I know what you mean. Its not as bad as waiting to take delivery, but it is still painful

 

LOL this has become the week 1 - 52 support thread.

 

Now over 1600 miles and on the first non-break-in tankful, Lolly MCCm delivered only 35.7 mpg on the latest 13.5 gallons. Disappointing, since the MCSm averaged 34 mpg, with 50 more horsepower

It has been very windy, and the realtime fuel gauge shows a huge difference with the wind direction. And my butt may be a little fatter

 

Sorry to mash all of these replies together, but the multi-quoting would be crazy so here goes

Steveski, awesome picks - especially the first w/ the lights. I desperately need a tripod for my camera so I can get some good dawn/dusk shots

That being said, here's a couple shots from this weekend - ~150 mile round-trip run with the DCMM group (I'm the 3rd from the front):





The motoring was awesome, even if it was unseasonably hot (95F!) and turned clean Minis into very dirty Minis (my wheels were gray by the end, heh). Anyway, can't wait for more!

MotorMouth - awesome news, glad to hear you got to pick her up after all Love the color, too, heheh.

Sorry to hear about the dings! I know it's only a matter of time before I get some, though I'm being as careful about parking as I can. I also opted for a PDR service package when I picked up the car. It's $9/mo but I can get an unlimited number of dings removed as long as it doesn't chip the paint and is credit-card sized. Where I live, that's going to be great value (sad as that comment is about how people treat cars here).

oldsbear - Isn't the Clubman significantly heavier than the MCS? I bet your mileage continues to improve, but it may never be a big leap since the car is heavier and the engine has to work harder to go the same speeds.

 

^ Mini's look so good in groups!!

 

I stumped my MA and the entire dealership on this question . Here's a quote from our emails.


My question:

Steve to Rich
show details 3:14 PM (2 hours ago) Reply

Hey Rich,

A couple quick Q's

1st - It's prolly somewhere in the owner manual somewhere, but what are the red markings on the speedo at 30 and 50 kph supposed to mean?

2nd - For the sake of curiosity, if you ever get an older supercharged S on the lot and can let me take it for a quick boot around the block a couple times(I'll be nice I promise) just to compare the R53 to my R56. Auto or manual doesn't matter.


Thanks

Steve


and the reply:

Rich to me
show details 4:17 PM (1 hour ago) Reply

We have a few supercharged models around. Next time you are by for a wash you can take one for a spin to compare . The red markings at the 30km and 50km are there to indicate that myself, my service advisor, and our technicians still do not know everything about your MINI (lol). I have forwarded your question to our Operations Manager and his MINI technical team. If we don’t have an answer for you, I think you should get some type of MINI gift.

I’ll let you know once I get the answer.

Cheers,

Rich



Anyone know what those marks are? It's the lines that represent 30 and 50 kph respectively. All others are black. I assume they are on the American model as well, but obviously not at 30 and 50, maybe the equivalents. I did take a quick scan through the owners manual and couldn't find any reference to the marks.

If they really get stumped maybe I should ask for a loaded JCW as my MINI gift

 

Shift points for first and second gear???

 

I love that license plate.

 

That's what I first thought. But why bother watching the speedo in the middle of the dash while accelerating to know when to shift? An indicator in the computer screen on the tach would make much for sense to me. Even if they just put in a light. In the end it makes no difference to me, I'll shift when I want to shift which is sadly still below 4500rpm.


I've grown to love that little psssss sound of what ever kind of blowoff/pressure release they put in there. I'm not into "tuning" but it is a nice sound.(this is my first turbo charged car) Also am I just hearing things or is the exhaust slightly changing sound as the engine breaks in? Maybe it's just because I'm driving with the windows down lately or some sort of auto placebo effect but I swear it sounds different.

 

My exhaust is getting louder every day as it breaks in. It started popping on overrun at about 800kms. Not warm enough to drive with the windows down though...more snow today.

 

Steveski, I regarding those red markings - I don't think US models have 'em.

Here's a (rather) high res shot of a US speedo (and someone driving hard )

 

The last of topeka's week 13 load has been delivered =)

woot woot woot!!

 

Congrats!!!

 

Congrats on the delivery MotorMouth!

 

Great News!

 

The biggest difference between this and my modded 07 so far is the sweet sounding exhaust =) Power difference if minimal at the moment - BUT I've already been to the dimsport tuner and had my ECU read. Once the new program is loaded I expect it to be quite a bit stonger than my 07.

oh yes - the brakes on the JCW are stronger than the brakes on the 07 even though the 07 has carbotech pads!

 

Well I got the answer to the red mark question. I would have never guessed this answer.


From: jason.huang@bmwgroup.ca [mailto:jason.huang@bmwgroup.ca]
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 10:45 AM
To: Rich Acosta
Subject: RE: great question

Hey Rich,

Its to caution our European drivers to be alert of max speeds in inner cities…

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

--------------------------------
MINI Canada
Jason Huang
MINI Operations Manager, Central Region
920 Champlain Court
Whitby ON, L1N 6K9

 

Hah hah, awesome. These are such quirky little cars.

 

I had some questions and also was surprised the answers:

These are in regards to the Clubman -
1) Only one backup light seems to work - Is this normal ?

2) The driver's side rear window appears to have defroster wires in it similar to the rear hatch defroster wires - Is this because the window is made defaulting to what is used in the UK to keep that left rear side window clear as an aid for a UK driver with steering wheel on right side and looking thru the left rear side window for traffic ?

1)Answer: The Clubman has one rear backup light on the right side. The rear left has a red reflector and for those that have rear fog lights, that red reflector lights up when the rear fog lamps are on. Otherwise, for those without the rear fog lamps, it is then just a red reflector.

2) The wires in the driver's side rear window comes standard that way - The wires are used as an antenna for those that order satellite radio.

 

Not so much an quirk with the car, but the Owner's Lounge still says my car is "enroute"

 

After the Topeka docked in CA, unloaded its cars and left, I call MiniUSA to find out my Mini's status. I was told that it was at the port waiting to be loaded on a boat.

 

COKen,

Maybe your MINI is making the roundtrip ?

Cameroon,

I'm heading back to Rob @ ProForm on Monday afternoon. When he installed the main section of the clear bra (the one that covers the full bonnet), there was a whitish area under the film right in the middle of the bonnet. It's only about 1/8" x 1". When Rob noticed it, he indicated I should be doing the squishing out of any water bubbles and if that small area did not go away after a week, then he would replace the bonnet. Well, I waited almost 2 weeks because it is such a small area and not all that noticeable and seems like a shame to go to the bother of replacing the film but....it's there and it cost a bunch..and he did offer to replace it. So, I called the other day and mentioned how about just slitting the film, cleaning that one little area and then pat it back down. His answer - "Bring it in on Monday - I want to replace the whole film on the bonnet"

Okay...So, I'm headin back ! Guess it's as good excuse as any to take off some hours from work and go for a nice drive !

 

Since its in my garage now, it would need to run away in order to get back on the boat.

 

The MINI USA site still indicates my MINI is at the Dealer. I guess the info is not all that accurate...or not accurate at all. It served it's purpose early on with the VIN No and progress thru production and down to the dock...and then it started to lose the track of things.

 

Glad to hear that Rob's taking care of you - I had a feeling he would and all, but it's always good when the reality matches up I'm really happy with how mine's been taking the rock hits. I didn't have any trouble spots really. There are a couple sorta of "stretch marks" that show up under the right lighting conditions, but I far prefer that over chips.

Next up, wheels and summer tires and then maybe some Texas Speedwerks springs. And somewhere in there some less dusty brake pads