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Austin Mini Countryman
Engine: Hillman Imp 998cc
Configuration: front engine, front-wheel drive
Driver: Ginger Marshall
Class: Special Saloons up to 1000cc
Date taken: May 1978, main straight, Croft
A racing Mini estate car with an Imp engine, the logic behind this was flawless as Ginger Marshall and this car went on to win many 1-litre championships. Ginger had been racing since 1959, when he started an eight year career in Karts. His first circuit race was at Silverstone in an 850cc Mini Special Saloon. His first major success came in 1969 when he was the Osram/GEC Special Saloon Championship in his Mini. Ginger's brother, David, built the Mini Countryman/Traveller for the 1976 season, winning the Forward Trust Championship that year. Success followed in 1978 when he was the Hitachi Special saloon Champion with 9 wins, 10 pole positions, and 9 lap records. Notable amongst these lap records was at Snetterton when he knocked 2 seconds of the record, lapping at 92.6mph (149kph). The chassis of this car shown here was an aluminum monocoque, clothed in a lightweight aluminium and fiberglass body shell, the longer wheelbase of the Countryman provided better handling and faster cornering than the standard Mini. The ultra lightweight, Marshall-Frazer Chrysler Imp engine was fitted to the close-ratio Mini gearbox by an adapter plate, Osselli Engineering was well known for producing these plates the time. Another handling mod which can be seen in the picture is the left-handed driving position, which put the driver's weight in the correct place to counter the cornering forces of the predominately right-hand turns of British circuits. A cartoon of Ginger's Mini Countryman was used in the Forward Trust (sponsors of the championship) advertisements of the time, and he also made a guest appearance in a BBC Television series called Driving Ambition, about a middle- aged woman taking up saloon car racing.
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