripped the wet subframes off the shell, these were to be replaced with powder coated dry subframes with fully adjustable suspension. Many of the older Mk1 shells were never aligned perfectly, not helped by various knocks and scrapes in its life time.  Also some paint work and general smartening up took place while the frames were removed.  The engine was duly refitted as were the new subframes and the car is now ready to be run in.

The Shortie was collected from our trimmers, mot’d and a final check carried out.

Its owner will use this as a fun car,  we think parking should be no problem !