Midas Cars Forum - www.midascarsforum.com

benofbrum wrote:

Alan D. wrote:

Geoff Butcher wrote:£350!! Mine cost ninety-something built up and about fifty quid for the other bits and bobs...

Thanks Geoff, If I could have got one for £150 I would have bought one. But £350 is what is coming up on the search engines. If anyone knows of a cheaper source I would be happy to know about it. What about electronic distributers, are they worth considering? I just need to cure the misfire, it's a good engine apart from the miss!I think my next purchase in a couple of weeks will be about £200 worth of Dynamat sound proofing. I'm going to try and make a civilised Midas!
Alan

About half a century ago I tuned a 998 cooper generally following the advice of Clive Trickey and David Visard as published in Car & Car Conversions Plus a few embellishments of my own. The distributor was the standard one with Cooper S points and advance springs. It did not misfire up to an indicated 8000rpm. Only went that high once, but up to 7500 from time to time. I believe the engine is still in the Minijem Estate which found a new owner just before Stoneleigh last year.

Thanks for the comments, Minijem Estate!! do you have any pictures?
Alan

Hi Alan,

I wonder if the popularity of the Megajolt has hidden the fact that there are also several more programmable ignition systems on the market.

Aldon automotive have been doing their Amethyst system for several years and it comes in just under £200 - http://www.aldonamethyst.co.uk/ - You don't need to add a timing wheel as you modify the existing dizzy, locking out the advance and retard, and use that as the timing signal. You also need to factor in a throttle position sensor, normally a rotary potentiometer at a few pounds.

Accuspark's Stealth Blackbox is even cheaper at £99.95 http://www.accuspark.co.uk/Blackbox.htm also uses a locked out dizzy, but it also requires the Accuspark electronic ignition module at another £20. I would guess that it also needs a throttle position sensor.

These two are well suited to Lucas based ignition systems and both use a USB lead so that you can tailor the advance curve, but there are other systems out there.

Regards,
Alistair

Thanks Alistair,
I'll look at both of those options, in the mean time I'm going to order some cone replacement springs, hoping to insulate my old bones from the forty year old suspension. I report back once it is done.
Alan

Thanks for the comments, Minijem Estate!! do you have any pictures?
Alan[/quote]
There was a picture of the car in the Spring 2013 magazine. It was converted by a work friend of mine when working at Birmingham University. It incorporated parts of a Reliant van roof and rear door and carbon fibre. The roof was strong enough for me to stand on. I sold it to Bob Stevens with whom it lay largely dormant until being rescued just before Stoneleigh last year.

http://www.minimarcos.org.uk/minijem/fvw82h/index.html

and to my eyes a slightly better conversion http://www.minimarcos.org.uk/minijem/1076/index.html

Thanks Stuart,
A mine of information, well done for digging up these obscurities. I love these oddball cars.
Alan D.

[quote="Stuart"]



http://www.minimarcos.org.uk/minijem/fvw82h/index.html
That's the baby. It used to have a full length roof rack, which carried all the poles for a 40x20ft marquee. The wall canvas was spread over the poles, with the roof canvas carried inside. With only two seats, it has a long load deck, though when originally converted Joe made a pair of child sized bucket seats for the rear.

Alan D. wrote:Thanks Stuart,
A mine of information, well done for digging up these obscurities. I love these oddball cars.
Alan D.

No problem Alan, can I also say it is nice to have you back.
I thought of you yesterday when I spotted an old classmate drive past in his Exige (series 3 I think, like the one below). Years ago he took me for a spin in his series 1 Exige, even back then I remember struggling to get in and out of the passenger seat.