Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Peter_L]

I owned several Mini's from 1963 to 1974, stripped, rebuilt, modified etc and yet it wasn't until I saw the first video in the link below, that I knew why there was a large hole in the rear bulkhead.

Issigonis designed much of the tooling involved, so was the decision to mount the speedometer binnacle in the centre made before or after the idea of horizontally spinning the body shell.

Rear Hole at 2:25. Reason it was there. 3:56

http://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/car-carshow-classic-1960-austin-seven-the-future-started-here/

[Penman]

Hi
I would guess that the original reason was to avoid two different dash set ups for LH and RH drive, the switches are cetnral as well.

Would be interesting to confirm whether the later iterations with handed dashes still had the central hole in the front and rear bulkheads.
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[Peter_L]

More general information about the Mini

http://www.austinmemories.com/page8/page36/page36.html

Perhaps because my first vehicle was a Mini. My opinion is that this was a fantastic product whose potential was never fully realized by its UK manufacturer.

I have always known the reason for the idler gear, but before I sit down and think the whole thing through, what would have been involved to reverse the engine rotation ?

[peter scott]

To use a standard Lucas starter motor you'd need to mount it sticking out the other side of the flywheel (i.e. along side where the gearbox would be on a conventional car.)

It would probably foul the offside front wheel in a Mini! (Otherwise you'd need a special motor with the field winding reversed.) You'd also need a different camshaft but I think everything else could come from standard parts.

Peter
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1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

[JC T ONE]

[Phil - Nottingham]

A number of BMC cars eg A35 had the central speedo but earlier version eg MM and A30 did not a Rotodip came about around the same time as the swap so a useful idea which helped both?
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