That pic was taken at a gas stop someplace along the way in Tenn, we just couldn't pass it up!

Guestimate on gas mileage was mid 30's, but we were "playing" a lot too!

I'll let dimini tell the story from here on out.......

 

Too. Effing. Cool.

 

Other than practically destroying our nervous systems because of the vibration and harmonics generated by the polyurethane/aluminum motor mounts, we had a blast! Advil and earplugs aside, this little bugger is quick and makes for interesting driving adventures while darting between and around anything larger than a golf ball.

The little pup is a HUGE hit among the drivers of the Big Rigs. You know it's small when you follow a Mazda pickup and it appears to be "big."

Driving the pup, with its extra pep, is good therapy. I'm smiling just thinking about it. Now, all I have to do is get rubber motor mounts.

 

How fast did you have her? Give is ALL the juicy details!

 

[quote=dimini;2537611]Other than practically destroying our nervous systems because of the vibration and harmonics generated by the polyurethane/aluminum motor mounts, we had a blast! [quote]


CONGRATS,
If this works, please let me know what you did. My cabin noise is tolerable but not good. Noise was reduced with with rubber mounts on the muffler and springs on the exhaust flange BUT I'd love to reduce it some more EVEN if the cool red mounts disappear. Let me know.

 

ImagoX-
We kept the speed under control since I'm a newbie on 10s. Though the Dragon is tempting, we drove in a somewhat mature and civilized manner as we only had 600 miles on new brakes, new subframe, etc. With current gears, 3500 rpm @ 65mph and 4000 rpm delivers 75mph. Amazing 5th gear torque that gives you a really nice 50-80mph swath of power. For more fun, a downshift to 4th allows a quicker Vtec jolt for quicker passing.

Meno-
I hope the noise and vibration in your car is more civilized than mine. I'd go deaf if this were my dd. Mine's about as quiet as a track prep'ed race car. Well... not quite that loud, but it's punishing nonetheless. I don't think it's the Vtec conversion-- it's just the essence of MK1 tin foil, sliding windows and a tiny cab, in spite of dynamat, carpet and door liners. Could be that there's a resonator just below the gear shift lever, too. I simply cannot understand how anyone could tolerate driving with a stripped out bare metal interior as I've seen in MiniTec's customer gallery.

Providing I luck out at the polls and spend less than two hours waiting to vote tomorrow, I'll follow up with a DMV visit for title transfer and local plates.

 

Re: speed... ((whimper))....

Re: noise... note to self: Dynamat. Lots and lots of Dynamat.

 

Here the pickup is finally getting recognized.
Check out the latest mini cartoon at:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...7&goto=newpost

 

Just before reaching The Dragon, we drove through this section where I decided to pull a u-turn and face back into the morning sun for a scenic snapshot. I plan to use this as a desktop background photo during the winter. This should keep a smile on my face until Spring.



Thanks to "Karen," my NUVI 680, we had plenty of corner previews as made our way from Royston to The Dragon. *WARNING: shameless plug for MiniTec to follow:

I think the oval dash pod turned out very nice. Based upon my "doodles on a napkin"-quality drawing, MiniTec built a new face plate and dropped these AutoMeter gauges into the OE binnacle. That's my attempt at keeping the Pup looking somewhat vintage. The Speedo is spot-on and the tach doesn't bounce. As for the fuel guage, well, the first half represents 5 gallons and the second half holds two. But it's accurate when the gauge reads empty... and in my book, that counts! (Other pick-up owners-does your tank show half full then rapidly empty out the "second half"?



We've already seen this photo, but I like it enough to post another version of it. Besides the silly comparo, I like all the red colors in this scene. So far, it appears that the Pup gets more attention in rural areas than here at home in the urban jungle.

 

Here are some short vids I shot with my little PAS Canon while trying to hold on while wildman Don practised his road warrior moves on the Dragon......

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...25100407204605
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...37821971343276
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...11756899071081

 

Dmini - after watching the videos I recogninze that I differ from you in "first drive" mentality. It appears to me you were far more respectful / careful with the car than me...perhaps why my car is garage side most of the time.

Looks great! I'd love to hear the engine note better though.

What is your max RPM? Do you smack your limiter much?

