With so much time and money invested into the project coupled with the fact that I am supercharging a Yamaha R1 bike engine, I thought it would be a good idea to have some fire protection.
I decided to buy and install a "plumbed in system" that would be permanently hooked up ready to deploy should the worse occur. I will also carry a hand held extinguisher for smaller fires if they occur.
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Locating the supercharger air intake within the passenger side front wheel arch has created a bit of an issue to ensure the air filter receives an adequate flow of air. It just so happens that my car had an air intake funnel located behind the front grille to direct air into the cabin air vent. So, I decided to re-purpose the opening.
For quite some time I toyed with the idea of adding a dummy right hand filler cap for that 60's look but it didn't sit well with me to have a fake item just for show. Whilst weighing up my options, it occurred to me that I could re-purpose it as a location to house a battery isolator. Something I wanted to fit anyway to disable the power during long periods of inactivity.
Who doesn't like a cup holder?!
One of the issues with the classic mini is that it was designed a long time ago and having somewhere to stow your hot beverage whilst driving wasn't considered. All in seriousness, I've got a few reasons for fitting this centre console; somewhere to hold my phone, rear cup holder to house a bluetooth speaker (no stereo in the car), much cleaner looking install and if required, somewhere to hold that hot drink Ever since I decided 2 years ago that I was going to supercharge the Yamaha R1 engine I knew I would eventually need an airbox or sometimes called a plenum. I have looked at lots of different options and even splashed out ~ £180 on ready made Pipercross PX600 item only to find it was far too big for the engine bay.
So that left me with the option of having to fabricate something. Well that turned out to be a lot of work! Perhaps 50-60 hours or more has gone into designing and building the supercharger system. It's been a great learning experience though and I can be proud that it's all my own work. Except for final tig welding that I've outsourced due to not having my own tig welder.
All the parts were tacked together using a mig welder which proved to be messy and constantly jammed. I must invest in a tig welder one day. I can't believe it has been almost 18 months since I sent the shell away to be restored but what a transformation! I'll let the pictures do the talking.
A massive thanks to Sean at AJ's Mini's in Broke, Norfolk for the hardwork bringing the shell back to life. Fitting a supercharger was never going to be easy!
The subframe needs extensively modifying in order for the supercharger belt pulley to have sufficient clearance. There was a lot of trial and error to get it right It has been a long time coming. About 8 years to be exact that I have wanted to purchase a Pro-Motive R1 kit. The day finally arrived on Friday 6th March 2020 when I took delivery of kit No: 125.
An important element of the supercharger conversion is the induction system to ensure cool, clean air is supplied to the supercharger and subsequently to the engine intake. To the best of my knowledge I am developing one of, if not the first supercharger conversions for an R1 powered mini. It's therefore not possible to buy a ready made induction kit off the shelf.
I have been gathering parts over the last couple of months to enable a system to be fabricated. I have also designed my own parts and started having them made or I am making them myself. |
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