My Clubman arrived in 2002 as a part exchange for my Mini rally car. It was not in too bad shape and came with a 1300 Metro engine. I ran it as it came for approx 18 months then decided to do a full rebuild. It was stripped right back to a bare shell and work then began. The shell was not too bad, even the original inner and outer wings were good. The only rot to be cut out and new metal welded in was at the rear edge of the boot floor. The underside was then rust proofed and rebuilding began.

The subframes were stripped and painted then all components attaching to these were cleaned, repainted and refitted using new nuts and bolts where appropriate. New harder bushes were also fitted along with adjustable shocks, fixed negative camber bottom arms, homemade heavy duty tie rods and homemade neg camber rear subframe brackets. It always my aim to have a car handling and stopping well before doing any power boosts, so with this in mind I sprayed the shell and then refitted the eng/box just as they came out of the car.

A couple of Sprint meetings were done to test the car and tweak suspension, then the engine and box were taken out to rebuild. The box was done with new synchro cones and a central pick up pipe. The eng was checked over, a new oil pump, reconned MG Metro head and MG cam together with vernier duplex gear was fitted. The cam was properly timed in and the distributor modified to maximise on power output. All the work was done by me.

This is the work to date and I am pleased with the result, but of course look forward to taking things further!