Dazecoop – Blog of David Cooper – Photography, Videography, Drifting & modifying cars

I’ve been wanting to go to a Mini Miglia race for a long time now, and finally this weekend I brought myself to waking up at some stupid-o-clock to drive to Castle Combe with some friends to watch the racing. And Wow! – what an experience!

I’ve seen a lot of motor racing since I can remember, but the Miglia racing this weekend was some of my favourite. It was very close racing, very competitive and incredibly fast. Mini Miglia racing started way back in the 60′s and was restricted to just 850cc powered Minis. The technology advanced, as did time, and more and more power was turning out of the tiny a-series engines. Some when in the 80′s, I think, Miglia racing was beginning to die out since the small-bore 850cc engines were getting more and more difficult to get parts for.

They then split the racing into two different classes, Mini Miglia racing and Mini 7 racing. Mini 7 racing was boosted up to 998cc engined a-series’s, and Mini Miglia racing was 1275cc’s and up. The things I most like about Miglia’s and 7′s is that they all run with 10-inch wheels (the best wheels on a Mini by far), they all use Weber carbs (again, just the best) and they all use straight cut gearboxes (which are just sex, basically!).

So anyway, the day started with the Miglia’s qualifying. The sound of those straight cut gearboxes was pure heaven!!

We moved around the circuit toward the paddock since I just had to take a look more closely at some of these beasts. Everywhere I read about Miglia racing everyone says the people are always friendly and helpful – and they’d be right! Everyone I spoke to was very friendly and helped me a lot, understanding various things inside and outside the car.

Some of the Mini-engine-guru’s of you out there may notice that almost all of the Miglia race engine blocks are dry decked. I am still not entirely sure what this means, but basically most of the water ways within the head and block and blocked-off. I can’t grasp at the moment why this would be an advantage, but obviously it is when racing is involved.

The interiors of the Mini 7 and Mini Miglia race cars interested me a lot as well, since I am making large modifications to the inside of my Mini and my roll cage at the moment. Its really interesting, at least for me, the small details and changes they make to increase the strength of the shell itself – these tiny details is what a race car is all about for me

After a good hour’s wondering and chatting, the racing began. First up was the 1 litre-powered Mini 7′s. We were at Avon Rise and at the entrance to Quarry for the most part, notorious for spin-outs and sideways action. This shot is my favourite from the whole day, and the guy driving was seriously pushing toward and beyond the limit! Incredible action, and very quick even for just a 1 litre!

Soon after the Mini 7′s were on, they were off again and then on-came a selection of Caterham’s – and so did the rain! This made for an interesting mix and we saw 4 spin-outs at Quarry corner.

After an interesting yet slow-paced race from the Caterham’s, on came the saloon car racing and hot-hatch battles. I wasn’t too bothered with these cars, apart from the handful of very nice Peugeot 205′s – another favourite of mine. Luckily for these guys the rain had stopped!

And then, what we’d all been waiting for – the Mini Miglia race began – and wow!! These cars are seriously quick, even compared to the Evo’s and the likes of the cars above, the Miglia’s were noticeably faster and a lot quicker around corners. Amazing action, and the battle for 1st place was constantly changing in a very tightly packed set of the 4 race leaders.

This was the battle for 1st place, you can see Bill Sollis in 4th lifting his right wheel under immensely hard cornering!

Here’s some more favourites of mine…

A brilliant day! I’m hoping to go to the next round of the Mini Miglia Championship next month at Thruxton. See you there!!