MINI SPRINT
back into welding, but as the to do list
steadily grew, some ambitious plans
were beginning to hatch. “I wanted to do
something personal and the idea of
doing a Sprint was too good to resist,”
Ross smiles, “I’d never seen a Clubman
Sprint before so I knew it would be
something different.” A quick sketch or
two later, Ross took a Sharpie and angle
grinder to the shell and before he knew
it, he was fully committed! “I had to
remind myself that if it didn’t work out,the past,” Ross recalls, “I mentioned I
used to run Minis with Attitude and
explained some of the work entailed.
One of my colleagues then told me he
had an old Mini parked up in an
outbuilding, that I was welcome to
have.” Chances like this don’t come
often and Ross went to view what turned
out to be a 1972 998cc Mini Clubman.
“Myself and my wife Jo reckoned it
looked ok... though it was dark at the
time,” Ross laughs, “we took it anyway
and arranged for it to be transported to
my garage the following weekend.”CHOP THE ROT
Once inspected in daylight, the horrors
of the Clubman became more apparent.
“the bottom 2 inches were completely
rotten throughout the car,” Ross
chuckles at the memory, “I knew straight
away a full strip down would be
necessary.” Initially, this was intended to
be a straightforward and simple
restoration process to get Ross’s handThe engine originally came from a
1300GT but has now been overbored
to 1293cc and features a host of mods.never had time to build my own back
then, but I really enjoyed creating
projects for customers” Ross laughs.
One of these many projects stood out,
a Stuart & Arden Hawk (fibreglass
Sprint) which Ross rebuilt some two
decades ago. “I’ve always loved the Mini
Sprints from the 60s and had a
hankering to build a steel bodied version
for myself when I had the chance,” Ross
explains. It would be around ten years
later when Ross finally got the time to
devote to his dream project, although
the Mini he used as a base came to him
by complete chance. “Back in 2008 I was
at work as a caravan engineer when we
all got talking about jobs we’d done in“The idea of doing a Sprint was
too good to resist”
Front suspension is fully adjustable.MINI SPRINT
back into welding, but as the to do list
steadily grew, some ambitious plans
were beginning to hatch. “I wanted to do
something personal and the idea of
doing a Sprint was too good to resist,”
Ross smiles, “I’d never seen a Clubman
Sprint before so I knew it would be
something different.” A quick sketch or
two later, Ross took a Sharpie and angle
grinder to the shell and before he knew
it, he was fully committed! “I had to
remind myself that if it didn’t work out,the past,” Ross recalls, “I mentioned I
used to run Minis with Attitude and
explained some of the work entailed.
One of my colleagues then told me he
had an old Mini parked up in an
outbuilding, that I was welcome to
have.” Chances like this don’t come
often and Ross went to view what turned
out to be a 1972 998cc Mini Clubman.
“Myself and my wife Jo reckoned it
looked ok... though it was dark at the
time,” Ross laughs, “we took it anyway
and arranged for it to be transported to
my garage the following weekend.”CHOP THE ROT
Once inspected in daylight, the horrors
of the Clubman became more apparent.
“the bottom 2 inches were completely
rotten throughout the car,” Ross
chuckles at the memory, “I knew straight
away a full strip down would be
necessary.” Initially, this was intended to
be a straightforward and simple
restoration process to get Ross’s handThe engine originally came from a
1300GT but has now been overbored
to 1293cc and features a host of mods.never had time to build my own back
then, but I really enjoyed creating
projects for customers” Ross laughs.
One of these many projects stood out,
a Stuart & Arden Hawk (fibreglass
Sprint) which Ross rebuilt some two
decades ago. “I’ve always loved the Mini
Sprints from the 60s and had a
hankering to build a steel bodied version
for myself when I had the chance,” Ross
explains. It would be around ten years
later when Ross finally got the time to
devote to his dream project, although
the Mini he used as a base came to him
by complete chance. “Back in 2008 I was
at work as a caravan engineer when we
all got talking about jobs we’d done in
“The idea of doing a Sprint was
too good to resist”
Front suspension is fully adjustable.