It all started about 3 ½ years ago when a friend of mine (Peter Osborne) asked me to build him a club race/road mini to compete in Targa Tasmania Rally. A heap of “Go-Fast” bits were bought & a rolling shell was purchased. We totally gutted out the shell. It was de-seamed, seam welded it & with a few unwanted steel panels removed & alloy ones in their place, it was ready for the full chrome molly multi point cage to go in. This made a very strong , safe & rigid base to work from & it was then painted in a lovely “New Blew” colour.

Now, Peter is not one to do things by halves, and he went berko buying all sorts of goodies like alloy rear trailing arms, alloy rear brake drums, 4 pot vented disc brakes, full adjustable suspension all round, off set rockers for the 1415cc stroker motor, A+ straight cut close ratio gearbox with limited slip diff etc etc etc. The list was almost endless & the money spent was unimaginable, all the “Nice” stuff went into it.

At this stage Pete had already been bitten hard by the race bug as I’d let him run my green “S” in club race meets with SPARC, so he bought an ex-race Suzuki swift to buzz around the tracks in while the Brick was being built. After a while & quite a few races under his belt (& doing really well I might add) he decided he wanted more…(don’t we all?) So he’s then picked up a lovely old Triumph TR7 & started the ever popular Alloy V8 conversion. This meant that the un-finished mini was up for sale & with the help of another friend of mine (Mitchell Smith) we forked out the cash & it stayed in my shed.

car 446

I had another customer wanting a 1415cc stroker motor so it sold & the discs also went, so I ended up putting my trusty 7 & ½ year old 1510cc stroker donk & moke discs into it as the green “S” was getting pretty sad & in need of a full resto. The plan then was to have us both compete as a team in Targa & Pete had suggested that he would pay the freight for both the cars to Tassie & back if I agreed to team up (pretty good deal in my books so I was keen as a mustard).

I had picked out my navigator, Rob Dyba----my old apprentice from ReadSpeed years ago & now working as service manager at Cleveland Hyundai. I filled out the application for invitation & paid the $1100 entry fee deposit (non refundable), kept building the “New Blew” Brick & worked out a heap of stuff like fuel, food, accommodation, tools, spares etc etc. One day Pete rings me up & says, ”I’m not going now, dramas with the Triumph & it won’t be ready in time”…the first spanner in the works (plenty more to come tho).

So, in my wisdom (or lack thereof), I decided to fix up the old split window 1967 model Kombi ute (Volkswagen Pick Up) that I cart minis around on & use her to be the “Targa freight goat”& service vehicle. Robbo & I worked every Sunday for a couple of months to get her up to par, with new late model disc brake front end, new tandem brake master cyl & booster, new engine, twin batteries with isolator switch, some wheel bearings replaced, a stereo system, some spot lights, a fair bit of new wiring, and a comfy “Stratos” drivers seat. There was still a slight grumble from one of the rear reduction box bearings (there’s 4 in each back wheel assy in these old girls) but we decided to simply drive it till it’s bad enough to be able to pick out exactly which one it was & fix it then.

With the entry deposit paid & only waiting for the “Application Received & accepted” notice, we had sorted what was needed to be done in the paper work dept (well at least I thought I had it sorted). A reply from Octagon Motorsport (the Targa organisers) seemed to take forever, so I hadn’t organised the international rally licence or Cams registration & vehicle log book or any of that stuff until we “knew” we were entered. When the word finally came that we had been accepted, then it was all steam ahead on the licence & log book issues (more spanners in the works). CAMS rules dictated that I had to have competed in at least one national rally before I could obtain my international rally licence, & frantic phone calls after frantic phone calls seemed to cement the fact. I was about to enter into the first round of the ARC (Australian Rally Championship) called the “Harbour City Rally” in Sydney but then a little birdie told me to ring Cambell Andrea of CAMS head office in Melbourne. After a little homework on his part, we were told that because of my previous CAMS competition history & from my performance driver training instruction that I could apply straight up for my international licence, No-Problemo!

