Fibreglass Mini Shell
Turbo Mini Forums

Hey guys,

I have an engineer friend on the Isle of Man called Martin Lockwood whose a local legend and he makes bike bits for some of the guys that race the TT and has made custom parts for my mini and for joeybabys (forum member) aswell. One of his main passions when he was younger was racing minis and he has not only still got a fibreglass shell sat in his garden, but in his shed there is one of the original moulds which apparently came from Chile. Now this is the kind of guy who collects cars/parts but never sells anything and up until when he was ordered by the govt to remove a third of his cars, he had over 100 and his place looked like an automotive jurassic park....he has over 50 cats and peacocks walking round his workshop, believe me it's an eye opener when you visit and the man is an encyclopedia of car knowledge! Anyway, I recently took some snaps for Dave Kimberley at TDK racing as he was very interested in the shell, so if you fancy a look just follow the link below.

Cheers

http://www.flickr.com/photos/84692575@N00/...57606126525350/

"If i'm not in action...i'm in traction"

That does look like a Chile car with the slight moulded in arches- how on earth the moulds ended up on the Isle - thats a story I'd like to hear!

Other than that is that a BRM wheel sitting on the floor next to it?

If Carling made Mini engines
it would probably be like this one!

nice

Thinking about it I never did ask Martin how he got hold of the shell and mould, next time I'm up there though I will get the full story. As for the wheel, you could be right there, he has hundreds of alloy wheels from bmw, audi and some from minis, but most of the rims are badly bent so they just lie in his automotive cemetery that poses as a back garden.

Yeah one other thing to notice on the shell is the corners of the bonnet have been radiused (is that a word?) which gives it an awesome look in my opinion. I personally wish he would sell the shell if not the mould, Dave from TDK was keen and spoke to Martin about buying it, but I know Martin just won't it let go. Such a shame to not see the mould used to create some special custom minis.

"If i'm not in action...i'm in traction"

Sounds like an interesting character - he doesn't have the casting tools for the A block does he.lol!

If Carling made Mini engines
it would probably be like this one!

Sometimes ,some things are beter left alone.

Rick

Yeah in some cases I would certainly agree with you, but not with this. The original mould my friend owns represents part of the history of the mini and I know that when Martin is no longer around, because he has no immediate family to speak of, sadly that shell and mould will be scrapped. I think Dave Kimberley had the right idea as he wanted to continue the legacy of one of the original moulds so that mini enthusiasts of today can build their dream car. Maybe one day I can convince Martin to sell it, I would love to build a full house fibreglass mini for racing.

"If i'm not in action...i'm in traction"

Man thats a real shame he wont sell the mould on to Dave.

Personally i feel it a bit gutting that something like that can just sit in a barn and eventually will be scraped unless something can be sorted out.

It would be a good story to hear how he did get the mould though :)

It really would be nice if he would sell the mould, i know when i got my mini minus about a moneth ago it made me so happy to know my mini wont rust away on me :) and just makes me feel a project will actually be worth doing rather that having to re-build my mini every 4 years lol.

Yeah the fibreglass option is a winner on a lot of counts, considering not only the weight saving over a steel shell but also the low maintenance with not having to deal with rust! I found out how Martin got the original mould. Some of you may have seen the Top Gear episode featuring the world's smallest car, the 'Peel P50'. Well when Peel Engineering ceased manufacturing, my friend managed to get hold of the fibreglass mini mould from them for a cut price. I believe the mould was originally imported from Chile and made it's way to the Isle of Man. Here is some info about them from wikipedia:

"The Peel Engineering Company was a manufacturing company based on the Isle of Man that primarily made fiberglass boats as well as fairings for motorcycles. They were also responsible for the Peel Manxcar, Peel P50, and Peel Trident microcars, in addition to the Peel Viking Sport and PROTOTYPE GRP MINIS FOR BMC. These models constitute the only automobiles manufactured on the Isle of Man; the company halted their manufacture in 1969 (though some newer replicas exist). A limited-run Peel Manxkart go-kart was also produced."

"If i'm not in action...i'm in traction"

Just found this fan site about the Peel cars, check out the link for the GRP mini...

http://www.peel.hu/peel-engineering-s-mini.html

"If i'm not in action...i'm in traction"

Dave already has quite a few molds for grp minis. Don't think he sells many of them though

Team Racing

would be mint for weight saving, that said by the time you have had to put a full space frame / cage in it to give you a tadgers chance of survival in an impact, it would probablyu weigh the same as a normal road going mini

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MikeRace, Mini13

yeah, martins a rare breed, he is a truley excellent, but very excentric engineer, and looks like the guy of the weetos packet haha


richie, you would be surprised about the safety of fibreglass vs metal in crash tests, in some instances they are much safer as more energy is dispersed by the fibreglass disentegrating, but i still wouldnt like to roll one (and i know how that feels!)

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

Yeah bro you've got a point there about strength as backed up by the information from the peel engineering site...

"The BMC distributors in Chile were the primary outlet so a number of South Americans arrived in Peel to view the project. They made six GRP Mini 1000, one car was taken to MIRA for the crash test and well exceeded the standard metal version, likewise another on the torsion testing rig at the Austin factory in Birmingham"

Like you said, rolling a mini in any instance isn't great, as we both know hey! I was impressed by the roll cage in my rally car mini though as it didn't shift, just everything else around it collapsed or smashed!

"If i'm not in action...i'm in traction"

Saw this in the Latest Classic Car Mag!

1/4 Mile 14.3secs 96Mph Terminal 10psi of boost.


Fibreglass Parts? - http://www.tdkracing.co.uk/
Split Rims? - http://www.force-racing.co.uk/