"Mechanic Mike"
Michael's main interest lies in road rallies and he finished 8th overall in the 2000 Historic Monte Carlo Rally ( from 230 starters).
Having said that he is quite keen on FISC racing, and 2000 was Michaels 4th FISC season. For some reason Michael's car is always being worked on. You might think this is because he does no work on the car at home but that's not true I spend almost as much time working with him on his car as I spend on my own. (maybe I should stop leaving the bolts loose !)
Michael's Car
The orange Midget was Michaels 1999 car. This car no longer exists now.
He bought the above car in Germany. It is the Ex-Mike Chalk Swiftune fully modified car (pictured on Page 176 of the book Mighty Midgets & Special Sprites :- John Baggott). Michael then modified it back to "standard". This involved moving the engine forward again to its original position, removing the F3 front suspension & removing the rear brake discs.
Having driven this car for 3 years & deciding that it didn't meet his mechanical standards, and built the Yellow car for 2000. It is a Frogeye Sprite with a Pryde & Clark Hardtop. (see above). Most of the mechanical parts from his Midget have been "relocated" to the Sprite. The Midget fibreglass rear end was grafted onto my car for the 2000 season.
The car has a 1380 cc Engine (originally from Peter May - many years ago) a Straight Cut Close Ratio Gearbox, Limited Slip Diff & as far as I know is the ONLY FISC car to run with a heater. The reason for this is Michael intends using the car (with a different engine) occasionally for Road Rallies. His girlfriend, Eva, suffers from the cold & so he has put the worlds biggest heater in the car for her!