The voltage drop problem goes back a long way. From memory the mini was fitted with a voltage stabaliser that regulated the supply to the guages to 10v to overcome the effects of low voltage at the battery and of course many of the ignition coils fitted to cars way back then were actually rated at 9.5 volts to provide the max spark avail due to low battery voltage. With the modern electronics you would have thought they would have been able to run at a far lower value to get past this. Have exhausted the brain cells for one morning so will have to retire!
