Indeed.
We had loads of fun with a joint owned project between a couple of my mates in the form of a completely stripped out, tuned to the hilt, bored out cooper 1.3 with a stage 3 road / rally head and cams, koni shocks, minilites, road slicks and competition brakes & pads. It was an absolute terror on the track days, as nothing could sit with it through the corners and you could play with the 'big boys' rightly. Good times & as you said - cheap racing!

I've seen a a turbo'ed 2.0L mini with the 16V engine make a mockery of much bigger and much more expensive cars. By all accounts unless the suspension and brakes are well sorted the under-steer can be a bit of a problem though. :-)
(uk_viper stopped lurking on, Mon 16 Feb 2009, 16:17, Reply)