The next “Spanner” was the roll cage. Pre-log book scrutineer had no problem with it, CAMS Brisbane office had no problem with it, however, CAMS head scrutineer in Melbourne said that it was of the wrong diameter tube & incorrect materials. As it happens, CAMS introduced a few new rules this year in the name of safety, & one of which stated that any new, 2002 log booked race cars had to comply with the new roll cage requirements. Silly me. I should have logged the car the year before & all would have been well. So it was “Gut out the brick” time again & send it back to Ricky at “Cut Price Mufflers” in Coopers Plains for a full roll cage re-fit. Low & behold, another “Spanner”…Ricky’s wife was quite late in the delivery of her new baby so Ricky wasn’t to be in at work for another week or so. Mind you this all came about 3 weeks before we were to leave for Tassie. Stressed is a very mild word for my condition at this stage! On top of that, the “pre-race” scrutineer wasn’t happy with our very new looking, 3”, 5-point RJS race harnesses either, “no date on them” he says (another new rule is that the harnesses must be dated –all new ones are--& mine were a few years old so no date on em). More damn spanners in the works than you can poke a stick at! Pete Os came to the rescue & loaned me his brand new, unused “Klippan”, 3”, 5-point, dated harnesses (Thanks heaps Pete).

Waiting to start a stage...

Meanwhile, back at “The Mini Man” stables, I hadn’t put a spanner to a customer’s car for a couple of months so money was very quickly evaporating. At this time I was scratching for dough & another customer & good friend of mine got his boss at “Star Stuff Graphics” to sponsor us with some cash & to make & fit all the stickers to both the mini & the Kombi…thanks heaps Steve!!!. Next thing, Robbo rings & says that both Keema & Quickfit tyres Capalaba paired up & donated a full set of tyres for the Kombi ute, more stickers for Steve to make up for us. Yippee!!!…Thanks again guys. Things seemed to be really starting to roll now.

The mini was back & roll caged, the Kombi was pretty well ready to go, the paper work all done & spares & tools all bundled up and we got Robbos 1485cc stroker motor as a spare. We threw it all into the storage pit in the Kombi, which was now holding tarps, camping equipment, mattresses, poles, pegs, torches, race suits, helmets and boots, but, of course more dramas showed their ugly head. I had originally ordered 6 Performance Superlight 13” x 6” wheels & at this stage only 4 had arrived so I rang the wheel guys & asked “Where’s my other 2 wheels?”. The reply was sort of discouraging, ”What wheels?” The order had somehow been lost in their system & only a few days before we go but our good mate Steve from “Star Stuff Graphics” was once again our “knight in shining armour”. He had previously bought a set & hadn’t fitted them to his mini yet & happily threw them our way. Back in business & mounted the 2 spares into the back seat.

The whole package was loaded up including the surf board ontop of the mini, ontop of the Kombi & a little test run down to the boys at “Taylor St mech”. They always help me heaps & that’s where I do all my wheel alignments so I thought I’d give them a little preview & test out how the Kombi handled with all that weight on board. A quick pit stop at the pub for some “refreshments” on the way & WOW!!! The Kombi is sitting pretty dam low. A little “Bo-Peep” underneath revealed that the poor old thing was sitting on all 4 bump stop rubbers…”Hhhmmmm”…a little heavy…The look on Robbo’s face was priceless…”This is going to be a Looooonnnnggg trip”.

5.30 am Tuesday morn the 11th of April, picked Robbo up at Cleveland & and we were off to Targa Tassie. Just past Mt Cotton & Robbo says, “wait a minute, where’s my wallet?” Phone Bridget up & she brings it out to us to save some time back & forth…this “is” going to be a looonng trip. Pulled into Mobil Coomera for my usual & mandatory “Mobil burger” (I just have to have one nearly every time I go past that servo…sort of a ritual) next stop, Byron bay for a surf, then onto Coffs Harbour & a counter meal for lunch. Robbos turn to drive. (I’m not a good passenger J )

