The ERA Mini Turbo is a modified

Mini The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...

city car The A-segment is the 1st category in the passenger car classification system defined by the European Commission. It is used for city cars, the smallest category of passenger cars defined. A-segment sales represent approx. 7-8% of the market in ...

that was produced by Engineering Research & Application Ltd. under the ERA brand name from 1989 to 1991 at

Dunstable Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the ...

in Bedfordshire, England. The fastest-ever version of the original Mini to be sold through official dealers, it has been described as "the spiritual successor to the Cooper and the 1275 GT". ERA Mini Turbo rear

To create the car, ERA installed a turbocharged Austin Rover A-Series 1300

MG Metro MG, Mg, or mg and variants may refer to: Organizations * MG Cars, an automotive marque of the now defunct MG Car Company * MG Motor, a present-day car manufacturing company * MG JW Automobile, a Pakistani automobile manufacturer * Champion Air (I ...

engine, which produces at 6200 rpm and gave the car a claimed top speed of , in a standard Mini and modified the body, suspension, brakes, water and oil cooling systems, and interior. The

body kit A body kit or bodykit is a set of modified body parts or additional components that install on a stock car. Typically composed of front and rear bumpers, side skirts, spoilers, bonnets (bonnet scoop), and sometimes front and rear side gua ...

was styled by Dennis Adams, who also designed the

Marcos Marcos may refer to: People with the given name ''Marcos'' *Marcos (given name) Sports ;Surnamed * Dayton Marcos, Negro league baseball team from Dayton, Ohio (early twentieth-century) * Dimitris Markos, Greek footballer * Nélson Marcos, Portug ...

sports cars and the

Probe 16 The M-505 Adams Brothers Probe 16 is a car, designed by former Marcos cars designers Dennis and Peter Adams, (Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, England) in 1969 as 'an investigation into extremes of styling'. It is powered by a mid-mounted tuned Aus ...

(the car used in 'A Clockwork Orange'). The car, which uses mostly

Austin Rover The Austin Rover Group (abbreviated ARG) was a British motor manufacturer. It was created in 1982 as the mass-market car manufacturing subsidiary of British Leyland (BL). Previously, this entity had been known as BL Cars Ltd (formerly Leyland C ...

components, was marketed through Austin Rover dealers. The interior has specially narrowed MG Metro front seats trimmed in

Connolly Leather Connolly Leather Limited was a British company that supplied highly finished leather primarily to car manufacturers. Founded in 1878, it went out of business in that form in 2002. A successor firm, Connolly Brothers, UK, has resumed producing ...

hide or a mix of grey tweed and leather, VDO instruments in an ERA-designed dash panel, pile carpeting, and a sunroof.

Torque steer In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational equivalent of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). It represents the capability of a force to produce change in the rotational motion of the ...

, common in a

front-wheel drive Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of engine and transmission layout used in motor vehicles, where the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel drive vehicles feature a transverse engine, rather than the conventional longitu ...

layout, is mitigated by greater front-wheel toe-out and specially-made lower front suspension arms that provide 1.5 degrees of negative camber. The 6" x 13" aluminium alloy wheels are intended for either Goodyear or Dunlop 165/60HR13 low-profile tyres. The servo-assisted braking system has Metro ventilated discs and four-pot calipers at the front, with modified drums at the rear. The car has adjustable shock absorbers all round, and the

ride height Ride height or ground clearance is the amount of space between the base of an automobile tire and the lowest point of the automobile (typically the axle); or, more properly, to the shortest distance between a flat, level surface, and the lowest p ...

is lowered. A total of 436 ERA Mini Turbos were produced.

References

{{Reflist

External links

ERA Mini Turbo web site
Cars of England Mini vehicles Cars introduced in 1989 1990s cars Cars discontinued in 1991