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Actually I didn’t sped a lot of time on this video (an hour or 2, maybe?). First time using it. I had a couple of false starts, but once I got the hang of it, it went quickly. I used the split tool for longer videos where I was panning up the track and then had to swing back to catch the next group of cars. Then I would use the trim function to remove the swing-of-the-camera part and/or remove dead time. At the end I saved it as a completed HD movie that I then uploaded.
And a special picture, just for pnwR56S. A tire storage and changing station for your backyard...
Pirelli tire change station at LRP, note the older design tires in the foreground
OK. That now make sense. You left the camera on continuously and just pan back and forth. That way you don't ended up having a lot of files to drop into the media pool, which tend to distress most video editing tools. It is very easy to hold the R key and drag the mouse to crop out the segment that you don't want as long as the abrupt changes in the audio is not too annoying.
I recognize that iconic Pirelli tire second from the right. They had that like a decade in magazine ads.
Don't tempt me on setting up such facility in the backyard. The county's land use department is prohibited from using satellite image and drone to enforce building and land use codes. I do need to scale down the size of those HF looking white tent though as long as my immediate neighbors don't rat on me.
I did my editing of the videos on an iPad MINI.
If you have a real lot of short videos, you could bring in a few, join them together and export them as a single file. Then load that file in without the short ones and edit the way I did with the snip and trim tools.
As for the Pirrellis, I recognize the 2 left ones in the foreground. Those were on early to mid-60s cars...
Albert took the wife and me up into the Adirondacks north of where we live. Beautiful day, in the mid to low 70’s and basically clear skies. I have some favorite twisties I like to run at a “brisk pace”, but with others out there, like us, enjoying the day it was just a cruse in the mid-mode setting.
I may be repeating myself here, but I never get tired of the feel of the car in a slow turn going quickly... It inspires confidence, even with the A/S RFTs. And never once did I hear about needing to slow down from the right hand seat. The seats are large part of the security when doing these sorts of things. All was good. The car has amazing pull at 1500+ RPM. Crazy! And it makes for lazy driving for following Mini Vans and the like. But with that pull, even short passing zones are long enough.
Also, you can upshift while in cruse control without it kicking you out of cruse control... Amazing!
We traveled along the edge of this lake. We traveled along the south shore where this was taken from and then crossed at the dam to go back along the north shore which is being shown.
Great Sacandaga Lake, view of the north shore from the south shore road.
Last edited by Eddie07S; 05-26-2019 at 04:11 PM.
Reason: Fix typos
Eddie,
What I have really appreciated about the JCW engine is that is doesn't run out of gas in the 4-6k rpm range. Today we drove up to Plymouth, CA to have lunch and I passed a car uphill. I downshifted to 3rd gear (about 4000rpm) and the car just flew. And then I short shifted back to 6th and the car quieted down to cruising. My other MINIs ( all turbos) had great midrange, but when you hit 4k they seemed to die.
Eddie,
What I have really appreciated about the JCW engine is that is doesn't run out of gas in the 4-6k rpm range. Today we drove up to Plymouth, CA to have lunch and I passed a car uphill. I downshifted to 3rd gear (about 4000rpm) and the car just flew. And then I short shifted back to 6th and the car quieted down to cruising. My other MINIs ( all turbos) had great midrange, but when you hit 4k they seemed to die.
That is nice to know. Albert has less than 1000 miles on him, so I have worked really hard at keeping him under 4500 RPM as the book says for break-in. Damn tech doesn’t help with that. The other thing I notice is that Albert’s exhaust on Mid mode is quiet compared to Smokey’s, which still has its stock exhaust. So, unless I have Albert in Sport mode, I have to be extra careful to not rev too high, But, having the power he has in the mid-band makes up for having to hold the revs down for now. He is a joy to drive, even so.
I have had a 2007 S, with the N14 engine, and currently have the 2012 S with the N18. Per MINI the the N18 has only 4 more Hp. The butt dyno says it is much greater than that and the N18 does better at the higher rpm. However, on the track, I will upshift the 2012 S at about 5000 rpm just because of what you said, the power drops off above there. I also have found that I can use that great mid-range power it has to short shift or skip-shift depending on what I am doing. So I have learned to live “in the lazy zone” in the middle of the tach. For now, this is working out well in Albert... But, I am curious to experience Albert’s performance on the track as that is a good place for me to put the pedal to the metal and hold it there for a while..
