AQUAPLANE Co. Ltd.

Aquaplane were an engineering company based in Suffolk and were in fact far more involved in the tuning of the Ford 105E engine than the A series. This however did not stop them from developing their own alloy A series "Performance" head. When compared to its contemporary the Speedwell Head, it was a definite improvement, with larger valves than the Speedwell GT and a better shape to the chambers. It was however more or less a straight "rip off" of the original BMC / Weslake item.

Probably the most interesting tuning kit produced by Aquaplane for the BMC Mini was there "Fast road" tuning kit. This comprises of one of their very nice alloy heads in conjunction with a set of H1 1 1/8 Carbs on a special aquaplane manifold, these were supplied complete with all the pipes, linkages etc. to fit it to your standard 850 Mini.

The above kit bears a striking similarity to the Alexander H1 kit from a similar time, the very early 1960's before the advent of the Cooper. This type of kit would have improved the performance of your standard 850 to something along the lines of 0 - 60mph in 15 ish seconds with a top speed of around 85 mph.

I would like to thank Len Chandler for letting me use these pictures of his fantastic fully restored Aquaplane setup!

One of Aquaplane's most interesting product was their cast alloy Oil Cooler! This thing to all intents and purposes looked like a domestic heating radiator that was plumbed into the cars oil system in the usual position between the filter and the block. It weighed about 1/2 a hundred weight & I suspect it wasn't too efficient, but on the other hand, I doubt that an Armour piercing bullet would penetrate it!

Have a look at some of their tuning equipment for the A Series.