Early “Magic Wand” shift mechanisms

I brought JKat one of the early “Magic Wand” shift mechanisms that he is able to adapt to the 4 syncro transmission. That magic wand is from the original transmission for my 1962 Mini Traveller, so that is as correct as can be, as well as being quite unusual.

I actually need the remote shift housing installed on the transmission as it is. However, I also want to fully restore and make fully functional the magic wand shifter as that will go into the car within a short time. While building the car I do not want to go back and cut a hole in the floor boards now, but I will do it later in other words.

Installed in my car when I got it was the remote shifter housing with a special optional shifter adaptor that allowed a firewall shifter to be put in. So, it had a later form of magic wand made by the factory for the 4 sycro transmission. By switching out the shifter rods and linkage with the 3 speed box that was made for the remote (true Copper S), the remote shift housing could fit the Traveller, which I thought at the time would be much more precise in shifting. As you have pointed out however that is not necessarily true, if the original Magic wand is all set up and working correctly. Since the magic Wand is specifically for the 1962 Traveller and is actually the real original shifter that came with the car, I will go back to that very soon. I WILL NEED A TEMPLATE OF WHERE TO CUT THE HOLE IN THE FLOORBOARDS / FIREWALL as my body man did such a great job of filling in the hole I cannot see where it would go.

I am working on finding out what final drive the spare 1275 engine has in it. Rumor had it that the spare engine came from a 1275 GT, but the final drive will reveal whether that is true or not. I would actually prefer a 3.1 or higher, if luck has it.

Sprite Race Engine, Mini Cooper Trans Update

JKat presents a brief description of his Sprite Engine rebuild

https://youtube.com/watch?v=bpXANtUv70M%26hl%3Den_US

Octane Boosters

Joe writing to JKat:

I have always had mixed opinions about octane boosters and actually never used them.
Portland has a Fed. mandate that we have to do better cleaning the air and as a result we have
“oxygenated fuel” which is gasohol.  Makes all cars run terrible in the name of the environment??
Anyway, the BMW just was not running right recently and has not felt up to par for some time.
That car has 10.5 – 1 compression, which I know they did for mid-range cruising economy and not for accelerating.
Anyway, I was reading that the sensor that detects the octane in the fuel, will make full use of the 10.5 compression if octane is high enough.
Unlike a distributor that has a theoretical static advance, the BMW sensors detect the real octane and from that
find the ideal.   Anyway, I tried 108 Octane Booster that a friend recommended and wow, what a difference.
The engine sounds much more fierce and performance is like adding 40 HP or so.  Someone else said that
Lucas Octane booster is very good,  but that one costs about $9.00 for a very small bottle, so i went with the 108.
At about $4.00 per tank, the 108 clearly is giving me better gas mileage and oven an entire tank of gas is paying for itself,
not to mention better acceleration.   Even my low first gear is not very noticeable with the higher octane.