Albert has a play date next week with some other very fast cars. Watkins Glen for 3 day of basically open track, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The tires have 2 days on them and I put a new set of front brake pads in. The last set of pad had 5 track days on them...

Used vs New front brake pads...


Used vs new iSweep 4000 brake pads

I can’t say I am happy about the life I got out of these pads. 5 days and one was a light day. There might be one day left in them, but I was hoping for more. I know WGI is hard on brakes, but I thought they would be better given their size. These are the same backing plates as the BMW M2 uses but for some reason MINI decided it would be a good idea to make the friction material 2mm thinner... Ugh

There is a bit of taper to the pads too. My guess is this is a result of having too little cooling. I flip the pads over to even out the wear, otherwise the leading edge would be gone in no time.

I now see why Brembo brakes are not use in endurance races where they need to change pads and rotors in less than 5 minutes. At least that was the time they were allotted in the Spa 24hr endurance race. Getting the stupid pins out and back in would take 5 min alone... I can change the pads in the Wilwoods in less than 2 min.

That said... As I showed above (a view posts ago), I made a drift tool to drive the pins in. That worked really well with this brake change. The other thing I found was that a small blade screw driver could be used to pry the retaining spring out of the way to allow the second pin to go in easily. Otherwise the pin gets cocked at an angle and doesn’t want to go all of the way through.


Screwdriver helper

I did a full brake flush with Motul 600. I got a few small bubble out of the right front; the one that gave me all the problems the last time with air in the line. When I changed the pads I bled fluid out as I pushed in the caliper pistons. This was when I got the air out.

After I put in the new front pads, I bled the whole system starting with the right rear, left rear next, right front and ended with the left front. This time I got some big bubbles out out of the left rear... Hmmmm, maybe I should have gone and re-bled the whole system when I was having that air problem before... Ya think?

The brake are firmer now. I think whatever air got in the last time worked its way out, which is good as I think it went through the ABS pumps, where I understand the air can get stuck.

I wasn’t too thrilled with the way the brake fluid coming out of the front calipers looked. It was more amber than I expected. This fluid was just changed 2 months ago. Did it get cooked in there and that changed it? Was there some MINI fluid still in there that got cooked at that last event? Don’t know. But I do know it was clear Motul 600 when I flushed it the last time. And it is clear Motul 600 this time...

Maybe these will help:

Titanium brake pad heat shields.

Titanium brake pad heat shields

Titanium is a pretty good insulator as metals go and these are thicker than the set I have for the Wilwoods, so I would think they would help to lower the temperatures of the caliper pistons and the calipers in general. One thing I notices with these in the Wilwoods was that the pedal action was less crisp, like there was a bit of flex in the system. I would expect same with these. I will try them out at this next event once the pads wear a little.

I got them off Ebay. They seem to be really well made. Probably laser cut. There isn’t the sharp edge that I would expect with a die cut piece. These were listed for BMW products; not the JCW. But the JCW takes the same pad plate shape as the M2 and other Bimmers. For these that is 1609...

Just for the record... It appears I left the tires with the pressure I had them at for that last WGI event... 28, 29, 31 and 32 psi cold for the left front, right front, left rear, right rear... this leveled out at 37-38 psi hot.

I’m looking forward to meeting up with my cousin with his M2 and others that I know. Next week should be a lot of fun...

 

Hey @Eddie07S - I was wondering about your RSE05 (17x7.5 ET40) wheels/tires. Is the reason that you were rubbing with 215/45R17 tires because your car is lowered on coilovers? I have seen elsewhere in other posts that the same wheel/tire combo (215/45) works fine with no rubbing - I am assuming that must be for stock suspension heights.

 

From my vantage point, I think the answer is - it depends on what you are doing.

Yes, the car is lowered a little (~3/4”), however, I don’t believe that is the reason I have rubbing. I have the JCW Pro Coilovers. The adjustment on these will allow for stock ride height. Because they adjust ride height by preload, the amount they allow for travel up into the wheel well doesn’t change.... So, raising or lowering the car wont after the chance for rubbing if the suspension can be made to fully compress.