Clearly my frustration with the tach continues. In my last drive it was quite sunny and there are a lot of trees in the mountains. This means that I am driving in and out of the shadows which just exasperates its poor design. In the shadows of the trees the tack face all but disappears. I wound up turning on the head lights so it would be lit, which helps quite a bit but this defeats the purpose of having automatic head lights. Between the useless tach and an arm rest that makes it almost impossible to shift, I can only conclude that this is a car that was designed for the commuter in mind who will only buy it with an automatic. Having a manual transmission in this car was clearly an after thought. This reminds me a lot of the muscle cars of the ‘60s that were made from family sedans. Gages amounted to a speedometer that was a big rectangle in front of the driver and a small gas gage. That was it; no tach. BMW has taken a 50+ year step backwards and blew it on that one.
My rant is done. The tach is something I can live with and there is a lot more that is great about Albert to enjoy to let one thing interfere with that.
So, Albert is looking at some MINI Pro parts. A set of coilovers, in particular. Price for the parts is reasonable. Price to install at the dealer, $1000-ish, including alignment... Ouch! And 2/3s of that is for the fronts. Not sure I understand that.
I let the gas tank run down to the reserve. Then with only few miles driven on reserve I filled it up. 10 gal. That seems a little low compared to the R56 that will easily go to 11+ miles. It seems that either the tank is smaller in Albert or it isn’t filling up all the way...
I tried a tank of ethanol-free gas, which is 91 octane. Has anyone else done this. Ethanal-free runs much better in my R56 S and the R50 Cooper. Not sure I noticed any different with it in Albert.
So, Albert is looking at some MINI Pro parts. A set of coilovers, in particular. Price for the parts is reasonable. Price to install at the dealer, $1000-ish, including alignment... Ouch! And 2/3s of that is for the fronts. Not sure I understand that.
I let the gas tank run down to the reserve. Then with only few miles driven on reserve I filled it up. 10 gal. That seems a little low compared to the R56 that will easily go to 11+ miles. It seems that either the tank is smaller in Albert or it isn’t filling up all the way...
I tried a tank of ethanol-free gas, which is 91 octane. Has anyone else done this. Ethanal-free runs much better in my R56 S and the R50 Cooper. Not sure I noticed any different with it in Albert.
With regard to the Mini Pro parts, I look forward to your impressions and experience.
Apparently we have an 11.6 gallon tank, but you could have fooled me. I've run as low as 20 miles of estimated range (below the 2nd warning - they are at 49, and 29) and have never gotten 11 gallons on a fill up.
My lifetime mileage is 28.3, and I rarely go 300 miles on a tank. That was a bit of a surprise coming from Gollum III with whom I once ran 390+ on a single tank. The JCW is a thirsty bugger - no free lunch!
Incidentally the Dinan did not change the mileage figure.
I have found that my '19JCW gets great mpg on trips, but in town, not too great. I have an automatic, but I drive it in manual 90% of the time. I am sure that if I drove it in "Green mode" most of the time, my mpg would improve, especially in town. But, going into Green Mode will not happen. All of the cars that I have owned in recent years were very efficient while cruising (even 75-85mph), but were pretty thirsty in town or when having some fun. The JCW is no exception.
My 19 JCW's lifetime average was 32 MPG before going to MOTD. Now it's currently at 29.46 with 4700 miles on the odometer. My best MPG so far is 34.84 and worst is 23.80. It's an auto and I drive it in Mid most of the time. The tank is a very small. 11.15 Gals was the most I ever filled it up with so far. 354 Miles was the most I've driven between fill ups
Green Mode - Deadly, seriously. I had that on, just to try it out, and had an issue making a left turn at a stop light with on coming traffic. The car would not go! Our Base Cooper would have done better. Now, I wasn’t cutting traffic; I had plenty of room. But I had defiant concerns if traffic was much tighter. Nope never again.
Albert is about ready to hit 1000 miles and I noticed a big jump in average gas mileage once I got out to do a few highway trips. It might be up to about 27 mpg now. But you are right that driving around town is a killer on mpg in these cars. When watching the instantaneous mileage I have seen it easily drop into the single digits, which I have to work really hard at to get into on Smokey. I am sure that it is from the added HP and the added weight of the JCW over the older S.
The Pro Coilovers are on the back burner for now, given the expense to install them. I could do them myself, but that will also have to wait (something about life getting in the way of having fun...). Also, I am thinking that it would be interesting to get some track time and some autocross time in on the car before making any changes.
Albert has started to give carnival rides now. Maybe I should be charging a ride fee, but I would feel guilty as I am having so much fun with another excuse to drive him for a reason other than going to HD or the like...
