We all spend plenty of time building and fixing our MINIs over winter and by the time March rolls around we've almost forgotten what it is to floor that throttle and launch them down a dry stretch of asphalt. We concocted the perfect remedy with our friends at MSVT in the form of a MINI only track day to get out on circuit at Donington Park at the end of April to blow off the cobwebs.
Open to all MINIs and all abilities. With an open pit lane the plan was to create a fun day out with no pressure and the ability to come and go as you please. We'd all have the opportunity to take the project car out for a shake-down test, run our daily driver with a little more enthusiasm than the daily commute or the local speed camera allows and we could let you jump in the passenger seat of a Lohen-modified MINI so you could feel the acceleration and power!
We also used the day to test out one of our latest developments on track. Our R53 has recently had an engine upgrade. We've fitted a large capacity bored-out WX3 engine that's built to the highest spec and designed to generate serious power for something that fits into the engine bay of a Gen 1 MINI! Similarly, Izzy Hammond's DRIVETRIBE R53 also has one fitted so why not invite her over and have two 300+ horsepower Gen 1 MINIs on track?! (Seen the video about this build on our home page?)
As well as the R53 we brought along two heavily modified R56 Hatchs' and a GEN 3 F56 - get to know them over here. All of our cars have performance and handling at the core of their redesign and it was great to get to show you that on track IRL. If you came out for a lap in any of them you'll have a sense of their urgency! It was great to see all the MINIs out on track of all generations and we hope you enjoyed putting them to work as much as we did with our demo fleet.
We'd like to thank all at MSVT Donington and all the drivers and spectators who made it a great day at the track. We should do it again sometime!
