If anyone's Mini is on the Medea, she's approaching the Canal now.

 

I have to agree with Blue baby that a polite call to ask when you can expect the car (particularly since you have to drive a ways to get it) is not a problem.

 

What time is pickup, Red Fish? Are you going out of your skull waiting until then?

 

Not picking up until 7 pm!!

The guy who installs the sunroof decal can't do it before 5.

Yes, I am going absolutely nuts.

 

You'll have to tell me what you think about the sunroof decal once you've lived with it for a bit. That was one of the options I chose to postpone to make the payment a bit easier to swallow.

Which decal did you go with? I was going to do just a plain white one to keep the sun from baking in through the sunroof.

Only 2 1/2 more hours--you can make it!

 

Well I got confirmation that I should have my mini Thursday - Friday at the latest. Were you having a lot of dealer work done BB? I have next to nothing being done by them (just the bonnet stripes and the iPod adapter) and Ian was very confident that I would have it this week. I am seriously going nuts here. And the friggin heat is just not helping anything.

 

Thanks for posting the update! I'm happy for you, but very confused. Mind if I refer to you when I call Kerry? I promise if I do that I won't let her bump your car for mine!

Mine isn't even supposed to get onto a truck bound for Boston until next Monday at the earliest, so that's before any dealer work.

At least I've got the rental now, so I'm not completely stranded. The garage is all ready for Logan; just need to install the automatic door opener, which should happen this weekend.

I suppose it's only another week....I just have this fear that they did something bad to him and won't tell me they need the time to fix him up...

 

I don't mind if you reference me, but keep in mind that my info is from talking to Ian - it's entirely possible that if I'd been talking to Kerry that I'd have different information. And while I'm not 100% certain, I thought I read somewhere that they do some installation work at the VDC. If that's correct (and I want to stress that I am very iffy on this notion) that may be part of why it's taking so long. Or it could be that whatever factory options you ordered take longer to go through the quality checks at the VDC? I really don't know but I can totally empathize. (that's what this thread is for, right?)

In any case, if I don't get my mini this week I'm so blaming you...

 

Hi, everyone,

I picked up my MINI yesterday evening. Here she is leaving the dealership.




As you can see, I got the white sunroof decal. I like the way it looks. It was dark by the time I drove home, but my MA said it does help to diffuse the light. I will keep you posted.

Good luck to all those still waiting!

 

Beautiful, Red Fish! Thanks for the picture, and happy motoring!

I think I'm definitely going to do the sunroof decal right after I get my MINI. It was really expensive to do at the dealership. I didn't realize how much of a premium you pay for everything at a city vs. a suburban dealership. HC is much more expensive for a lot of these things than MoP is. So, I'm going to call MoP for the sunroof decal, or an aftermarket place. It looks great!

 

Well, GreenRacer, you've successfully struck the fear of the MINI gods into my heart, so I think I'm not going to mention you at all to Kerry! But one of the other MAs I was chatting with on Saturday said, "Hey, are you the one of Robby's customers that got bumped off the truck you were supposed to be on?" So apparently I'm famous. Or infamous. Whee.

Apparently, all the work that needs to be done at the VDC is done; they just can't get me onto a truck. If the VentureShield was already installed (and it had plates and all that), I'd seriously consider going down to New Jersey myself!

 

AUTO BANNER has reached the outer approaches of the Christobal anchorage in preparation of moving through the canal!

 

OK, folks, who's got mods in mind?

I'm not sure yet about under the bonnet mods (reduction pulley and CAI are tempting, but I doubt I'll actually do them), but have a few cosmetic ones in mind:

1) Adding a sunroof graphic. Does this count as a "mod"? Maybe not.

2) Shift ****. Need to spend some time with mine, but I don't think I like the OEM. I'm thinking of a pool ball in body color, or maybe a nice wood one. I love the Whalen metallic *****, but wonder about heat and cold.

3) Stubby antenna

Anyone else?

 

Not going to do too much in the way of mods, because we plan to run in SCCA Solo II stock class.

I would like to find a leather covered shift ****, like the one for my MGB, with the Mini logo of course.

The stubby antenna looks nice, but I like to see a reception comparison.

 

I think I can put some input in here.

Stubby: get the Alta or a stock one for the Honda S2000(?)if you decide to do so. Great reception.

Whalen: AWESOME! Highly recommend them! I find the OEM's are a bit too large for me. The Whalen gives some extra weight to it and makes shifting really effortless. I live in Houston and it's never gotten hot on me. Cold...yes, but never hot. I bought a hacky sack and pulled out the contents; works great!

Pulley: More bang for you buck than any other "S" mod out there! I'm always hearing, "Should have come from the factory like that!" I'd go with the 15%.

Mods: I'm going to do the same mods to Mary as I did to Mosquito, minus the MTH tuner...sooooooo not worth the money! In fact, some of these are probably being transfered between the two cars:
- Pro-MINI air intake (it's like clearing up a sinus infection in the Coopers)
- Jackson Racing Plug wires
- Screamin' Deamon coil pack
- Remus exhaust (makes a Cooper sound sexxxxxy! But they don't make those anymore)
- 18mm Pro-MINI rear sway bar
- Whalen ****
- Probably a front stress bar
- Ian's auto-up/track DSC circuit (if you don't know, don't ask...he doesn't make 'em anymore either)
- Ian's driving light circuit (ditto)
- Alta stubby antennae

All this, and I still qualify under B class in BMWCCA autocross!

 

Once again, I've managed to kill the thread. Amazing.

 

AUTO BANNER is finally transiting the Canal! It's visible on the live webcam for the Canal, in the Gatun locks.

 

I think it's just that no one has any new info to update with. I know I'm just in "waiting for my MA to call" mode right now. Well, that and I lost power for 3 hours in the middle of the night and I am completely night of the living dead at work today as a result. Stupid heat.

 

I'm alternating between living on NAM and trying to get away to think about _anything_ else while I wait!

GBMiniGirl, if you do the pulley, do you need to do the intake as well to get the full benefits or minimize wear on the engine? And what's the difference between CAI and Pro-MINI intake? I'm clueless as such things go, as my comments probably make evident. Feel free to just tell me to go to the Mods forum; not sure if this is too off-topic. (Are we supposed to stick to waiting/status posts, or can we talk about anything MINI-related to help inform and pass the time?)

 

These support group posts are just that... While waiting on your MINI to come in you need all the help you can get, both to learn more about the car and to deal with the wait. We've gotten off topic a number of times in PW27SG, so I wouldn't sweat it.

By the way, from what I have learned, each mod will help in its own way, but when combined are usually better together. You could do just an intake, or just a pulley, but together they will net more horsepower gains. Same would go for an exhaust, or header, or whatever else you would do. Other than a throttle body, I think most mods will gain hp even if the rest of the car is stock. The larger TB will be too large for stock, but with lots of mods it would help a lot.

Drew

 

the PW 27 guys are great.. and they must be in bliss right now driving thier cars...

I wish i could goto my dealer and take a test drive every night after work...

 

Phil, if your Mini is on the AB, it's halfway across Panama..... finally.

 

So, in that way, they are kind of like Voltron?

 

The Pro-MINI is a CAI, just the brand name. I prefer the Pro-MINI, esp. for the Cooper. For the Cooper, it has a connection hose to the front grill inlet that the others don't. It also has a heat shield. One big benefit is the AFE filter. It has an interior cone where the other filters just have a blunt end. It makes the car sound mean too!

I agree on the pulley, intake thing. You don't need both, but they work great together.

 

Nice new Sig... is it bad that I know your sig as well as everyone elses in PW27/28?

Drew