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Cube just broke 1250 miles right before the St. Louis MINI Club Spring Rallye. It was a fun drive through some twisties. 35 MINIs showed up.
Way to go Cube, My Emma will break 1250 on the way home from work today. We're taking her to Palm Springs this weekend which may be fun if the traffics not too bad. I've joined the Southern California Mini Maniacs (SCMM) so as soon as I have a free weekend, I plan to join them for a group ride.
Half way through the break in miles today. Did my first detailing this afternoon which took about 4 hours. I think I'll limit the whole detailing shebang to once a month or less. Of course it started raining 5 minutes after I finished
Bolus, Excellant detail job. I agree with the once a month idea except for the wheels. I don't know about your (JCW?) brakes, but the stock brakes create a tremendous anount of dust. After a week, my wheels (the fronts) really look terrible.
keyop just hit 1250 yesterday on the way home from a doctor appointment. i looked at my girfriend and said we can't stop just yet. she fortunately was just as excited about seeing what keyop was capable of so we head north on PCH towards this ritzy area where there's a hill with a speed limit of 60. figure if i'm going to get a ticket might as well minimize the damage
attempt 1 - rolling start barely got above 5000 RPM and realized that i wasn't going to get much higher without being seriously negligent.
attempt 2 - traffic light start. holy bejeezus. i know MINI claims 0-60 in what 6-point-something seconds, but damn it felt like 2 and i didn't even put my foot down.
I've got to go out and drive MORE, you guys are passing me right on up with mileage. La Roux is only at 1198 miles so far. Although, if you use half throttle and short shift it right at 4,500 rpm it jams right along just fine.
Bolus, Excellant detail job. I agree with the once a month idea except for the wheels. I don't know about your (JCW?) brakes, but the stock brakes create a tremendous anount of dust. After a week, my wheels (the fronts) really look terrible.
Oh well, small price to pay for such a great car.
Phil
The brake dust is crazy! I was a little worried at first that I stripped a layer of paint off the rims when i was done cleaning.
Hey guys, look what I found at the grocery store tonight:
Not an S but the color's about right. Sooo, is it crazier that I bought it in the first place or that I polished and waxed it after I got it home? (no clay bar, I'm not that loony)
Sooo, is it crazier that I bought it in the first place or that I polished and waxed it after I got it home? (no clay bar, I'm not that loony)
What's so crazy about that I've been looking all over for a BRG Cabrio S model, but so far no luck. I may just have to get another color and find someone good with an air brush
Despite my plan to only detail the mini every month or so I spent another 4 hours on the car today. You start out telling yourself you'll do a quick wash. You loose track of time and then you suddenly realize you are on your 3rd coat of wax
We had a beautiful day in Portland but I only saw 2 other mini's and they didn't wave at me We need to get some more Mini's sold up here
Sooo my neighbor just bought a Hummer *and* a Harley. Can you say mid-life crisis?
Cube gets a wash every weekend. I am up to 1800 miles. I just added a grill badge holder and a checker flag badge. Next up is some Redline Goods leather shift boots.
I hear you guys on the waxing time issue - I get carried away quickly too - except I spend the whole darn day, maybe because I'm getting older and slower and better? I've washed mine three times so far and waxed after the first wash due to the black brake dust sticking to the paint. Little black specs all sides up front. Came off fine with the MINI "Autowachs" and then followed with the MINI Polish. Both made in Germany and really good stuff compaired to other waxes I've used - I was quite impressed.
...and fitted on MINI front mud flaps along with making my own rear stone guards out of 3M clear stone guard vinyl with matte black over. I paterned these directly from a factory MINI magnetic stone guard. Mucho better, and won't destroy your paint like the magnetic ones do, if left on. Mudflaps and stone guards are necessary on my Vermont roads, like a rallye stage right out of the Monte.
Photos taken on Friday morning, I'm at 1428 miles.
While I was in taking off the front tires to mount the front flaps, I poked around and noticed that our engine oil coolers (from the passenger side - radiator coolant cooled finned thing, right below the oil filter housing) is made by "KTM" an Austrian motorcycle company and the front brakes are definately BMW/Ate. Schweet.
Great pictures everyone!! It's cool to see everyone adding their little customizations. Cube, you should post some pics of the shift boot when you get it.
Who else has "MOD" fever? My wife naively thought the obsession would end when "Emma" arrived. Poor confused woman.
Here is my list so far:
XM Direct/Blitzsafe
XM Antenna hidden in Factory FM antenna base - No wires showing what so ever
35% tint all around
3M Clear Bra
Aux input
Ian Cull Auto Up
Ian Cull auto Front Fogs
Euro Parcel Tray
Now for the major Mods, Randy Webb of Webb Motor Sports is having a Pulley Party in Long Beach on May 6 and 7. I have an 8am slot on Saturday to have him install a 15% reduction pulley and an HDI cold air intake. What a hoot it will be to have a Randy Webb installed pulley since this is one of his last pulley parties.
I'll probably do a Uni-Chip some time in the future once I build up some more points with the better half.
I can't wait to feel the results of the pulley. Maybe I can keep up with Bolus and his JCW now.