That said, all of the rubbing I have had has been on the plastic wheel well liner; not on the metal just outboard of the liner. All of it occurred when out on the track. On the street with the 215 tires I have had no rubbing with those wheels. With 225 tires on those wheels I had some rubbing on the liner just when pulling out of my driveway.

I believe the reason I had rubbing with the 215 tires is because of running the car on the track and the particular track I have been on with this car... Watkins Glen. There is more rubbing on the left rear than the right rear. I think this is caused by one particular right hand turn that will likely fully compress the suspension. I think the side loading the tire in this turn is flexing the suspension bushings which in turn allows the top of the tire to move outboard (reduced negative camber if you will). While I think there is the same amount of bushing compression happening on the right side in left turns, there are no left turns that will compression the suspension to the same extent. Hence less rubbing on the right side.

Hope this makes sense.

You didn’t say what kind of driving you plan to be doing if you got these wheels. Simply put, I would say these wheels with 215 tires should not rub with normal street driving. If your driving style is extra spirited (eg: getting up to 0.9+ g cornering) or on the track you can expect some rubbing.

And, I hope that helps

 

Thanks for the thorough answers! I get that it depends on a lot of factors - Thanks for all the thoughts on this.

My primary use will be (spirited) street - and I am considering RSE05s, as well as other wheels with the same specs and the 215 tires. Or maybe just stick with 205/45 on 17x7.5 but not sure how well that'd work. Specs say a 205 can still fit a 7.5" wheel, but not sure how stretched it would be?

My goal is to reduce unsprung weight (lighter wheels) and increase traction/grip (better tires - most likely Michellin PS4). I had the PS4s on my '18 JCW F60 and it was a night and day difference compared to the stock run-flats. I'll probably stick to my favorite BBS RF wheels which are also 17x7.5 ET45 (with a 5mm spacer for caliper clearance). So that's why I'm trying to figure out if 215 or 205 will fit better on a 7.5" wide wheel.

 

For the street I am running 205-45x17 Conti DW tires on the 7.5” wide NM wheels... Not stretched and handles really well. The DWs are an older tire, similar to the Michelins. You would be fine with either, but the 215 would be my choice if I was buying new...

 

brake heat shields + large heat soaking calipers = makes no sense

wilwoods and brembo's work by absorbing heat away from the pads. That and a larger area with more even pressure from 4-6 pistons. That's all fancy brakes do, remove heat quickly and apply even pressure. otherwise, a regular brake set OEM suffices

 

Three days at Glen... Woo Hoo

I opted to get there by way of the Thruway to Geneva and then south on Rt 14. I-88 is a mess with construction and the miss-match expansion joints... Ka-thump Ka-thump Ka-thump Ka-thump Ka-thump Ka-thump ... A few miles of that with the JCW Pro coilovers and the track tires is enough to send you to the dentist to get fillings repaired...

With stops along the way my route was about 20 min longer than the i-88 route - about 4 hrs in total, but no real issues. Rt 14 is wine country through the Finger Lakes and there were a few RVs looking for a winery - Why they had to “look” I don’t know, there is one every 2 miles along that route. Just pick one and get off the road... Still, pretty good way to go.

Watching the weather from a few days out showed a chance for showers each day that never really developed and it only got into the mid-80s when the sun was out. Saturday was a bit wet with some passing showers but nothing that the MINI couldn’t handle and it dried up quickly. Then there was the threat of tropical storm Henri that never really materialized. Even going back east at the end of the day on Sunday was no problem. But, I do feel sorry for the people in NYC and norther NJ as it looked like the storm stalled over the top of them...

I met up with my cousin with his M2. For a basically stock street car, he is blisteringly fast. However, he surprisingly had a fuel injector failure the first day. He was lucky that there is a shop at the track and they were able to get a replacement and have it in before the start of day 2...

I am settling into the ways of Albert. He drives differently than Smokey, but still does really well. No sliding through turns like some we read about. It was had for me to come to the limits of the tires and the car, as the limits are high and, even though the seats are good, they are not race seats and I have to hang on for dear life... In this case, the tires and car are better than I am... And I can feel the aches in my shoulders and neck from hanging on and from my helmet trying to rip my head off. My cousin opted for a carbon fiber helmet; I went for cheap and I think he got better deal...