That rear reduction box bearing is getting louder & louder but it should make Sydney ok, so we’ll look at it then, maybe. 10.30pm and we hit Sydney & an old friend of Robbos puts us up for the night. Wake in the morning, pig some breaky down & we’re “on the road again” (that song became very popular along this trip). Along the M5 motorway heading west & that grumbly reduction box bearing is really starting to complain so a decision was made to effect repairs now rather than to have it stuff up in the middle of no-where. I ring my dads old mate John Smith from “Mini Kingdom” & we get onto Boris from “Vintage Vee Dub Supplies”. He’s sooper dooper great & lets us use his shop, his tools, his welder, his parts…you just couldn’t get a nicer fella. He’s done Targa a few times & knows what it’s like to have “Targa dramas” (seems a very common theme with Targa people). So $150 later & “We’re on the road again”.

And he's off!

We make really good time decide to call it a night at a town called Yass, hit the local pub for a bed, a nice big hot meal & a little drinky (or 10). Up at about 7am & we’re off to Gundagai for breaky. That’s the last time I pull into Gundagai for an early breakfast, seems no one is awake till about 9am there, but it’s a good spot for a rest & reflection on how it’s all been going. A nice bacon & eggs meal, cuppa coffee & we hit the black stuff again, next stop Melbourne. However, soon we were to stumble upon a little town called “Holebrook” where the locals decided to park this huge old WW2 submarine in the main street parkland. Well, we must be getting closer to Tassie then hey? Who would have a WW2 submarine in the middle of the NSW outback? Holebrook that’s who. A spot of lunch at Wangaratta & we hit the NSW/VIC boarder towns of Albury/Woodonga. Not far to Melbourne now & looks like clear sailing from here. Finally Melbourne pokes its head out over the horizon & we thought we’d give our mate Henry Draper from Northern Mini Parts a little tingle. So we pulled into a servo to make the call & take a little leak, back out to the car for some phone change & the ignition light is on with the key turned off…”Hhhmmm, strange that”. A gork inside the engine bay & the generator is billowing huge puffs of smoke out…”More dam spanners!!!” So, we give Henry a miss & hit the phone book for another VW place, Matt from ”Volks Affair” in Sth Melbourne was contacted & a flight path was drawn up. They are only down the road from the “Spirit of Tasmania Ferry Terminal” so that’s good enough for me. It’s pretty late in the arvo by now so only a charge test was done to make sure exactly what the problem was & yep…it’s the geny.

These guys were tops!!! They sort us out a Kombi camper to stay in for the night, just parked out front of the VW shop & Off to the pub we go. Copious amounts consumed & we were anybodys (well Robbo was anyway). One of the VW mechanics, (John), was great, his missus (Larra) rocked up & we all got pretty sloshed, so Larra said that we’re not staying in some old Kombi camper on the side of the road “you’re staying with us at our place & we’ll feed you a decent breaky in the morning”…(top chick that Larra, John was pretty cute too J )

We awake (not so early) & head down to Volks Affair to sort our charging dramas only to find that the boys had allready fitted an alternator & regulator & were just finishing up the wiring. How good is that???…$200 & away we were again. Easy-Peasy!!!…Thanks heaps guys!!!

We finally make it to the ferry, park the beast & have a look around. Lots of Targa cars were rolling in & soon the place is full of em. Now I didn’t think I’d see any one I knew, it just didn’t seem the place to bump into old friends, but, low & behold there’s Paul Budda of “VW parts & services” driving a “Buy a Drive” Suzuki swift. There’s also heap of old mates from my SPARC competition days, such John Siddins & Graeme Coupland & some old mates of dads. Soon we were all chatting racing storys, dragged up from the “good old days”. It really is a small world hey?