When I have been at the track, the instructors are allowed to take passengers for a ride. This can be quite an experience. I have had rides in most everything from a E30 race car to Z06 Corvettes and a NASCAR stock car (with a passenger seat). When I have come across someone who is looking to have a ride, but is clearly hesitant, I ask them if they like roller coasters. Usually they say “yes”. To this response, I say this is just like a roller coaster; You’ll love it. And they do.
Well, I gave a friend a short ride, which he seems to be somewhat uninterested in. But when we got back to his place, he was all about taking another ride, but this time something that would be fun. He used the excuse of going to a new Micro Brew place as the reason for going. I like craft beers, in the right place...and he brews beer. So the plan is hatched. His plan was to head to the steepest road in the county, which goes over a ridge and drops back down into another valley. Steep, yes! 10% +, with the appropriate “slow” curves, blind corners and apexes, and almost no traffic. Perfect! Going up this road in Albert was like a fighter jet with the afterburners lit. Slow for the corners, a little bit, and back on the gas. There were a few quiet “gasps” from the passenger seat. Is all ok? To which I got the response - “Yyyyyeeeessss!”. I did note to him that the tires were not yet squealing, so Albert could go faster - silence... I guess that was fast enough. What did come unexpectedly was the top of this rise and the pitch down and a couple of sharp woop-dee-dos, that were probably a 15% grade and sharp enough that I would have been airborne if I had been going much faster. Just like a roller coaster... . Unlike a roller coaster was the pickup truck coming up the other side of one of those woop-dee-dos and not fully on his side of the road. This is why I never push a car to its limits (or even close to the limits) on a back country road.
Back Barn Brewery (B3) has some charming craft brews. One of which harkens back about 30 years ago to a guy who was far ahead of his time - Bill Newman. Bill was an original craft brewer in this area before “craft brew” became a term for it. Newman’s Brown Ale was on tap at B3. Back in the day there was also a Newman’s pale ale, my favorite. Unfortunately, Bill was too far ahead of his time and was pushed out by the likes of big beer names of the time and the anti-brew laws that favored those big boys. But the horse was out of the barn and it wasn’t going back again. Craft brews where here to stay. And now, it appears that Bill has come full circle. Bill is still in the area and the owner of B3 knows him. Bill allowed them to use his recipe, which was a joy to taste again. Maybe Bill’s time has come. A growler of Newman’s Brown Ale came home with me, for me to enjoy responsibly and we took a highway home so as to not shake up the beer too much.
If you are every on Rt 20 through eastern NY, look up Back Barn. It is barn, just off the road. And if you are heading west from there, take the next right and then next right and hold on tight, as there is a roller coaster ride waiting for you.
Last edited by Eddie07S; 06-01-2019 at 08:21 AM.
Reason: Edits
So, Albert has been relegated to the Garage for a week. Not any problems. I just need to run the other cars at times. Blue had a check engine light, first one in 16 years of existence. Turned out to be an O2 sensor. The Jeep (Linus, yes we named the Jeep too... ) was needed for other things. And Smokey just wanted to run a bit; an occasional track day isn’t enough for him.
But this hasn’t kept me from thinking about Albert. What is it about MINIs that makes one want to Mod it? After spending time and money modding Smokey, you would think that I am done. But here I am, bitten by that bug with Albert, too. Here is my latest fun thoughts...
I am looking a better track tire life than the RE71R without much loss of performance. This seems to hold some promise. The 200 wear rated tires seem to have gravitated to the autocross crowd where a tire that is really sticky when somewhat cold is king. But these tires wear quickly when hot and they get greasy, as in track duty. The posts I find interesting are the ones by people who run the 24 hr Lemons races. They talk about tire life and these new Bridgestone got at least 1 thumbsup by a Lemons racer. I had hopes for Maxxis or the like, but the track performance of some of these is less than stellar for the price. It also seems that Dunlop ZIIIs have gone the route of the RE71Rs with track wear, the ZIIs, which have worn well for me, squeal a lot and the BFG Rivals are crazy over priced....
And then there would be the wheels to go with the tires:
Another thing I just realized is that the OEM wheel for the JCW is an 18” and the 17”, which I have, is optional. The tire selection for the 18” wheels sucks, unless you want to go to a size much larger than what is on the MINI. And there is no advantage to the 18” wheel, especially with its added weight. I would also have a concern that the MINI’s suspension geometry and the changes it goes through while driving would be less compatible with 18” 40 series tire than the 17” 45 series tire. Then there is the tire price. Ugh! All of that just for looks and no gain.
