The team with their record-setting Mini, from left; Garry Orton, Teena Larsen, Maurice Larsen, Anita Hulme, Bryan Hartley, Shane Nicholson, Nelson Hartley, Graham Wilson, Aaron Hartley and Mike Wilson. Photo: www.project64mini.com.

Record-breaking mini to feature on Jay Leno’s car show

0
1757

The world record-breaking efforts of a Nelson-based racing team and their 1964 Mini Cooper S will be beamed to millions of viewers on US chat show host Jay Leno’s car show later this month.

The team smashed two world land speed records and got a top speed of 166 mph at the Bonneville Speed Week in Utah last month.

Adapting the car to get 370 horsepower out of a motor originally designed to produce 65 horsepower, the team turned heads, proving people wrong with a bit of kiwi ingenuity.

And with Leno’s YouTube internet series having 1.7 million subscribers, the world is about to see some more of that famous kiwi ingenuity.

Graham Reid, a Scottish mechanic with his own Los Angeles garage, will stand in for his Project ’64 mates when the episode of hugely popular “Jay Leno’s Garage” is filmed in Los Angeles.

The Mini is due back home in mid-October and will return to the World of Wearable Art and Classic Cars Museum in Nelson. But not before the world gets to see it in all its glory with car nut Jay Leno.