I've decided to have a go at building my own sprint. This is most likely going to be a long term project as I don't have a big pile of cash to throw at it. I do however have plenty of enthusiasm and time which are just as important. For my money I would much prefer it to be a MK1 car, I like the look of external hinges on sprints. Of course I'll have to run it on 10"s, I've seem a few on 13" wheels and they just don't look right to me. I'm also toying with the idea of building it up as a bit of a track day/ hillclimb car. I quite like the idea of a bit of competition driving but I don't think my skills are quite up to circuit racing so this would seem like a good place to start.

After keeping an eye out locally for about 4 months I got a lucky break. A friend of a friend needed some scrap minis removed from a barn on his property. There were 3 of them and they all had to go. I was pretty excited.....then I saw them! There was a complete MK1 that was rotten beyond repair, a '72 clubman that had been side swiped and a stripped and rusty MK1 shell. Over the course of 2 weekends I got them moved to a place where I could store them. I then stripped them all to bare shells to see what I had that could be used. Both the complete cars had 850cc engines which was a little disappointing but on the plus side there was a lot that could be used. Both had excellent front and rear subframes, good radius arms and plenty of bits that would clean up. I scrapped the clubman as it was too badly damaged but decided to keep the MK1 shells, the worst of which I would use as a test bed to see if I had my cut lines correct, it was too far gone to save, the other I would restore and turn into my sprint. This is going to be a lot of extra work as it means restoring the shell before I can cut it down. Much less traumatic than buying a good MK1 and getting it wrong though!

The pictures below are of the cars as I found them and during the tear down phase. The really scabby looking MK1 is in infact the most repairable of all 3 cars. Saying that there is heaps to do.