 

MINIdave- thanx for posting the vids...

Meno- Smack the limiter? Don't think it has one. Gotta keep an eye on the tacho and shift at 6500ish. On the Dragon, I wasn't concerned about the Mini... I was concerned about becoming a red splat on one of those trees had the brakes or other components failed. I only had 400-500 miles on the clock by the time we cruised through the Dragon. I was holding back for the Missouri Ozarks, 800 miles later, but had to take it easy through the Ozarks (extremely fun roller coaster hills & turns) because we had the front suspension set too low. Meno... you have those whopping big 13x7's, remember--I'm driving on 10" donuts. Haven't got me nerves in place for dancing w/donuts just yet. The "truck" now feels better with an extra inch of suspension travel, but I haven't had the opportunity to hammer it to see how it feels. Winter is likely to settle in this weekend, salt included. I'll not subject the pup to that kind of abuse.

I sat out in the garage for nearly two hours last night... like an 8yr old, looking at his new puppy. The interior is awesome. I'll post pix when I do better than just snapshots.

MiniTec invented a rear sway bar that's friggen awesome. It's apparently a recycled Miata front sway. You wouln't know it as it fits perfectly and works very well. What a go cart!

 

The truck looks awesome. I can't wait to see it in person.

 

WOW!!! I MEAN WOW!!

Thank you so much for creating this thread!!! I feel like a teenage boy going through puberty at a Brittany Spears concert!

I just purchased a '71 "Aussie" Austin Cooper. For over a year I have been kicking around doing a VTEC conversion and doing TONS of research. I liked the idea of the "B" series but was not fond of cutting the intake, firewall, or extending the nose to make it fit and I was in a real delima on what to do. Then I found out about the traction problems with the "B" series and the "overkill" that it is. So I started toying with a "D" motor however, you still had the same issues with the intake clearence. Then N.J., sent me picture of your truck about a couple of weeks ago with the "new" intake and that did it for me! There is so many things I want to ask if it is ok;

1. How is it to drive with the new intake? Any flat spots or loss of power?
2. Anything you would do differant?
3. How is the ride?
4. How does the power/ speed/ performance feel? Is it well matched?
5. Do you have LSD or would you get it?
6. Did you need corner balanceing?
7. Did you find out about the weight differance between the stock lump and the Honda motor?
8. How does it handle?
9. I noticed they had to do some triming for the exhaust and A/C compressor and since I live in So Cal A/C is a must! Is there a way I could get some shots of this area at different angles to see how noticable it is from the out side?
10. How does it run temperature wise?

Thanks so much for your time and your truck is gorgeous!!

 

Tavis1-

A '71 Aussie sounds great. You have the opening quarter wing windows? Cool!

1) I've only driven it with the new intake so I don't have a comparo, but FWIW, I think it's fantastic. I certainly don't sense loss of power or flat spots while smoking the tires in the first three gears.
2) Would I do anything different? Too early to tell except for the polyurethane motor mounts. I took those off and and now running stock rubber mounts, which has dramatically reduced the extreme vibratiion and cabin noise. Pickups are loud to begin with and with all urethane bushings and other competition suspension components, it was unbearable w/out ear plugs-- In other words, not very streetable.
3) I'm still working on dialing in the ride. I love the 10"s but per my request, Minitec set it up the suspension w/minimal clearance. Turns out that I need more suspension travel and I raised the front an inch. It now needs to be realigned, but there are still a few other minor things to sort out before it goes in for alignment & wheel balancing.
4) Power, speed & performance well matched? Still sorting things out before I can actually say. Definitely has the power. I'm new to classic Minis so I am still getting a feel for speed (90 mph in a classic feels like 135 in a new MINI). Pick-ups have MK1 "comfort" so anything above 40 mph is like not having doors. When there's that much commotion it feels very fast. It's the most fun I've ever had w/out breaking the speed limits. At this point, I'd say the power/performance is a good balance.
5) LSD? Oh yes, a phantom grip.
6) corner balancing? Not sure what will take place when I go in to get the front aligned. It's very easy to change ride height w/the coil-overs, but I certainly goofed up the alignment in the process.
7) Minitec says the pickup weighs 1475. In my opinion, that's remarkable because it only gained 100 lbs. from bone stock--and that includes A/C, tons of dynamat, plush leather interior w/Miata seats, leather door cards, etc.
8) How's it handle? I haven't been able to break it loose and slide it yet... I can't believe how it tracks through tight turns. Remains super flat and feels like a go kart. I have a nifty rear anti-swaybar that Minitec fabricated. Wow! So far, it feels very neutral. It does not understeer and push through corners.
9) Bug me again later and I'll get some close ups of a/c compressor, etc. for you.
10) Temperature runs at 210F w/ A/C on during 70-75F days. Fan kicks on at 210F. MiniTec tells me that the Vtec can handle 210F all day long. On the highway, it runs cooler. In 37-60F weather, on the highway, it's running 190ish. If I sit in traffic it might run up to 210F. How's it going to do in 95F with 90% humidity? Hopefully just fine. Need to wait till summer 2009 for that test.