I do like the idea of putting a WavTrac LSD into the car, but at a $3k price tag for the LSD and the installation, that will have to wait.
ECS was great. I wanted the wheels before MOTD and they were able to get them to me with more than enough time to spare. They were out of stock everywhere and not expected to be in stock until 4/23.
Albert is still in his “adolescence” phase (the break-in period) and has yet to do anything really exciting. But he is living vicariously thought Smokey (THE track car and autocross car of some note.... no, that is just what he likes to think). So, today Smokey got to try something that he hasn’t done before - an old go-kart track autocross. This place is about an hour away in a field, that is also a dirt airport (yes, a single engine something with wings and wheels did take off while we were there). This track would make Sebring look smooth. None the less, Smokey equated himself quite well within his 3 runs. Top run (FTD) was about 72 sec in a highly modified, special built, car with slicks and Smokey did a tick over 78 sec. Great elevation changes with one blind turn on the backside of one rise. Oh, that took some faith to keep it floored going up the hill and then to time the brakes to make the turn. And being a go-kart track, it was only about a car width and a half wide. So here are some pics:
The cast of characters Smokey all numbered up and ready to go An Audi TT, a much faster new friend, with a lot of experience on this track. I “think” its engine was “tweaked” a bit... LOL A Base Cooper who ran yesterday and was watching today. One serious Corvette, with a lopey cam and tires that are each twice of those on Smokey... A seriously blown VW Bug dune buggy sort of thing and the FTD vehicle (Maserati Biturbo powered something or other, in the background) And dinner with someone very special to me... At a new place in town. Nothing like eating outside on a beautiful day.
The event was put on by the Corvette Club and AMEC (the ice racer organization) and they run a couple of times a year. Not sure how they arrange it.
Got to love Google Maps (a bit scary, too, given the detail):
Edinburg go kart track
The hairpin turn at the left of the picture is heavily banked - maybe 15 deg. At the top of the picture, that 90 deg left turn is on the back side if a 6 - 8 ft rise (running the track counterclockwise). 6 - 8 ft doesn’t sound like much until you are in your car going up that rise, can’t see to the other side and there are no points of reference for the braking zone of that turn. That straight after that turn is 50+ mph run going into the braking zone. And - Oh - the banking on that hairpin is greater towards the end of the turn than the beginning, so if you don’t get your braking right, it will launch your car off into the dirt/grass which is not smooth. The esses after that were interesting. I found myself not looking ahead through them and was “surprised” when I realized that I had one more to go through when I was thinking I could start going straight. A fundamental of autocross that one can forget. The white patches in spots around the track are concrete patch that are not smooth. Needless to say, the track is hard on your car... But a fun technical track.
It is not often that I don’t have an adventure with Albert. Even going to the big box store can prove to be an adventure.
The route I take to this particular store involves a multi-lane highway with a concrete barrier between the two direction, which makes for a great sound reflector of any sounds coming off the car.
And I am hearing Tha-wak,Tha-wak, Tha-wak, Tha-wak with what seem to be every rotation of a wheel. Hmmmm, make that the front wheel.
On crap! What did I do to the tire now? No lights or warnings of low tire pressure. That’s a good sign. Maybe, if I picked up a nail, it hadn’t gone though and I could catch it before it did any damage.
But the Tha-wak was an odd sound and not what I remember from having picked up nails in the past. Maybe, I picked up a piece of metal plate? Well that would be a write-off of a perfectly good run flat tire.
It wasn’t far to the Big Box store and this is what I found:
Road crack sealant on Albert’s tire
Apparently what I was hearing was the “snap” or Tha-wak sound of this coming unstuck and off the road each time the wheel went around...
And it did this for a number of miles. It is still there. Not sure what to do about it, other than leave it. Interestingly, the stuff didn’t stick to my fingers, like tar would. But it sure stuck to the tire better than it did the road.
So, with the 24hr of Le Mans and an upcoming track day in Smokey, Albert’s life has been a bit quiet. Now I didn’t stay up for the whole race but I did catch a few hours of it when it was around 3 am their time and then again for the last 2 hours of the end of the race. I am not sure who to thank, but the IMSA cast of characters doing live feed announcing, and Toyota and Ford in-car video were all fantastic. The Toyota hybrids have raised the bar on race cars. Completely crazy how fast they are and the driver’s precision is amazing. A real lesson on how to drive a race car,..
