Swiftune has scored a prestigious win at the Goodwood Revival for the second year running after Nick Swift took the unique Mini DART to victory in the St Mary’s Trophy race. The first hint of the DART’s speed came in practice when Swift captured pole position by a handsome margin, starting the race with a rapid Mini Jem alongside.
Under the DART’s bonnet was the latest development – low friction/high revving- Swiftune 1380cc A series producing over 140bhp and thanks to the slippery aerodynamics Nick reckons the car topped 130mph on Goodwood’s Lavant straight. Following the DART home was a Lenham-bodied Midget famously campaigned in the 1960s by John Britten and now benefitting from a Swiftune race cylinder head. The wonderful grid of ‘aerodynamic’ bodied 1960s sports cars included a superb Ogle and two Deep Sandersons. Swiftune race engines powered four of the rapid Midgets and Sprites.
The Dart was certainly quick but driving it at Goodwood was a challenge. ‘Fast and furious’, is how Nick Swift described it, ‘because aerodynamics were at a very early stage when the DART was born and it feels like it is taking off as the speed builds!’ A Mini might be flat through the famous Fordwater bend but the DART certainly wasn’t.
Stefan Wray’s DART is the first Mini special developed by Dizzy Addicott in 1964 and is the only steel-bodied model; the eight subsequent fibreglass shells were the basis for both the Mk1 Mini Marcos and the Mini Jem. Addicott started the project with a damaged Mini van, arguing that the longer wheelbase would improve stability, and then lowered the screen and shaped the tail in accordance with Kamm’s theory which advocated the truncated teardrop shape. But why is the car called a DART? Simple really: Dizzy Addicott Racing Team.
22 September 2010