(By Eric Rood) – We’ve missed Bonneville the last couple years with the well-publicized problems of salt and poor weather, but suffice to say that if we can manage to squeeze in Speed Week this year, we’re excited to see this turbocharged 150 mph 1964 Mini Cooper S on the salt. Nelson Hartley—whose little brother is a Porsche factory LMP1 driver—drove the little demon to a speed record at Bonneville in 2012 for a sub-liter turbocharged engine.
The New Zealand squad who put it together pulled no punches, either. The miniature brick runs the classic 975cc A-Series engine with head from a BMW K1200 motorcycle. The bike head breathes a bit better and while that’s good for a bit more power, an intercooled IHI turbo puts 18 pounds of boost through the motor, good for more than 280 HP on pump gas and capable of revving the built engine to 9000 RPM.
If that seems like it’s leaning hard on a tiny engine, it is. They had the engine out several times during the 2012 Speed Week before they finally clobbered the 131 mph record with ever-faster runs that culminated in a 156 mph average and resulted in a cooked head gasket. After a couple years of reworking the car, they plan to return stateside to chase 280 kph, which is around 173 mph.
Watch the little front-drive rocket scream over the salt at 156 mph from behind Nelson Hartley and from ahead of him.
Read the team’s story of Speed Week here:
Awesome!
All that power from that lil’ 970S motor – but there’ll be gangs of deranged Mini enthusiasts bike-jacking BMW K series riders for their precious cylinder heads!