This little beast is a blast, rattles and all. I'll be storing it away for the winter any day now so I doubt I'll get the suspension, tire balance, etc. dialed in until spring '09. I hope to run it during some track days events next year.

 

Yep, quarter windows and paddle door handles:


Thanks you so much for responding. I would like to add if I may if you could get some shots of the intake too, thanks!

 

The pickup looks and sounds great! Congrats!

I just got an email from the chap that bought my pickup. He'll be in town this week and wants to stop by. Talk about something to be thankful for!

 

rubber mounts will not help much.....the issue I had was that the front and rear mounts were solid which transferred all the vibrations to the cabin.

The ideal would be to custom mount the stock front and rear mounts.
The rear one looks doable while for the front one there is just NO room.

 

I found this on the web, I think it would work great to prevent paint chips.
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3..._the/Consumer/

 

update: MINIdave and I installed the rubber mounts and they actually have helped considerably. The mandatory earplugs are now downgraded to Orange alert optional. ...And my cornea/cranial connectivity center (brain) is no longer attempting to multi-task through realtime vibrovision.

Consequently, it appears that there is more movement in the shift linkage as the engine torques back and forth, but I haven't noted any problems with the extra movement.

Elprofe- My front and rear mounts utilize rubber fittings similar to those found on the ends of a typical shock absorber. I'm using the MTD2 (MTB2 variant) subframe, which I presume has a different mounting config. than yours. I agree with you , though, because even with the front/rear rubber mountings, they still seem to transmit vibration. I'm no engineer, but I'd guess that the front and rear need to remain pretty firm as those appear to dampen or limit the rocking of the engine during acceleration.

Tavis1- I think I've dodged the big sandblaster effect experienced by those wearing 13x7 rubbers. Granted, there's only 2100 miles on the clock, but my tiny 10"s seem to sling only minimal debris past the W&P arches. Your Aussie is so cool--what engine does it have?

 

Thanks, 2phun. Had matters aligned differently in the time space continuum, I would have likely bought yours! Are you thankful to see your pup again, or thankful you sold? BTW, the Miata seats fit me just fine in that tiny cab space. Not sure I'll be volunteering for any more 1,200 mile road trips in the near future, though. Of anyone who can relate, imagine yourself and a fellow sardeen blasting down the road while smiling for the numerous cellphone photographs being snapped as you pass the HUGE minivans, HUGE pickups, HUGE Mustangs, HUGE Civics, etc.

 

If you think about it most things on the road are bigger than our pickups. This brought to mind the movie Madagascar where the penguins say just smile and wavy boys just smile and wavy.........

 

Thanks for the compliment! An interesting factoid about my Mini is the guy who designed and made the talking tree's for Lord Of The Rings used to own it. He bought it when he was in New Zealand during the filming and had it converted to LHD and some light work done to it. After the filming he brought it back to the states and sold it to the guy I bought it off of.

So to be sure. You got rid of the side red mounts and went with rubber right? Where did you get them?

 

tavis1-

Minitec sent me the rubber mounts, which replaced the cool-looking red polyurathene/billet aluminum mounts. I think the rubber ones are stock OE Honda mounts.

 

rubber is better than poly specially with your set up. Polys are so strong that if you really push your engine.....the welds on the frame may give!

I saved my money and went with rubber stock ones on mine to allow the flex needed to keep things from braking.