Now you are getting some more RACE in your car!

I wouldnt want to mess up any kind of sponsorship either, 10-15 pounds isnt going to really make a differance anyhow.

When I was striping my interior I found about 30 pounds worth of sound deadening material, and useless brackets to hold the interior in. Some of the spot welds need drilled to get the brackets off, but it might help you out. There is more stuff in my car that could have possibly came out or been trimmed back to loose even more weight, but that's High Performance Street VS Racecar.

Keep the good work coming, I want to see this thing in the dirt! I might even be starting another project with some of my army buddies building a Honda for circle track.

 

Hahaha I've already spied the brackets to come out! I'm already looking at R56 aluminum trailing arms and ditching the heater for a Suzuki Swift! The Honda sounds interesting will you test it a CORE?

 

There are a lot of little brackets that might not weigh much hidden throughout the interior. I have never pulled the dash of my MINI but I suspect there is A LOT of weight that could be lost up there, that wouldnt be missed in a purpose built car. For instance the dash is mounted to a big cast aluminum pannel (From what I could see) It wouldnt matter much structurally to take a hole saw and lighten it up. Even though it's aluminum it still has weight to it, and every pound that can come off the front is your hardest pounds to loose. The block of our TriTec motor's alone is 80 pounds (Its all cast iron) VS an aluminum block's 40 pounds.

The Honda we might put togeather, would just be run on a small paved oval, it's days of making right hand turns are pretty much over. Our rules are pretty simple though.Must be 4 cyl, no boost, No NON OE replacement engine mods/parts, the suspension has verry limmited mods, must have an aprooved cage/safty equipment, and the car has to weigh 2500 pounds (Dry weight). Plan is to strip the interior completely, have the cage welded in, then use the scale to make the weight limmit by adding plates to the floor. But balance the distrabution of the weight by where we put the plates. Engine mods that they can't see are limmited at most, but knowing us we will cheat a little here, and the suspension setup from factory is pretty decent, but we might make some later model parts work.
Dont know if the project is even going to happen though, it's just one of my friends who wants to get into some weekend racing for fun, and nobody knows if we can even afford doing it.

 

Di ck
Just got back from Costa Rica with 2 weeks to go before I return so I'll be working again. Did you take out the airbags on your car? I managed to pull out the carpet today(weighed a ton) and found a load of sensors and wiring crap. What's that black control box on in the passengers foot well? Tomorrow I hope to finish pulling out the rest of the interior and start to fit the OMP seats/wheel. I see what you mean about all those brackets...hahaha Looking at the regs the minimum weigh is 2028LBS which means I need to lose 600lbs! then add the cage. co-driver will have to go on a diet!

 

I kept the 2 airbags in the dash/steering wheel, the rest are long gone though. (Well not too far, they are taking up some garage space.)

Not too sure what black box you are talking about. Take a pic and put it up, along with the location, maby we can figgure it out. I found my airbag computer stuff up under the E-brake/center console.

I might be a little slower than normal to reply, finally got a job.

 

I'll definitely be curious to see what you do with suspension!

 

Its looking great for a vibrant ride and very powerful machine.

 

Yesterday was an all out attack on removing the extra wiring I don't need, such as rear wiper/window heater, airbags, speakers and door mirror. This is best done with scissors and gloves as the black mess thet wrap around the wires is very sticky and messy. I managed to remove all the wires up to the bulk head, then I cut and taped them off until I get the car to Costa Rica when I will remove the dash and heater to remove those wires I can't get at. Everything else is about done apart from some brackets to drill out. Next will be the seats and harness.

Then onto the suspension! Most likely this will be a combination of R56, custom rod end lateral arms and Subaru struts.

I found out last week we have to use the original airbox in the rules(They are in Spanish so I missed that) so the CAI has to go with some creative cutting to get back the intake noise.

I'm not a wanna be rally car look person but noise and looks make a big impact in Costa Rica. So the car has to look and sound like the Prodrive WRC Mini's

 

Dont forget all that sound deadening crud, and the chassis sealent goo. There are a few pounds of it in there. Easyest way I found to get rid of it was a torch and a scraper, then clear the reminants off with a wire wheel.

I'm kinda curious on what it would take to get the crash beams out of the doors?