Turn 10 is a good place to test the limits of the car as there is a good runoff area. In Smokey, with fresh tires I can take it flat out from T9. Albert, with more power, that wasn’t going to happen, so a slight lift before turn in and just let the tires scream for grip... I must say (again) I am liking the confidence the Falkens give. Their grip level is amazing. They do make a bit of noise, but that is likely the lack of camber on the front of the car and the tires being pulled over onto to their sidewalls. There was a Camaro parked next to me and he said the Falkens would get greasy after a bit for him. I didn’t find that. Running them at 37-38 psi seems to work for Albert.

I also made some driving changes... In the esses I had thought that taking T2 and T3 in 4th gear was the right way to go. 4th would give me better pull through those turns. Then, in the transition from T3 to T4, shift to 5th. On a whim I tried short shifting from 3rd, to 4th to 5th before T2 and take the esses and the back straight in 5th. I used to use both methods with Smokey and it made no real difference. However, with Albert’s greater power, the short shifting did make a difference. He pulls like a freight train and I gained about 5 mph on the back straight. The first time I did it, I was a bit slower than the second time. The second time I didn’t adjust my braking point enough and missed the turn in for the bus stop and had to drive straight ... Ooops - but no real problem, and I had to wait for traffic before the flaggers let me back onto the hot track.

The other change I made was at the toe (T7). With the eDLC (“electronic differential lock control” crap that MINI/BMW thinks is a good replacement for a mechanical LSD), the toe is really hard on the right front brake. So, I adjusted my line to help with that. I took a bit of a wider arc to straighten out the wheels a bit and went wide of the the apex. I think this helped a bit.

As for brakes, the iSweep pads are going... To be replaced by something. Not sure what. They work fine for the the first few laps of a session, then lumpies develop on the rotors and the brakes shutter. I had this issue with the Wilwoods on Smokey and the fix was to go to Hawk DTC 60 pads. They were the only ones I found with enough heat tolerance to handle WGI. I may have to go with them. Another option I heard about was Raybestos, and some others. Everyone has their favs...

As it was, I needed to flip the brake pads inside to outside each day to even out the wear. The outside wears faster than the inside and both pads tend to taper with use. I’m sure part of that that is from the excessive heat that is also causing the lumpies. I do the pad switch at the same time I rotate the tires. Without camber in the front, the front left tire is really abused. My 5th tire/wheel helps a lot with that.

A few of the more memorable things...

Friday morning I had my light breakfast outside with this little fellow...


Friday morning I was greeted by a little friend

Then, at the track, I found this guy on the roof of my MINI. He then disappeared only to reappear holding on to my door mirror glass, just being lightly buffeted, as I am doing 120+ on the back straight. When I came in it disappeared only to reappear again on the car roof. At that point I thought it would be a good idea to move it to a “safer” location.


The fastest katidid on earth

There were many MINIs at this event and I apologize for not capturing all of them, including my own...


A Gen 3 JCW
For some reason this guy thought that street/track pads would work for his 2 days on the track... Nooooo... Once again he proved that, like all season tires, they do nothing well... And he should have known better as he also has a BMW M car that he tracks, with real track pads. At the end of day 1 for him one of the event organizers came by asking if I had a spare set of pads. I had my backup pads with a day or 2 of material left on them. Mike the car owner hemmed and hawed about changing them and though the Yellow stuff were fine. I told them those pads are crap, except for a the 1st day ever student and that I would help change them (Mike had no tools... )

So the next morning we set about changing pads and found that he was down to metal on the inside pads and all were massively tapered. Also, he had installed them with the MINI little nipple things that meant the whole caliper had to be removed to get the pads out. Of course the adhesive these have is useless with the heat and they had to be removed separately and one got lodged in the piston, which we opted to leave behind...

The story ends well with the track pads not showing any wear after 2 sessions... Hmmmm

My only regret was not taking pictures of his pads... They were bad...