Time to book in & drive onto the “Barge”, find our cabin & hit the “Tiger Bar”. It’s a long voyage (about 12 – 14 hours) so we hit the dining room, feed up big time & back to the bar again (Hic!). Morning comes quickly & breaky is devoured & disembarking is underway. Our turn comes & we’re confronted with TV crews & news paper photographers all wanting to get our picy taken the right way. You see they all wanted to make sure they got the pic right with the surfboard in the shot, it seemed more important than anything for some reason. Maybe they don’t have surf in Tassie??? J

We meet up with James (Robbos brother & our service crew to drive around following the event in the Kombi ute (poor bugga)) & a friend of mine (Geraldine) who used to be a neighbour of ours about 10 years ago. We’d be staying with her for a couple of days before the event started. After all the Targa cars do a little parade around town, we headed back to Geraldines place to unload the beast & take a break. A final test drive of the mini with all the Rally gear hooked up, Terratrip, helmets, intercom, just to make sure it all works & guess what?…the damn intercom isn’t working!!!. A phone call to Hobart & a new one was source & to be delivered to Launceston that arvo, so off we go to Launceston. Well it wasn’t too bad & the new one worked well, James took the Kombi ute as he was staying in Longford & we drove the brick back the Devonport.

James rings, “the Kombi is running really bad & could hardly make 60kph”…ah well…this old “freight goat” is really testing us now. Another VW mech (Kerry) was contacted & the valves are the problem, we leave it with him as we had a full day of paperwork verification, vehicle scrutineering, crew, drivers & first timers briefings to attend to the following day. Only the oil catch tank had to be changed on the mini for the scrutineers to be happy & easy fixed with a $23 tin of coffee (anyone need some coffee???) That following arvo we picked up the Kombi & all sounded crisp & sweet. Thanks again Kerry!!

The next day (16th April) was the start. We’d made it this far & now it’s time to test our skills. The “Georgetown Prologue” was first and this is simply a short dash through the city streets to “seed” the drivers for a starting order for the Targa stages to follow the next day, so no need to go silly at all. We hit the start line eager to show how quick we were in short tight street tracks, which is my sort of event really, but we could not really perform well at all as someone (silly me) forgot to make sure that we had a little extra oil in to compensate for the standard mini oil pick up fitted. Most “smart” mini racers would use a central oil pick up to help stop the oil surging away from the oil pick up on the right hand side of the box, on right hand corners. So it was a “cruise” around the right-handers & a “FANG” around the lefts. Never fear, no damage done & it made me keep an eye on the oil gauge all week which isn’t a bad thing at all with a 7 & ½ year old 1510cc stroker donk with .080 undersize big-end bearings. J Hundreds of spectators & hundreds of hay bails lined the streets for this was the first “Fast” Targa stage for 2002 & there are some awesome cars showing off their style.

The next day was the “real” start of the event with the “Northern Loop”, a fairly easy run around the top of Tassie & the times were not hard to make. The Targa time system was a little difficult for me to fathom at first, I didn’t quite understand how it all worked but Robbo was pretty clued up & said “you just do what you do best & leave everything else to me”. I’m not one for arguing & I didn’t really need anything else to worry about, stress factor was pretty high at this point for the last 3 months of hard yakka was starting to show. We did ok & made our “Base Time” easilly, but then, just about everyone did. As the rally progresses, the times get harder to achieve & the stages get longer & the fatigue starts to set in & things can really diminish. ”The event is won on the last day & not the first” was heard many a time & good advice to heed.

The Kombi wasn’t well, James had reported that the front suspension had collapsed onto the bump stop rubbers & I suggested to him that it was like that all the way from Brisbane so don’t worry about it. He thought that at this stage of the event that if he pitched in & spent all day fitting new (2/nd hand) ones that it would be good for the rest of the rally & better to carry it all home again. So I said “yeah ok, but you’ll spend all day & hate the job & hate me too afterwards”. He was keen so he was into it & we were to finish this leg back in Launceston anyway, so why not?.

The stages rolled on & we faired quite well but I was a bit more than anxious about the lack of grip that the mini was displaying. Maybe $88 malaysian tyres may not have been a good call. A look around the “Park ferme” that night revealed that just about everyone had $250 + “R” spec “sticky”tyres fitted…”Hhhmmm…maybe we could do with a tyre sponsor for next year hey?” .......Onto Page 2