[SidewaysFeltham]

Originally Posted by mab01UK

(Back in the 1980's I used to have our road and race Mini's set up on Jon Mowatt's Rolling Road in Essex......Mowatts still comes up on a google search is Jon still around and in business?)

I last met Jon a few years ago: he had moved from running his gargae and tuning business, increasingly into haulage.

Sadly, he suffered a coranary and lost his full racing license, but - typical Jon! - persuaded the regulators to grant him a limited license for hill climbs and was then occasionally, campaigning a venerable Morgan. Plus, he was deeply involved in radio controlled model aircraft.

Interestingly, as my maternal grandmother's maiden name was Mowatt, Jon and I decided we were distant cousins!

His grandfather was apparently the black sheep of the family and went to sea. Clearly, this is here Jon inheritated his genetics!

We also used Jon's road for a bit; however I then (Circa 1971) installed a state-of-the-art Heenan-Froude (Crypton) water brake which could absorb up to 300 bhp at the wheels and was extremely accurate, whereas Jon's brake was an old Sun paddle air brake.

My road could thus deal with American "Muscle Cars" happily.

I used to regularly see Jon around the circuits in the early 1970s as despite the dominance of the 1300 Escorts at that time, Jon's full-works spec 1293s could on a good day, give 'em a run for their money!

Glyn Swift: another name from the past: Glyn was the only guy I ever knew who didn't bother to tie down his race Mini on the trailer. Couldn't be bothered. Until one fine day on the way to Lyddon or Brands at his usual speed, the car fell off.............

Ooops!



In the early '70s, my team Felspeed Racing, ran a 997s, in special saloons: this had been exchanged with a charming American guy called Ed McDonnagh, for a Lotus Formula Ford we had kicking around. (Ed later distinguished himself by writing off Norman Abbott's BDA Escort at Silverstone when going rather quickly).

Felspeed's 999s was unusual then as it was non-cross-flow. I asked my chum Bruce Renny (who had built the increadibly powerful Twink for our Formula Atlantic) to sort out the Min. He hated BMC engines with a Caladonian passion! Howver sort of emulated screamer F3 approach, re-jigged the inlet ports and we finished up with two DCOE 45s milled in half (i.e. one straight port for each siamesed inlet) and it was a rocket! Fastest non-crossflow in the country then. pulled happily to 10K RPM without bursting.

A beam axle rear ( A la Abbott) finished the development.

Noisy little S*d, though! Had a Jack Knight pawl type LimSlip. The first time I tested it at Silverstone, on the club circuit, the straight bit was covered with small puddles.................and the Min hit these and leaped sideways at speed ((and the revs soared!) until grip was re-established.

Frightened me to death until I realised what was happening.