A Gen 2 JCW

It is unfortunate that the only MINI pictures I took were of 2 broken MINIs. This one had a broken steering rack... That didn’t play well in the right-left-right transitions in the esses... But it did drive home...

There was a group of drivers from Michigan for their first time at the Glen. One was the owner of a Gen 3 S and we quickly became acquainted. I offered to do a lead follow with him to help him learn the track and I gave him my write up on how to drive WGI in a MINI. By the end of the 3rd day, he was leaving with a big smile on his face as he thanked me for my help. His S had a Dinan tune on it which put him close to being as fast as my JCW, which I was surprised about, and the tune handled the track efforts without throwing any codes.

I am always amazed at the mix of cars that come to these events.


A really fast Fiat with friends

Camaros seem to have sprung up as the new track weapon.


Camaros have become the new track weapon

This guy was blue flagged at the exit of the esses to let me by... What? Yup...


And maybe even faster...

Ok, to be fair, he was on his outlap from the pits and passed me half a lap later...

How about a tuned GTR...


GTR says it all


Panos-loud but not as fast as I thought it would be

Bruce would be happy to see his namesake being used properly...

Someone’s uber toy


And I could “almost” keep up with this guy, but not quite...


What the Glen and Ithaca areas are noted for

 

I went back to my post, last year, about my first event with Albert and while my initial reaction to him out on the track was not great, I was happy with the iSweep brake pads up front. I had Hawk DTC 30 in the rear and I thought the combination was not the best.

This time out (and the last time) I mentioned having lumpies.... But the only thing I changed was the rear pads. I changed to an iSweep 3000 pad from the Hawk DTC 30. Is that were the lumpies are coming from? The rear? It could be. My recollection about Smokey was that the brakes were fine when I went to the DTC 60s front and rear. Prior to going to the DTC 60 in the rear, I had tried a mix of pads back there, but I was also running the Wilwood Poly H up front... Could that lumpy problem also have been related to the rears? I kept thinking that it was the fronts giving me issues...

I have been looking for a different font pad for Albert and they are hard to find. Almost no one lists a pad for this application; no Hawks, even... This is going to take some work...

 

Sorry... deleted...

 

That was pretty funny actually!

 

Yes it was, but the thumbnail that showed up on my NAM post had a symbol in it that didn’t show up on the YouTube version... Not sure why, but I didn’t like or want it... So I deleted it...

But, if someone wants to see something pretty hysterical and car related, do a search on YouTube for:
man playing trombone on motorbike

This guy does the exotic car sound better than MINI does with their version of the piped in exhaust sound...

 

Ok, it just dawned on me that I made another change to Albert from last year to this year.... New wheels. The Sparco wheels are much tighter to the calipers in the front than the NM wheels are... This would trap more heat in the rotor, brake pad and caliper. That may be enough to make the difference between having lumpies and not... This makes some sense as I didn’t have as bad lumpy problems when I was braking for T1 as I did for the other turns that had shorter distances between braking zones. For T1 I travel all the way from T9 with no braking except a touch for T11.... This would give the brakes time to cool a bit more than for other braking zones.

I am thinking I might go back to the NM wheels, but not this year...

And get a set of G-Loc 12 or Carbotech XP12 brake pads...

 

That big white NISMO looks vaguely familiar Spoke to him this morning while he did a couple tires for me. He said he kept the boost DOWN to about 12 or so bar and was only seeing about 127mph on the back straight, which in truth is a bit on the slow side for that car. I'm sure he'll ramp it up going forward as I think this was his first event since it was repaired.

Also, that light blue (?) McLaren looks like Ike Neilson's, the former President of GVC.....if so, he had it at the last Chin event and it was great to look at on and off the track.

Have you tried Carbotech for pads? I've used XP12s in the front for years and really like them, and they can make pretty much anything you need. I get all my front pads made with outer backing plates (no ears for the sensors which are tied off) so I can rotate them in the caliper to equalize wear, which Mike Puskar Jr. (the owner) actually suggested that I do after every event. No upcharge for this service, and he offers 10% car club and SCCA discounts The pads stop great (when I use them ) and don't dust obnoxiously. The dust doesn't weld itself to your wheels when it gets wet, either, like some Hawks have done in my experience.