You've got some hefty MODs going on there. WOW, Kewl! Keep us fellow 6 week'ers posted on all the details.
Word from the expert himself... John Buffum (11 time national SCCA ProRally Champion, World Rallye expert) told me, "Thompson, If you can drive flat out all the time, then you need a more powerful engine".
IMO, the hands down best dollar spent is on a driving school with a local MINI club, BMWCCA, PCA or Audi Club North America (ACNA) to learn how your Cooper moves on the track under a controlled environment. All offer great venues and experience. I'm no where near the driving experience that John Buffum is or has, but I have done PCA/Golden Gate Region Time Trial event at Laguna Seca in '87 in a Porsche Carrera 3.0, the Virginia City Hillclimb in '94 in an Audi quattro, Lime Rock Park DE (with the ACNA) in '96 in an ur-quattro turbo coupe and many, many autocrosses in my old 911RS replica and other Porsches I've owned since the late 70s [haven't stayed in a Holiday Inn Express yet though...]. No wheel to wheel racing, just "keeping my driving in tune". I've learned more about car control and really how fast a relatively stock car can perform with very little mods. So far, I think that MINI Cooper S is the best car I've ever driven .
HTH, TS
Originally Posted by pjschaffer
Thompson, Nice job on the stone guards
Who else has "MOD" fever? My wife naively thought the obsession would end when "Emma" arrived. Poor confused woman.
...
<<snip>>
I'll probably do a Uni-Chip some time in the future once I build up some more points with the better half.
I can't wait to feel the results of the pulley. Maybe I can keep up with Bolus and his JCW now.
...IMO, the hands down best dollar spent is on a driving school with a local MINI club, BMWCCA, PCA or Audi Club North America (ACNA) to learn how your Cooper moves on the track under a controlled environment. All offer great venues and experience...
I couldn't agree more. I'm keeping my eyes open for the next opportunity in SoCal. I've joined the Southern California Mini Manias (SCMM) as well. I would really like to do a Phil Wicks course. It looks like he has one scheduled in Buttonwillow in October. That's quite a hall for me but it might be doable.
I'll look into the other opportunities you mentioned as well. Thanks for the advice.
I wasn't really planning to make the performance mods this soon but I couldn't pass up the opportunity when I found out Randy was going to be in town.
I haven't yet developed any mod fever since my obsession seems to have fixated on detailing.
Spent about $300 so far on cleaning supplies and have a full zaino kit being delivered today (Yay!!). Doing 4 hour detailings each weekend and about 30-60 minutes each night after a get home quick detailing. I keep a microfiber towel in the car and quick detailer and use that valuable time at stoplights to clean the dash!
I actually get kind of diappointed when she is fully clean because there is nothing else I can do.
I even ordered some microfiber detailing gloves too so I can caress my baby
I think I'll see if I can get the world record number of Zaino coats on her this summer.
we're at 1700 or so miles (wow seemed like it took forever to get to 1250)
unfortunately my mod plans have taken a back seat to a farkin' huge tax bill. stupid self-employment estimated tax crap
as for washing/detailing... grrr literally every time i wash it rains within 48 hours. last time i got him washed, went for a jaunt down the coast and on the way home hit a bug storm at 70MPH. little keyop got splattered by 15-20 kamikaze bugs. in 15 years and probably 250,000 miles of driving i've never once hit a bug storm.
on a slightly unrelated note. we pulled in to our shared garage this weekend and our garage looked like it was leaning. on closer inspection our neighbor's car must have a suspension problem. the left side of the car is a good 2 inches lower than the right. today its wheel well has completely engulfed the tire; should only be another couple of days before the tire is touching the top of the wheel well. now if it were some POS i wouldn't give a tinker's cuss, but it's a gorgeous mercedes 500SL AMG that never gets driven. seriously the things been parked for a good 9 months. even worse this car replaced a porshce 911 that sat for a year until he takes it out and the transmission fluid drops all over the garage. oof. i know not mini related.
Hey cool! I was wondering about when they would be showing up. I thought we were supposed to get a cake or something too? Or is that just a dealer thing?
Lucky you! Kewl. Big "MINI" cake too? Looks like you grabbed the PW logo also.
Phil, I'll be making the BRG Owner's Club logo soon. I just cranked out a bunch more today here >> The latest Owner's Club logos for NAM use are posted here at the bottom of the page >>http://www.thompsonsmithdesign.com/?page_id=155
Go ahead and copy/paste to your own server and then use that URL for your signatures, thanks.
Hey cool! I was wondering about when they would be showing up. I thought we were supposed to get a cake or something too? Or is that just a dealer thing?
i got mine today too. the cake was specifically from a dealer though. long beach mini so you may still be in luck.
My Emma will break 1250 on the way home from work today. We're taking her to Palm Springs this weekend which may be fun if the traffics not too bad. I've joined the Southern California Mini Maniacs (SCMM) so as soon as I have a free weekend, I plan to join them for a group ride.
I've been looking all over for a BRG Cabrio S model, but so far no luck. I may just have to get another color and find someone good with an air brush
We need to get some more Mini's sold up here
.