Our History

1320 was formed in May 2004 by Paul Webster and Martin Hynes in order to create a business that serviced, repaired and sold small cars especially to the first time buyer. We started off in a small workshop in Duck's Cross, Bedfordshire, but as the business grew we moved to our present location near Great Staughton in Cambridgeshire 4 years ago. We are based on a 5 acre site just 10 minutes off the A1.

Over the years we have refined the business to concentrate on the BMW MINI and still carrying out regular service and repair work and selling the occasional car. We will, as a rule, supply and fit original manufacturer's parts, unless an alternative is specified by the customer. For service work both new and recycled parts can be sourced for your vehicle depending on your requirements. Our years working on the MINI means we offer our customers: workers who are highly skilled and a very cost effective alternative to mainstream dealers.

The name 1320 stemed from one of the passions of Paul Webster, drag racing. There are 1320 feet in the quarter mile that vehicles race over and Paul’s hobby was drag racing large capacity V8 American cars. Today, we race a modified MINI One, 'Old Red', at both drag race meetings and at circuit racing. 'Old Red' was rebuilt from a fire damaged 2002 MINI One and was one of the earliest MINIs that we rebuilt. Regularly, 'Old Red' has been the quickest and fastest street MINI in Europe since its rebirth in 2005, as well as being used for the school run.

With the sucess of both 'Old Red' and our customers' vehicles a massive degree of expertise has been built up tuning and racing MINIs. 1320 offer a vast range of different options for your vehicle for: engine, transmission, suspension, brakes etc. The key to enhancing your vehicle is to understand what you will obtain for your money and we are very happy to discuss the pros and cons of what you may want and how to make that happen. With the relationships that have been built up over the years with key designers, developers and suppliers within the market place we are able us to supply and fit some of the very best performance equipment to your vehicle. Some of the components we supply are bespoke to 1320 and are only available directly from us to our customers; our product range continues to grow.

A number of our customers race their vehicles and we are happy to offer track preparation and maintainance for vehicles.

One of the benefits of coming to 1320 is our onsite 4 wheel drive rolling road. This is used to demonstrate the improvement to a vehicle's performance after tuning as well as being an invaluable tool for fault finding, in a safe environment with the vehicle "moving". The rolling road is also available for hire by individuals and clubs who simply wish to test their vehicles.

The starting point for any MINI tuning experience is not how much you spend, but making sure you spend it wisely. Having seen many people become 1320 converts as a result of unsatisfactory tuning experiences we are very happy to offer our advice and opinions to anyone who asks!