A35 turbo
Turbo Mini Forums

Some of you will know that I was bit diappointed at the rolling road session at

Iron Acton a week or so ago, but not maybe as much as Richard of course.

I arranged spend half a day with Robert and see if we could improve matters.
Well worth the effort, at least from my point of view !

We dont know how much extra HP we may have picked up, but the car now runs smoother, picks up from low revs much, much better and is altogether a much nicer car to drive, which was my objective.

Robert has mapped the MJ, spent many hours adjusting the needle profile and sampled the handling (?) of an A35 for the first time. His kindest comment was that it steered like a boat ( and I cant really disagree, but it is a 51 year old car to a 60 year old design, after all )

I "allowed" myself 12 psi boost and will try very hard not to "improve" on this as the car is now quite fast enough, thank you very much. 100mph indicated on the narrow bumpy lanes round where Robert lives is quite exciting from the passenger seat. BTW its the first time anyone else has driven the car and , ergo, the first time I have been driven in it)

The banter was well up to scratch, at least from Robert, and the only time I sensed he was temporarily lost for words was when I pointed out that I had removed the front number plate for access and we parked beside a policecar in a filling station and the policeman never even noticed, despite paying the car quite alot of attention(Robert was at the wheel at the time and therefore totally responsible)

My 45 mile trip home was a great deal of fun ,safe in the knowledge that we had a slightly conservative ignition map in deference to my wish to continue to run on 95 octane except for special occasions, and also because at last I was seeing reliable and safe AFR readings even when held on full boost and max revs.

Fuel consumption on the day was probably pretty horrendous given the amount of ragging about we did but I am hopeful that it should from mow on be at least respectable.

Robert reckons with a RR tuning session I should be able to see 150 bhp (get thee behind me Satan !!)

My thanks to Robert and also to all the TM folk who have helped me get this far.

Excellent, can't wait to see this car in the flesh. Will you be at Avon Dave ?

WWW.TURBO-MINI.COM

If i had a garage id get an a35 without thinking, love em

Brilliant!

nice day of tuning ,everything worked as it should ,not totally satisfied with the needle but for 4 hours work it was a good improvement ,very conservative timing ,so definate gains to be found rr wise.

,steering and driving it was very funny and had me chuckling ,its a bit like driving a vehicle where you have to ring the bell and tell the steering its time to do something ,in ,fact , i think the steering wheel should be renamed the semaphore .

all in all an enjoyable drive ,thanks david .

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

Sounds great. Got any pics?

I,m going to be at Avon on 27th June as part of the NRA Nostalgia weekend.

Just to show how silly its going to be there will be two turbo A35,s there and we are going head to head.

I,m not expecting or predicting anything but if I cant beat Dave in the other A35 I will be very disappointed.

I may turn up on the 11th July if just to meet a few more TM folk, but I,m not sure I want to make a fool of myself in such august company.

Still cant help but giggle at the thought of a 150hp+ Austin A35

Wolf in sheeps clothing.

Love it!! :)

I did actually look at a couple of A35s on eBay earlier this year after reading all David's posts but I just have too many projects unfinished.

But the thought of a 150+ Fuel Injected A35 (still on the A series engine) is something else....

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

The first time you let anyone else drive the car and its Robert...

Flashback Nic?

Nice. Let's see it do some proper times on the drag strips this year

sounds great - and good work Robert!

Excellent news Dave.

Lookin forward to some super wheelie action from the 35 then ?

Robert gets the 'top bloke' award yet again !

Lookin forward to givin you a run for ya money at Pod later in the year Dave, that would be a laugh to see the 35 up against the van, they're probably quite well matched in terms of power to weight !

Richard.

Edited by turbominivanman on 19th Apr, 2010.

Minivanless, but reluctantly happy living with the decision. There'll be another one day.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=minimadmotorman#p/u

If you're going to Avon in July, I'd like to run the metro van against you if you're up for it??

I,m going to a weighbridge today just to see how heavy the car is -it carries an extra 100kg + when I climb in, anyway.

I am tempted by all your offers to race me, but I have a tendency to get carried away once the hammer hits the floor, so will think on it for a while,Eh ?

Sounds a hoot.I love the steering semaphore-it descibes it exactly.Back in the day the wheel was as big as a ship's wheel too.Great result David,but how long will you resist the 'more boost'voice in your ear?

'Where does the engine go?'

On 19th Apr, 2010 Sprocket said:
Still cant help but giggle at the thought of a 150hp+ Austin A35

Wolf in sheeps clothing.

Love it!! :)

Team Racing

Bad news from the weighbridge -890kg with a full tank !

This will struggle to keep up with any mini -how much does the van weigh Andy ?.

Edited by John on 20th Apr, 2010.

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

A Metro Turbo weighs 840KG, but an ordinary metro weighs 740, so who knows... it has more metal, but less interior etc. If I can, I'll get it on a weigh bridge.

Chances are it won't make 150 BHP though

Listen boys, I know I'm fat but the reality is that if I recall from Jimsters scales, the Minimag article earlier in the year put my Minivan with me in it at around 965kg and it had 130 nanas at the wheels.

My launch was so shite I only got a 17.6s run so I'm sure there's a 16 or maybe a mid 15 run in there somewhere with the power I should be running when the motor's fixed. Like youi though Andy, probably not 150 Hp.

Must get the engine built, get back to Northampton Motorsport and some practice in !

Richard.

Edited by turbominivanman on 20th Apr, 2010.

Minivanless, but reluctantly happy living with the decision. There'll be another one day.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=minimadmotorman#p/u

Medusa + injection = too much torque for the dyno ..https://youtu.be/qg5o0_tJxYM

Any chance of a piccy of the A35s engine bay pwetty peease?