During my childhood I thought about cars, motorcycles and lots of others things and events. One thing was having a pretty fast and cool looking Mini. In March 2005 I started thinking about it again. At first I was thinking to get a 1.3 injection or just a 1275 carb and tune it as far as possible. During my search on the internet I visited the ZCars website and I instantly forgot anything about tuning the original Mini engine.

One of many other things I like are fast motorcycles. My favorite motorcycle brand is Suzuki and that is why I wanted to use the Suzuki Hayabusa engine for my Mini. First I had to contact our Dutch SVA (RDW) about the vehicle requirements. After receiving the vehicle requirements I started searching for a Mini that was first used before October 1973.

It took some time, but finally in December 2005 I found an Austin Mini 850 which was first used in February 1971. The shell was in terrible condition. The front-end and floor panels were rusted, the boot was completely covered with rust and both doors had more holes then necessary. This meant that a lot of new panels had to be welded in to get a rust-free and solid shell. Within a couple of weeks the original Mini 850 engine was sold and suddenly there was some space for the Hayabusa engine. After consulting ZCars I ordered the Suzuki Hayabusa kit. The kit was ready in February 2006 and I got it during a car event in Gent (Belgium).

The first couple of months someone helped me with welding. Some mistakes were made, even after telling me that welding short lines is the way to go. He managed to weld the complete rear valance in one go and changed it into a flat panel below the boot lid. After practicing and refreshing my welding skills, I am doing all welding jobs on the shell.

More (technical) information about the Mini and Hayabusa are available on the Project page. A lot of pictures can be viewed on the Photo album page. There is also a page with links to useful information sources, fellow builders and suppliers.

I hope you enjoy your visit and hopefully til next time.


If you want to contact me, you may click here to send an email.