Bad Obsession Motorsport


Bad Obsession Motorsport is a Shropshire, England-based race and fabrication workshop run by Nik Blackhurst and Richard Brunning. They are best known for Project Binky, a project to build "the world's fastest Mini" restomod by fitting an original Mini with running gear from an all-wheel-drive turbocharged Toyota Celica GT-Four. Blackhurst and Brunning have filmed the "obsessive" project and released it as a series of videos on YouTube since August 17, 2013., the "six month" project is in its 11th year and still incomplete, though it went in for paint in 2020.
Episode one is titled “A Case Of Tinworm”, a colloquial term for rust, acknowledging that the Mini was badly rotted out. They note that “they say it can’t be done,” but they attempt it anyway. The ethos of the project was to fit the Toyota running gear into the profile of the 1980 Mini 1000, originally fitted with a 60bhp A-series engine, with no externally visible changes beyond normal modifications seen on period cars - the self-imposed rules include no lengthening of the vehicle. The 2.0 litre turbocharged Toyota unit has 200bhp, and is substantially larger, especially with accessories including turbocharger, charge cooler, air conditioning, oil cooler, and power steering.
The attention to detail is noted by several sources, though traditional techniques such as cardboard templating are used.
Alongside Binky, Bad Obsession Motorsport also raced a Citroën C1 in the BRSCC CityCar Cup series, documented in their Bargain Racement series, in support of Mission Motorsport, a charity supporting disabled veterans through motorsport.