Three-quarters front view of a 1979, Maguire Mini Twin-Cam on sale in the Iconic Auction, at the 2023 Silverstone Festival
One of the last surviving Maguire Minis, just three owners since it was built and a fascinating history. It’s certainly very rare that a John Maguire Mini comes to the market, especially one as original as this, and with a very interesting back story. It was built at John Maguire Racing in Coventry by Tom Shepherd (TS in the chassis number) for its first owner, Dave Horsley (the DH in the chassis number). He couldn't get on with it and very quickly sold it to Peter Wartenburg, from Munchengladbach. He had a company called PW Racing and he ran the car in Germany for a few years with a normal five-port race engine. Photographs are in the electronic archive that accompanies the car of the Mini on pole at the Nurburgring and with the ‘P1’ board after victory! It comprehensively beat everything over there and was banned from the series so Peter used to come over the channel and race in the Wendy Wools series alongside Peter Baldwin and Doc Enderby. The car wasn't quick enough over here so Peter got involved with an ex-Weslake employee called Gary Oldfield, who had designed a 16-valve cylinder head for the A-Series along the lines of the BDH, and made all the casting patterns. Peter and Gary machined and built-up the first head which was duly installed into the Maguire and launched to the German press in 1989. Peter did considerable testing here and in Germany, ironing out many of the bugs, most of which centred around reliable valve springs. In 1993, he built the final version of the engine, however personal matters meant that he wasn't able to devote the time to further development. Coincidentally, at the same time, the rights to the head design had been acquired by Kent Automotive Developments. The story continues in our vendor’s words; 'The car, prepped and all ready to go went into a storage container until 2020 when Peter decided to put it up for sale.
Size: 4651px × 3744px
Location: Silverstone Circuit, Towcester, Northamptonshire, NN12 8TN
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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