Great progress RallyMini.

 

Man, I wonder if you went "all out" and didn't care about safety stuff how low you can go?

 

[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]As I only get a few hours a night so I have to make a good progress! I finished drilling out brackets I don’t need, wrapped electrical tape around the wiring loom, moved the fuse box to a better location. Stripped the front seats to make a temporary support for the OMP seats until I get the cage in which will also support the seats. I used the base of the seat with welded on brackets to bolt the seat to. This give me some driving position adjustment before I permanently secure the seat in. Looks like a jet fighter seat! Hahaha. Now I’m just waiting for the steering wheel, the wheel I got from OMP did not fit as I liked so I sent it back a month ago. Lucky I was in Costa Rica or I would have gone nuts waiting.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Regarding the door bars: they are spot welded at each end(they were in the Suzuki) so I drilled out the welds and cut the bar in the middle, then pulled out the bar. I only did this because I have a X in the cage for the door opening.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]All the tar stuff is coming out when the car gets to CR. [/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]
[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]What is this control box on the passenger side?[/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3] [/SIZE][/FONT]

 

The weekends work went very well with the seat in, door panel made(I need the handle to close the door) pedals and D1 throttle control fitted.





Today was the first time I really got to drive the car and I can say it's pretty good. Seems to be nearly as fast as the Swift but the handling is very nice, even got a bit sideways this morning which I like! The D1 set at SP9 makes the throttle respond as I like it.

 

I'm happy to report that the WRX raditor performs better than I expected. Driving around the temp reads about 1/4" below normal and in traffic goes up to normal without the use of the cooling fan which I have a manual switch. I sat for 40 mins in traffic at 75F outside temp with the needle at normal. If I flicked the fan on the temp needle dropped 1/4"

 

Great work RM!

The black box in the picture is the BCM (Body Controll Modual) Prety much EVERYTHING electronic (Minus Engine controll functions) is ran through that computer in one way or another. All your gauges, lights, safty equipment, EVERYTHING. Its not really something that can be easily removed.

I llike your idea of door pannels, if i ever decide to add some "Door bars" to my bolt in roll bar I might borrow your idea a little.

 

Is there a reason you left the steering column cover on?

 

The car is going to shipped to Costa Rica then everything will be stripped out to install the cage although the Group N rules state the dash has to be as original but with the covers I will most likely make some lightweight versions like the door panel.

I'm just purchased a Suzuki heater blower and A/C box which I will install a Ford F150 aluminum heater core with ducts just to demist. The Suzuki Swift blower weighs nothing compared to the Mini.

Driving the car is a blast! The intake noise is the loudest I've heard since my MK2 Escort twin 40 weber days. At 6000 rpm the noise is incredible.....the fans in CR are going to love this car!

 

Would love to see this in action on an auto-x course too

Do you plan to install a LSD? I would imagine it would help a lot in a rally.

 

RallyMini has informed me he is nolonger going to post on NAM, until the moderators lighten up and get off his back.

With the intended purpose of this build, I would have to suspect that an OSG limmited slip will find its way into whatever transmission he ends up using. Not so sure about doing any auto-X with this car, it's being built for the rally stages in Costarica.

 

what was he doing wrong?

 

That's a good question that should be forewarded to the moderators.

I didnt se anything wrong with any of his 123 posts. Maby it was just the products he chose to use, or how he likes to think outide of the box and do new things using parts from other brands. IMHO we nee more people like him on here, with the prices of 1st gen cars coming down, people are getting more into serious modification. When they come to NAM looking for ANSWERS and find STICKERS, maby the people governing this site will realise they screwed up by giving the only people who knew anything about how stuff works the boot.

Quite frankly I am sick of "Look at my new stripes" and "Went and got an oil change today" threads. But because of a select few on the moderation staff... That is what we are stuck with, for the time being.

 

I see. OK, does anyone know if this thread is being continued anywhere else?

 

I'll try to find out.

 

What a shame, I was really enjoying watching the progress of the build. My dream to do something like that one day!

 

i think he accidentally posted a link to a vendor that he once used or something incredibly illegal like that...

anyways he is continuing his build on motoring alliance.

 

Thanks... There are still some good mods.