mini world action day castle combe 26th september 2015

[kelvink]

Weather forecast is looking good, all I need to do is change the battery and try and dry out the driver's seat..... Somebody took the old knackered rubber seal off the door, hmmmm not that good an idea after all.

Looking forward to getting out on that circuit again See ya there!

[benofbrum]

Just got back from Castle Combe. Great drive down with sun on the mist over the fields in the Cotswolds. Incident free track sessions where I actually managed to overtake a few and a good drive back on the same route. Thanks Tony for the organising, getting there early and then staying to the end.

[moss]

thanks to all that came sun was out good spot 6 cars lots to look at found the spares that i needed thanks to alistar
tony moss hon sec midas owners club
ps the mini marcos club had their 50th on Saturday and were next door with people from europe

[kelvink]

Great day once again. Got there pretty early and was about the last to leave and yet I still didn't get to fit everything in and barely got to look around the paddocks.

Chatted to plenty Midas owners, with and without their cars. Had 2+1 sessions out on the circuit all in all a great day out finished off with a fabulous drive back home in my rough old Gold Coupe. I really must get it out more often it's such a joy to drive it even if it rattles and smells....

Some of the handful of photos I took on the day with some first class examples of the Midas. Richard Street's car is such an inspiration just look at how tidy that engine bay is... Brilliant and we can all do it.










This is how an interior really ought to be trimmed. One of Alistair's from a few years ago and it still looks fantastic









So don't sit at home, come along and join in the fun with or without your Midas, I had a spare seat in my car for the morning's track time so could have given any other members a ride out on the circuit. The afternoon one was snaffled by a non Midas owner who may now be contemplating buying one

[ACourtney]

Yes, another great day at Castle Combe. Once again the weather was brilliant - how many years on the trot has that been now that we have had sunshine for the last Saturday of September?

The day seemed to whizz past with so many people to talk to. I thoroughly enjoyed my track session in the morning, but limited myself to just the one session this year - you can get too much of a good thing!

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We had eight or nine cars on the club stand - depending on whether you counted John Crowson's convertible as he had arrived with the Mini-Marcos Club and parked in their area, but right next to the Midas stand. He also joined the Mini Marcos Club for the lunchtime parade laps. Still it was good to see John back on his feet after his accident and I hope that he will be fully recovered soon.

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The Mini Marcos Club certainly put on a good show and I believe that Tony Moss now owns one, albeit a 1/43 scale pewter model produced for the anniversary. Tony certainly enjoyed the day. Despite suffering from an, as yet undiagnosed, ailment and having his right arm in a support he still led us out on to the parade lap.

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I would like to say that there were six shiny Midases representing the club, but in reality there were five and Kelvin

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Sadly I didn't get a photo of Mike Perkins encounter with a Dalek. Mike says he can see where there is room for improvement in the Dalek's design and will be sticking with his Midas.

It was over all too soon. We can only hope for some more good weather for next year.

[Jin]

Great photos guys, looks like a good day out, something for me to consider next year.

[Stuart]

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 611&type=3

[justamin]

I still hope to be at this event. At present, my Mk 3 has a slipping clutch. I have just replaced the cable, hoping that may cure it..My past experience has only been on A series hydraulic systems. Any ideas folks?

If the cable was snagging then that might cause the clutch to re-engage slowly and thereby slip. If the new cable

doesn't cure it then the two obvious possible causes are worn clutch plate, or oil getting onto the clutch plate through a leaky crankshaft seal.
If it is the former then the only cure is to replace the clutch.

Does your clutch housing have an inspection hole? - some cars have them, whilst on others the hole was left filled. If you do have an inspection hole then take a look inside and see if there are any traces of oil. The oil would get spun all around the inside of the bellhousing so you are likely to notice it. The long term fix will then be to remove the clutch, flywheel and primary gear so that you can replace the oil seals.
The short term fix would be to spray brake cleaner onto the clutch plate through the inspection hole - to do that you need to disconnect the coil and get a helper to depress the clutch pedal and turn the engine over on the starter whilst you spray in the brake cleaner. Alternatively there is the Le-Mans style Coca cola bath - reputedly used by Jaguar and Porsche teams to cope with slipping clutches - where you pour coca cola into the bellhousing. Quite how the starter motor and release bearing cope with the coke, I don't know, but it does wash the oil off the clutch plate for a while.

[justamin]

Thanks for the post Alistair. I took the clutch housing off today and found considerable wear (about 10mm play) in the lever and piston assembly and a 'pinch' of metal on the end of the ball. In absence of a suitable donor part I have built up another ball with mig weld and ground it down. I'm tempted to reassemble it at this point as there does not seem to be any oil about. If the flywheel releases easy enough, the opportunity to change the plate will be too good to miss though.

[kelvink]

Woooh! I just found this pic of me flying along and it's uphill too!