Z Cars Honda K20 Classic Mini

Here at Quick and Big Ltd we are delighted to be able to offer for sale, on behalf of its enthusiast owner a high octane, Z Cars Honda K20 powered classic Mini.
Our little rocket, is the Genesis of the whole Honda Powered Z Cars Mini scene. It was the first rear engined, VTEC powered, Z Cars classic Mini, before this car they were bike engine conversion specialists. This Mini was often seen scaring the passenger seat occupants, whilst tearing up the Humberside lanes, and UK race tracks, as it was the Z Cars founder (Chris Allanson’s) personal car and the one he used for demo rides.
Our unique example, was purchased from Z Cars by its petrol head current owner in 2011. Its lucky owner started the “Z Cars, VTEC and Bike Powered RWD Minis” Facebook page, which now has a global reach, much of this cars recent history can be found on that groups pages. For the last decade our rear wheel drive Mini has benefitted from numerous upgrades and has been maintained exclusively by Z Cars Evolution, in Ashford, Kent. It’s a well sorted, fast road / track day car.
The story of Z Cars is compelling, nearly three decades of British engineering and ingenuity. Z Cars was originally founded by Chris Alison in 1999, and quickly built up an almost cult following for its wild creations, its most popular engine swaps / conversations were for the Classic Mini.
Nearly two decades later the rights to the conversions and brand name were sold to David Rose, a long standing customer of Z Cars and a new company (Z Cars Evolution Ltd) was formed, based in Ashford, Kent.
David’s new company has invested significant time, engineering prowess and cash, developing the Z Cars brand into a bespoke manufacturer of turnkey, high octane, resto mods, again based (but not exclusively) on the Classic Mini .
Z Cars Evolution staying true to the extreme performance Z Cars heritage, whilst offering new levels of refinement, safety, technology, and potential everyday usability.
Z Cars Evolution have global aspirations for their continuation classics. As such they has recently rebranded as “Diminutive” by Z Cars, manufacturing in house, turnkey, extreme (up to 500bhp), restomods, their products are attracting huge social media audiences and customers from around the world, for these bespoke high performance classics.
The Restomod scene for re-engineered iconic cars is growing at pace, you could argue that Z Cars were right in there at the beginning of the Restmod trend, and our car was right there at the start.
A YouTube video from the car in action, back in the day when it was owned by the original Z Cars (a significant sum has been spent on upgrades since): Search on youtube for ZCars VTEC.
This next search takes you to the owners You Tube channel, where you will see multiple awesome videos the VTEC Mini hammering round the Spanish, Ascari circuit (taken before a number of subsequent upgrades): Search on You Tube for tim milne @ shady fox
As you can see from the vidoes, our Honda powered Mini is a properly built and super quick track day car.
G316 KRH, our Z Cars factory built ex demonstrator, is correctly registered as a 2.0 litre Mini, it is accompanied by a engineers letter from Z Cars. It was first registered in 1989, and is therefore able to be exported to the United States, we can help with shipping contacts, but the responsibility for shipping / duty / registration remains with the new owner. It offers the modernity of a Honda K20 VTEC mounted amidships, ideal as a track day weapon, but also has a MOT and therefore useable as an extreme road car. Its most recent MOT does not expire until 17/10/24.
The Honda K20 engine, originated in the Civic Type R, our example was last dyno’d at 237bhp (at 8400 rpm) and 221Nm (at 6300 rpm), driven through a six speed manual box, with up dated ratios, to the rear wheels. Its rapid, and feel really well planted on the road, on track it must be awesome, and capable of embarrassing much more expensive machinery.
The 2 litre, VTEC K20 engine as attained legendary status, prices of this engine and indeed its donor car are appreciating. The VTEC’s high revving capability, reliability, tunability and aural sound track (like a large bike engine, without some of the compromises) make it a firm “petrol head” favorite.
There is a huge tuning scene for the Honda VTEC engines and over 350bhp is only a Supercharger away.
Our Mini was built to be driven, it’s not a garage queen, having been on a number of faultless European road trips and been seen on many European race tracks, racking up over 5000 miles since its build.
