3-1/2 years after buying my '73 Mini I finally got it out to the track. I joined NASA and I'm participating in the HPDE events to learn how to drive my car. Among others with me on the track were Subarus, Mitsubishis, BMW 330is, at least one Porsche 944, and a Jeep SRT8. My Mini was, as best I could tell, the oldest car on the track that weekend.

I had 4 sessions on Saturday and 2 on Sunday before I gathered some debris in the radiator that bounced around between the radiator and fan about 4 times, pretty much destroying the radiator.

All in all, the car did excellent for it's first track weekend since I've owned it. The green Fortech coils I installed are so soft that I have a ton of body roll. I will be installing an anti sway bar before the next event ... hopefully that'll cure the issue.

All in all a great weekend

Jeff

 

Awesome! Did you get a lot of interesting reactions from people when you pulled up in Blue?


Have someone take pictures next time, would love to see!

 

Here's some [marginal quality] videos taken with my wife's flip video camera:
http://desertwave.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=14898

BTW, both videos there's an AWD Jeep SRT8. He could outdrive me on EVERY part of the track. Just goes to show what AWD and computers can do for performance (a few hundred more horsepower doesn't hurt either).

And my friend Pat came out to watch - he took these:
http://photobucket.com/jeffsminiatfirebird

Soooo many people commented on the car. Everyone seemed to enjoy seeing it on the track. My next event will be Chuckwalla in February ... perhaps the January event if I can everything sorted by then.

Jeff

 

I'm sure these track days will be a good way to fine tune the performance of the car. Glad to hear that people enjoyed the car so much!

Even though the Jeep might have been able to out drive you, you still have the coolest car out there

 

What size engine is in the car.............looks great

 

It's a 1330 with a GT7 Longman head.

 

Update:

NASA AZ had another event this weekend, and I participated on Saturday. Since the last event I (1) replaced the wounded radiator with a very high quality 2 core aluminum radiator, (2) installed an SRacer adjustable rear sway bar, and (3) installed some SRacer rear bump stops. The new radiator worked like a champ and I never saw the water temp go above 180 degF (ambient temps ~ 45-55 degF). The sway bar eliminated my understeer. It's adjustable (1 = softest (least aggressive), pos 5 = hardest (most aggressive) - I had it on 2 for all three track sessions. It also solved my tire-rubbing-on-fender issue that I had previously.

Oh, and for those that are interested in oil temps with an external oil cooler - In my first two sessions of the day I had my oil cooler blocked off (so no air could pass through) and the engine oil temp was around 215-220 degF. I wanted to see how much effect the oil cooler had so I removed the blocking plate for the 3rd session - it ran 180 degF. I will run the block off plate in the cooler temps from now on.

Jeff

 

Sounds like a great day! Glad to hear that the improvements helped so much.

 

Well, I guess money doesn't buy quality. Although the new aluminum radiator's build quality is _very_ good, they don't bother to weld the overflow burp tank fitting into the filler neck ... it's only [inadequately] press fit installed. As a result, my $500+ radiator leaks fluid out the fitting whenever the temp get warm enough to overcome the spring pressure in the cap (13 lbs). I can't imagine why they don't weld that fitting in. It's listed as a competition radiator, and as far as I know, all competition requires an overflow tank for the radiator.

I'm really disgusted with this. Now I have to pull the new radiator back out of the car (you know what a pain that is if you've done it before) so I can get the fitting welded at a fab shop (read: extra $$$). I talked to the distributor about the quality and was surprised at the apparent lack of interest they had about the matter. So, looks like I will start buying parts from other Mini vendors now ...

Jeff

 

I am getting angry reading what happened... I can't believe that happened, especially with it being a 'competition' radiator.


I also know exactly how much of a pain it is to remove the radiator.... Good luck

 

jb weld

 

I had another track event a week ago. I tightened up the SRacer rear sway bar from the #4 position to the #3 position and it definitely made the car corner better. I can keep more speed through the corners for sure. I had a friend weld the overflow bung on the aluminum radiator and even with 90 DegF temperatures the car was running with water temp at about 210 DegF at it's highest.

The new issue that I discovered is that when I'm at full throttle for over 10 seconds I have a bad stumble. When I get out of the throttle the problem goes away. I did some research and found out that my Mini has an AUF214 SU electric pump ... 8 GPH. That's just not enough volume for long duration pulls.

So I bought a Carter 4070 brushless rotary pump and I'll try it out next month. The new pump is a High Volume Low Pressure pump capable of draining my 7.5 gallon tank in just over 6 minutes. The fuel system lines were kind of a joke on my car so I'm replacing everything between the tank and the carb. I'll post pictures if anyone's interested.

 

I would be interested in seeing the pictures! Let us know how the new pump works when you have everything installed.

 

Here you go ... pictures of my fuel system overhaul: http://desertwave.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=15145

Jeff

 

Looks great, Jeff! How is the overhauled system running for you?

Heck, even the look of the whole system has a more race car feel to it.

Your Mini is really turning into quite the racer!

 

To be honest, I haven't started it with the new pump and hardware yet. I have run the pump to make sure the pressure is adequate (4 psi) and I have one leaking fitting I have to address. I'll take care of the leaking fitting, tighten the steering rack back up, and reassemble the dash this coming week.

Hopefully I can get in a good test run before I put it away for the summer (it was 103 DegF here today ... not many more cool days before the oppressive heat comes).

 

I forgot about the heat (Don't have to worry about that as much here in NJ) and I can understand why you put it away with that kind of heat, wow! Hopefully you are able to resolve the problems before it goes in hibernation.

Will you be doing any other upgrades during the hot months or is that until it gets cooler again?