Building a race car — especially a competitive one — is not simply a matter of bolting on some trick suspension, fine tuning the engine and fitting a roll cage.
The Mail & Guardian was present at the building of Craig Nicholson’s Class B Sabat-sponsored Mini Cooper S, and witnessed the frustrations this budget team faced before the car even turned a wheel.
While no modifications are allowed, the engine may be “blue printed”, which sees teams machining and adjusting each component so that it matches the manufacturer’s specifications to the last micron.
The motor is also balanced, while an adjustable fuel regulator is fitted. The exhaust is free, but noise levels have to be below the nominal decibel level as stipulated by Motorsport South Africa. Oil coolers are permitted, but Nicholson’s team chooses to run without one.
The easy part was finding what is termed a “donor” car — one that has been damaged, but that can still be repaired thanks to a sound chassis and reasonably intact bodywork.
The Mini was stripped of its basic essentials, such as door panels, roof lining and any other arbitrary fittings, and left in the hands of BMW Motorsport, which undertook the task of fitting the roll cage. Besides ensuring the safety of the driver, roll cages add significant rigidity to the chassis, which ensure less chassis jitter and, in turn, better handling. The roll cage is constructed of chrome moly tubing, varying in thickness between 30mm and 60mm. In high-impact areas, the maximum diameter is used, while the cage itself is very similar to those used by the touring cars.
The next task is to source a “trick” suspension, and in this case, Nicholson’s team obtained suspension components used by the Mini Challenge competitors in Europe. Geometry cannot be changed, and the Mini retains its front McPherson struts and trailing arm rear suspension. The mounting positions have to remain standard too, although the points at which the suspension is mounted are radically beefed up to cope with high g-loadings. Nicholson’s Mini boasts adjustable bump and rebound settings on all four corners. Whereas a road car is designed to offer its occupants travel in maximum comfort and with little noise, there is no such consideration factored in when building a race car.
Ride height is also free, so if you look carefully, the Mini is a lot lower compared to your average street version. Little else can be added or changed, and the car has to resemble a normal street-going version once the crew has worked its magic and transformed it.
Then, an advanced fire-protection system is fitted. As the Mini is supercharged, everything, including the exhaust, runs that much hotter and the danger to driver and car through fire is very real.
Modern cars boast extremely complex electronics, and the Mini Copper S is no exception. Essentially, four mini-computers control the Mini’s fine motoring qualities, and disabling any one of these causes a shutdown of sorts, normally complete.
Many hours were spent trying to get the dash to work after disabling the traction control and air bag system. A PI Dash was sourced and fitted, which shows driver Nicholson myriad readings during the race. The PI Dash also boasts gear shift LEDs, which change colour as engine revs climb. This can also predict lap times once a few laps of the circuit have been completed.
While the anti-lock braking system was retained, the power steering was disabled, as this saps power from the motor. The callipers may not be modified, although disc pads may be changed. In this case, competition specification Ferodo DS 3000 pads are used all round.
Thanks to advanced electronics and the high-tech dash board, the team can see exactly how the car is performing, or on a bad day, how Nicholson isn’t.
Fuel consumption is hardly a consideration in race conditions, winning is though. The car also uses around 1,2-litres of race fuel a lap at tracks such as Zwartkops, and the engine is rebuilt every third race or so. The engine management system is programmed to over fuel the car on deceleration/braking, and hence you’ll see spectacular tongues of flame on occasion emanating from the exhaust of the Sabat car. It also aids the cooling of the motor in race conditions.
Nicholson’s car was built in about 200 hours, which at an average cost of R500 a hour, amounts to serious money. But it’s well worth it as Nicholson took his maiden win in Class B at Kyalami two months ago and is regularly seen at the front of the pack.
If you really want to know how fast it is, a standard BMW M3 in experienced hands will lap Kyalami in 2’07’. Nicholson and the Sabat Mini should be able to beat that time.