Lee (2 Much) & Alex (Bhozar) @ Donnington Today

[BigShow]

Today Paul and I took the Lotus and the MINI to Donny to watch Lee give his awesome GTT300T a good thrashing round the track and boy are we glad we did.

On arrival rain clouds were already looming and its wasn't long before the first downpour started. As we drove round to the pit garages to try and find Lee's car I was surprised to find an electric blue GP bumper clad MCS sitting behind Lee's car. Skulking not far away was a worried looking Alex looking up at the ever darkening clouds and I was greeted by a suprised welcome as he tried to work out how my MINI had transformed itself into one of Hethels finest.

After pouring myself out of the Lotus it was finally time to be introduced to Lee but before I delved into a million and one questions about his car I first had to pay homage to Alex's transformed Cooper S. If you think it looks good in the pics, it looks even better in the flesh! Crisp and clean, yet aggressive at the same time. It could almost be a 3rd edition facelift R53 if only MINI had bothered to make one and I for one think it was worth every penny of the upgrade!!

Then on to Lee's car... dressed in black with the factory aero kit and fantastic looking OZ wheels it looked incredibly purposeful but it was the mightily industrial looking challenge spoiler that first got my attention. From the back it gives others viewing the car a hint of what the lays in-store if you dare to look a little deeper. As I worked my way round to the side, Lee was already climbing into his stripped out interior across a full FIA roll cage before cocooning himself in the stunning Corbeau bucket seats.

I waited in anticipation for Lee to start the car. Alex had already turned the key on his to remind me of what a well tuned supercharged S sounds like, but it was Lee's car that I couldn't wait to hear. After he'd finished strapping himself into the 5 point harnesses, he gave the belts a quick tug to ensure they were tight and then turned the key. As the car turned over and fired into life, I was shocked to hear that armageddon had been cancelled and replaced with what sounded like nothing more than a tuned MINI Cooper. So after scratching my head for bit I wondered over to the pit straight wall and stuck my head through one of the viewing platforms to get as close as I could to Donny's fantastically smooth half mile straight.

It was Alex's car that came into view first, but before I'd even saw the fantastic electric blue paintwork, my ears were treated to the whine of a brand new supercharger spinning it's way to 15k rpm and beyond. As his car flew past at a decent lick with water streaming in its wake, I turned back up the straight to catch Lee's bright blue xenon's piercing out from his jet black metallic bodywork as he struggled to get traction out of the corner in these tricky conditions, but then the car settled and like an angry rattlesnake it reared up and tore its way through the tarmac hissing and popping as it went from third to fourth and eventually into fifth gear as it flew by at an unbelievable turn of pace, leaving in its wake a truly thunderous exhaust note. 'That's more like it', I said to myself and with that I knew I'd just witnessed all of those 390 highly tuned horses.

It's old news that I'd been skeptical about just how fast Lee's car truly was and it wasn't until the track had dried and he'd donned some suitably impressive slick tyres that I took a moment to put things into context. 280 bhp in a MINI is about as much as you'd want on the road, and if I'm honest with street tyres it's about as fast as you'd want on an unfamiliar circuit. But here today at Donnington I realised exactly why Lee had gone to such incredible lengths to specify a car with such mind blowing power. It's not for headline numbers, it's not for Saturday night cruises, it's purely and simply to bring alive his most favourite of track day venues, Donnington Park. If like Lee you've completed over 1,000 laps of this incredibly challenging circuit, it's easy to see why anything less than 390 bhp just wouldn't cut it. The guy clearly has talent behind the wheel, born from over 15 years of thrashing round the track in various cars in different states of tune, but what really does it for him is the knowledge that the most powerful Evo's and Scooby's in attendance will leave that track day wondering how the hell a little black MINI was firstly all over them, then at the first opportunity managed to pass them like they'd selected reverse.

During my time with Lee and his car, I lost count of the number of people talking about what his MINI had under the bonnet. The only car to really show the difference between a pure track day car and Lee's was a race spec Radical whose performance would today have given the F1 boys lapping Silverstone a surprise. However, the rest of the field at Donnington were treated to what's capable from a well tuned Cooper S, even if it should be called a Cooper T. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you want the ultimate track day MINI then look no further than Lee's 300T, everything about it is simply awesome.

[Paul Webster]

It was well worth the ride up, just to have a laugh and a giggle with other Mini petrolheads.

Being able to go on track is just an added bonus

[BigShow]

Originally Posted by paul@1320autos.com

It was well worth the ride up, just to have a laugh and a giggle with other Mini petrolheads.

I second that, it was great to have a laugh with Lee and Alex, roll on next weekend at Shakey!

[Bhozar]

Pictures from today:

Alex Youngs Fotos - Donnington Park Track Day July 2008 | Facebook

Thanks to BigShow for taking the pictures. All of them were done by him, except the first two. Some very good shots.

[MiniPetrolHead]

Im looking forward to seeing another cooper T at some point in the future ay Ben!!

[GRSmotorsport]

Nice write up Bigshow, sounds like you guys had a great day

[James@fomsport]

looks fun, i like how lees intercooler makes the car look like it has fangs

[Rigsey]

Great write up

[MiniPetrolHead]

Originally Posted by James@fomsport

looks fun, i like how lees intercooler makes the car look like it has fangs

lol

[MINI-Morgan]

Good write Up Missed a great day it seems!