Our, factory built example has a comprehensive Z Cars spec:
· Restored and de-seemed shell.
· Z Cars front and rear sub frames.
· Z Cars roll cage.
· White paint (donor car was originally white, so no colour change on V5).
· Smoothed extended arches.
· K20 1998cc engine.
· Z Cars front mounted cooling and fuel tank.
· Z Cars Dashboard.
· Push button start and kill switch
· Adjustable front and rear anti roll bars
· Heated front screen.
· Heated rear screen.
· Z Cars bulkhead.
· Z Cars sports exhaust.
· Z Cars big brake kit (vented front discs with Wilwood 4 pot calipers, solid discs to rear).
. Wilwood bias adjuster / braided brake lines.
· 7x13 alloy wheels with Yokohama A539 175x50R13 tyres.
· Removable steering wheel.
· Sound deadened and trunk liner covered bulkhead.
· Quick release steering wheel.
· Bespoke carpet set.
Since purchase back in 2011, its most recent owner has spent over £15k on upgrades, body work overhaul and servicing (multiple photographs of assorted work and parts accompany the car), at Z Cars Evolution including:
· Throttle body conversion.
· Wavetrac Limited Slip Differential.
· Custom gear ratios with straight cut final drive, with longer ratio for more comfortable cruising.
. Bodywork repairs, roll cage improvements and floor strengthening.
· Lightweight flywheel, recent Honda clutch kit.
· Fuel rail with larger injectors.
· New timing chain and tensioner kit.
· Custom made rear Perspex windows.
· Ram air induction kit.
· Custom loom, Hondata ECU and rolling road set up.
· Varley redtop battery.
· Plumbed Lifeline fire extinguisher
· Cooling kit and twin radiator fans.
· Momo quick release steering wheel.
· June 23, nut and bolt check / fuel lines replaced / spark plugs / aux belt.
. Alloy wheel, dip, strip and powder coat in Anthracite.
. Chequered flag wrap (predominately white, no V5 colour change required) / dash board wrap, by Award Winning Go Girls Signs.
· Brand new Kirkey Seats / covers and OMP four point harnesses.
Its enthusiast owner has said, “anything that the car needed I had done, only ever using Z Cars. The Mini is blisteringly quick, even more so with the new final drive, pulling well through the gears as it has the correct ratios for the wheel size. 1st and 2nd gear is useable (in many original Z Cars they are blanked off, pulling away in 3rd). It hits 60mph in 2nd gear, the engine revs to 8750 rpm with the VTEC power band set to come in early at about 4500rpm (configurable with the Hondata ECU)”.
It’s a well known car online, being the catalyst to a very active FaceBook group (Z Cars, VTEC and Bike Powered RWD Minis), banter and support from a growing community of enthusiast’s worldwide, is only a click away:
It is of course HPI clear, a copy of the full HPI report will be available to potential purchasers. As above its been regularly MOT’d and is “fit for purpose”, our Z Cars Mini however is a heavily modified track focused car, therefore I’m sure the type of enthusiast who buys it will understand our Z Car, will be sold without warrantee.
Many thanks for wading through our lengthy description, we believe it’s better to describe our cars fully. It is not in our interest to waste your time or ours, with inaccurate or incomplete descriptions.
Our factory built, K20 powered, Z Cars Mini, really does tick all the Quick and Big Ltd boxes, it is: very unique, great value, very quick, well engineered, huge fun and useable as an extreme daily driver.
As you can tell, we are huge fans of Z Cars Minis (even at 6 foot 3), as they don’t come with some of the compromises associated with some roof less extreme kit / track focused “weekend“ cars, it is potentially usable as a very cool daily / Friday driver, rather than being left to languish in the garage from one MOT to the next!
Please visit the photographs again as they form part of the description (there are more online at quick and big), familiarise yourselves with our terms and conditions (also online at quick and big) and contact us via Pistonheads or by calling Peter on 07860691960 to arrange a viewing / test drive by appointment. Any inspection is welcome. Part exchange particularly if it’s quick, big or unusual a pleasure.