When Randy Nonnenberg from bringatrailer.com needed help with his classic 1961 Mini, we were very pleased that he contacted us. On arrival here at British Sports Cars, we found that the Mini had some major engine problems. We fully dismantled the engine and found that the number-two piston had cracked. The cause for this was the result of the wrong pistons being installed, and that they were latterly contacting the cylinder head on top-dead center. An easy problem to solve, but unfortunately it meant we had to fully rebuild the engine.

When the car first arrived, Randy and Justin Jurgens spoke about adding a little performance, but not going too crazy as the car will be living and driving in the city of San Francisco. Randy already had some great performance parts, but he just wanted a little more. We decided to upgrade the engine with a mild performance street cam shaft and a big valve cylinder head fully ported and polished but Mini Sport in the UK.

In addition to engine work, we also repaired and upgraded the brakes to Mini Cooper S specs. With all the additional power, it was a must to upgrade the brakes. The car runs and drives fantastic and we hope that the bringatrailer.com crew has a blast with this fantastic car. We could not be happier with the power and drivability the new engine provides.

Bring-A-Trailer Mini Cooper

Cracked number-two piston.

Cracked number-two piston.