During the 2020 coronavirus lockdown, Gary Surman of West Midlands precision engineering sub-contractors
A&M EDM, acted on a long-standing ambition to improve the performance of the A-series Classic Mini engine block.
He was convinced that advances in engine technology could improve the racing performance of the original engine and so A&M designed and manufactured a road race version block machined from solid aluminium weighing only 20.5kg compared to the original 32kg, and boosted by five functioning main bearings rather than three.
Mark Wingfield, A&M’s managing director, supported Mr Surman’s ambition, and believing a proprietary product would assist the precision engineering sub-contractor’s long-term growth, they decided to create a separate company Ascaso Engineering to develop the engine. The block is machined on a Hurco VMX42Ui five-axis vertical machining centre cutting at high feed rates up to 10m per min. Meanwhile, the crankshaft is produced from a solid billet using PowerMill and the swivelling B-axis of a
Hurco VMX60SRTi VMC synchronised with the motions of a
Kitagawa GT320 rotary fourth-axis table.
Mr Surman said: “We have manufactured precision components for Formula One, aerospace, automotive and marine industries for many years and applied our engineering skills to manufacture this engine. The original had three main bearings but the new version has five, so it can rev at higher speeds up to 10,000rev/min and accept a load over 350 BHP.”
The A+5 1,273cc K16V turbo engine was successfully circuit tested in December last year by Mini racer Jim Lyons. A&M laser-scanned his Mini to reverse-engineer the engine bay and legacy components. He then drove the 1,273cc Turbo version for its first race at the world’s fastest Mini event at Brands Hatch last month, finishing in fifth place after overcoming a split exhaust manifold.
Mr Lyons said: “The engine is outstanding. Gary and the rest of the A&M team have done a fantastic job. The quality of the machining is better than I have ever seen. The engine runs cool, so all the cooling issues I have had for 20 years have gone and I can really feel the difference in the weight of the engine when racing. Furthermore the Ascaso engine has a bullet-proof bottom end, so we can really start to get some big power.”
The 1,071cc KAD Gen3 16v turbo engine will be used for a land speed record attempt at 427 BHP in Bolivia in 2024. This engine has been tested from ‘out of the box as designed’ and will be marketed as the 1,071cc 16v TS following in the footsteps of the iconic Mini Cooper S 1071cc engine. A&M have developed different capacities of dedicated classic Mini engines, from 1,071cc through to 1,400cc for the BMW K16V and 12G940 heads and anticipates demand from Mini racing enthusiasts world-wide.