Anyway, glad you had good weather and a good time--we also had a dry, hot Monday at Mid-O for once. Hoping for same next Monday and Tuesday at the Glen.

 

Just saw your post about the XP12s--there you go!! FYI the guy in the garage next to me Monday had a boosted Miata and was using G-Loc pads and said he really liked them.

 

The exotic car sounds...

What MINI should have done for their canned sport mod exhaust sounds...

 

Thanks for the recommendation XP12s. I have used the XP10s in the past and had a friend who used the XP12s on his MINI. The XP10s were really good, but I stopped using them when I had so many braking issues with my 2012 S, caused by the eDLC. The G-Loc pads are made by the people who started Carbotech and, I understand, are similar in performance to the Carbotechs.

Who makes your custom Pads? You give a name (Mike Puskar Jr.), but not the company....

 

Mike Puskar Jr. (and his dad) are the main principals at Carbotech--I believe his dad is still active in SCCA racing. You can actually call them on the phone, ask for Mike Jr., and speak to him in person! Amazing in this day and age They make my front XP12s with all outer backing plates--no custom fee.

If you do speak to Mike Jr. tell him Gary from Buffalo with the Mini said hi

ctbrakes.com

 

Perfect!
Thanks.

 

Glad to read you had a great day at the Glen. Are you still up for the Oct 1-3 weekend? Nice to hear about the Falkens since I purchased a set for the Glen. Hopefully mine will not act the the Camaro and get greasy.

Are you planning to meet Veggivet at LRP?

Hope all else is well.

 

I think I will be signing up for just the 2 days of the weekend (10/2&3), which should be when you are there.

And I have not thought too much about LRP. Maybe that Friday for practice? Have not heard from Veggi about him going.

I think you will be fine with the Falkens. I didn’t get details of how the Camaro guy was driving. It could have been the rears that were the issue if he was over driving it. And, I would think October will be cooler...

 

Last Friday Albert took me for a grand ride down to Lime Rock Park for the first day of their annual Historic Festival, #39. This is a celebration of of all things involving cars and racing cars from the 1930s to the 1970s. It was beautiful, picture perfect day in the upper 60s to low 70s for the day. LRP and the area seem to have survived the epic rains from the remnants of hurricane Ida, although I understand that the Housatonic River was running very high. And better yet, is to meet up with good car friends, veggivet and gkp, who have the same enthusiasm for these events. We went on Friday as it was practice and qualifying day and the atmosphere is very relaxed, making it easy to mingle with car owners and see the cars.

It is amazing the cars that people have driven in races... And the effort some people have taken to preserve some samples of those cars from days gone by.

This little guy is a tiny, with tires no bigger than those on a mountain bike. Not even sure where the engine would go as up front was empty and feet would go where it would be, anyhow...


to a beautifully kept BMW


And Alfa Romeo


And a shot with gkp to show how small cars can be


And what is a race of vintage cars without a Mini or 2 or 3 or 4... So much fun


And people love their Formula cars




Well prepped race cars that look like they belong in a museum but rightfully driven on the track


Some cars are just too beautiful


Ground Pounder says it all


There are many more pictures here, include some amazing spectator cars:


And a video of cars, sights and sounds... Hope you enjoy...

 

Lol - the FIAT is rear-engined, and the Datsun is American Muscle? Hmmm...

But that's just the green-eyed monster carping as I surely wish I had been there.

Thanks for the pictures!

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Charlie... Glad to see you are up and about.

Ooops...

Ok, I lost a picture there ... Hmmm need to correct the Datsun picture.

And the Fiat... No drive train up front... Was it removed? And I thought I saw an engine in the back. Guess not? As it was, if there was an engine up front, I don’t know where a persons legs would go.... And I never read the plaque with it... So, I am lost on that one. I was just overwhelmed with how tiny it is... And clearly don’t know that much of automotive race history.

 

That car looks like a small replica of Fiat's "Beast of Turin" raced in the early 20th century.

 

Now I wish I had read the plaque.