A video of a lap around Le Mans race course, vintage style in the best of the day:
Smokey was my second MINI and I spent a lot of time looking into suspension options. One of the things that I concluded was that I didn’t want a car that handled like this: MINI Coopers with too much rear sway bar (rearward roll stiffness bias) and not enough front bar to balance it:
What I ultimately did with Smokey was to approximate the front to rear roll stiffness ratio that the R56 optional sports suspension had with larger front and rear sway bar thicknesses. Smokey started life with that option and I liked the balance that it had. But I felt that, for the track, it needed more overall roll stiffness to get the most use of all 4 tires but without a big compromise in the street ride. This is the short story of how Smokey got the 27mm front bar and the 25mm hollow rear bar.
Now, with Albert I am waiting to see how he feels out on the track. On the street he feels great. But I am not driving on the street at 90+%. The thing that would be nice would be a little bit better on center feel to the steering and a bit better initial response to turn-in. My feeling is that a bit more camber would help there; of course I am not ignoring the benefit of better tires and wheels would have.
That said, I am surprised to see that Albert should have -1 deg of front camber. The R56 was Zero! To -0.3 deg. Wow, that is almost nothing; actually it could be nothing. https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post4451700
Charlie: thanks for posting your alignment results...
Now a couple of things have been posted about the handling of the F56 JCW that are of interest to me. One is about people’s experience with the handling of the JCW when pushed: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-my-justa.html
My conclusion is that for the JCW MINI has dialed out a lot of the understeer that is inherent in a FWD car and this results in a transition to oversteer when driven a certain way. So, I will approach my first track day with Albert with that in mind.
"Got to be careful today, as there are a lot of traffic today." Bicycles and race car don't mix on "track". Also if you get into a crash, that mic got to hurt on your chest. I should say the mic should be your least worry. Just mind the camera on the pole behind you.
"Got to be careful today, as there are a lot of traffic today." Bicycles and race car don't mix on "track". Also if you get into a crash, that mic got to hurt on your chest. I should say the mic should be your least worry. Just mind the camera on the pole behind you.
My ‘59 MGA had a 3/4” rod for a steering wheel shaft and the steering wheel was 10” from my chest and there was no safety belt. Any sudden stop was guaranteed to put that rod through your chest like a Roman Legion’s lance. My bet is that race car was no different. That mic probably wouldn’t make much difference.
That aside - I was pretty impressed with the setup for its day and I am glad they took the risk (although they probably didn’t think about risk at that time) to record that lap. Also glad that someone saved that film and posted it for the rest of us to see. I was impressed with how easily he spun the tires and fishtailed the car coming out of some of the turns. That car had to be “exciting” (handful!) to drive.
In the way of useful tools for working on cars, this seems like it will be useful for working on these cars where everything is extremely tightly packaged:
Actually it is a “Borescope”
While I haven’t used it on the car, yet, I have found it to be very useful around the house. On an older house there is not lack of things to go wrong in some out of the way place...
This seems to be a really accurate review of this product:
So Albert rolled into the gas station just as the reserve light came on. This was a little unexpected as there were still bars showing on the gas gage. The fuel pump read 10 gal on the nose when it clicked off. This is a bit disappointing as it is about 2 gal less than my R56, which means 70ish less miles of range not counting any lesser gas mileage with the JCW compared to the older S.
On a more positive note, bedding in of the clutch has come along nicely. It is no longer grabby upon engagement at the far end of the pedal travel and the engagement point has moved up a bit. Engagement is nice and smooth now. Much more like the clutch on Smokey.
05-25-2019, 02:30 PM
The other thing I notice is that Albert’s exhaust on Mid mode is quiet compared to Smokey’s, which still has its stock exhaust. So, unless I have Albert in Sport mode, I have to be extra careful to not rev too high, But, having the power he has in the mid-band makes up for having to hold the revs down for now. He is a joy to drive, even so.
But, I am curious to experience Albert’s performance on the track as that is a good place for me to put the pedal to the metal and hold it there for a while.. 
) was needed for other things. And Smokey just wanted to run a bit; an occasional track day isn’t enough for him.
That straight after that turn is 50+ mph run going into the braking zone. And - Oh - the banking on that hairpin is greater towards the end of the turn than the beginning, so if you don’t get your braking right, it will launch your car off into the dirt/grass which is not smooth. The esses after that were interesting. I found myself not looking ahead through them and was “surprised” when I realized that I had one more to go through when I was thinking I could start going straight. A fundamental of autocross that one can forget. The white patches in spots around the track are concrete patch that are not smooth. Needless to say, the track is hard on your car... But a fun technical track.
