Woo Hooo

Hmmmm...I heard that those pads got great reviews....Oh, wait, that was you!
Yah, I am going to try them at LRP. Lime Rock is pretty easy on brakes, so it seems like a good place to try something new. Also I am expecting these to be less aggressive than the Poly H and DTC 60s I have been using, which seems like a good option for the shorter tracks I visit. I’ll let you know what I think.

And now I just found out that I got accepted for a day at LRP with Patroons BMWCCA on the Saturday prior to the SCDA date. Back to back days at the track. Should be interesting.

LRP is a day trip for me and most people who go there, and most events are single day events. WGI is about 3.5hrs away for me, and tends to be a hike for most people, so at the least it is an overnighter to do one day there. Then again, most events there are 2 or 3 day events, of which I have done both. I just bring a lot of replaceables with me; things like tires, rotors, brake caliper rebuild kits, pads, etc. They also have a full mechanics shop there. They can’t do an engine rebuild, but I am sure they can do a lot of other things if you have or can get the parts.

Well, I finished the chech-out of the car today. Crawled under it, pushed, banged on and wiggled everything I could think of. I declare it fit for the track. Oh no, wait a minute! What is that imbedded in one of my RE71R tires? Is that a rock? Yes it is! A very sharp, pointy pyramid shaped piece of rock, about 3/8” across the bottom flat and it is pointy end into the tire. It pops out easily, but it has penetrated deep into the tread. How far is the next question...which is quickly determined with a small screw driver which easily touches the exposed steel cords that the pointy end of the rock was pushing up against and beating upon with each rotation of the wheel. Phew, good thing I caught that before going out on the track as it wouldn’t have taken much for that to go through the tire, causing a flat. Now, where are there sharp pieces of rock that look like that? Now I’m not going to name any specific track, but it seems like something I saw at a track near Palmer MA, which was the last place I went to. Hmmmm, that track was not kind to me. What, with 2 tires that went mysteriously flat on me and then held air and now this, I may think twice before going back there.

The good news is, I have 5 tires/wheels in this set, and this one will now really just be a spare...until I can get a replacement. Crap, this tire had a few more good days in it. The second tire in this set to be lost to damage.

Only you would have an extra wheel and tire. See you next week.

Actually that set came from a guy in Buffalo who drives the snot out of a base cooper at WGI, Mid Ohio and Mosport. He shows up with a folding chair and a spare tire/wheel. Then runs a few hours on the track. At the time I got those he said he had 600 days at WGI (WHAT? REALLY?). Yup. Good enough for him, good enough for me.

Looking forward to next week too. That is, after running Saturday with BMWCCA (Patroons) and the first test of my new brakes.

Had a great day at LRP with Patroons yesterday. They have initiated a new run group; an “A-Solo” group like GVC has. There were only 11 vetted people in the group. Nice. And I thought I would take it easy for my first day out this year. Well, that didn’t happen. Within 2 laps, I was back in the groove and passing everyone. I got Zre’s roll bar and that stiffened the rear of the car slightly, which loosened the rear slightly but not so much that it became unforgiving. The car is still as forgiving as ever (eg: having to hit the brakes just prior to the apex of the downhill turn when the car in front of me decided to do the same - ugggha - and not having my car spin. That is a bad place to have to lift off the throttle).

The new brakes worked well. I like the thicker rotors with the wider vane width and more cooling for this track. I ran the 11.75” dia rotors with the 15” wheels with no indication of over heating. I also got to tried the new Wilwood BP30 pads and they worked well. Not overly aggressive; not the jarring bite of the DTC60s but plenty of stopping power and were able to handle the heat. I found that these were easy to modulate, not over brake and easy to trail brake. Added bonus, they are easy on the rotors. At the other end of the car, I have DTC60 pads and they did a “good” job of chewing on the rear rotors. Not enough heat in them for them to work right. I am thinking that a set of Carbotech XP10s back there would be good.

I’ll be back there tomorrow at 7ish for another day of fun. See you there, GKP!

Well, gkp gets the Iron Man award for today, completing all 4 session from start to finish. Better than I did and others also seem to have wilted under the heat. I also found the track lost grip as the day when on and I even had the back end of Smokey step out on me on a couple of turns (remember this is a MINI with a big fat front sway bar which “will give it terminal understeer...). While the RE71Rs have a lot of grip, they also fade away with the heat and this seems to be a bit worse with wear and heat cycles. Or it could have just been the heat of the track. Either way, this person felt that the better part of valor was to cut his sessions short and not do the last. And drive the car home. But not before setting a personal best lap time... Again the brake were flawless, so maybe I now have a solved my braking issues.

Oh, there were also crazy fast cars in my run group. Ferraris, Porsche GT3, ARC Vipers and other things that I didn’t get a good look at as they passed me. That isn’t to say that Smokey didn’t have a good showing. He did and the MINI community should be proud of him mixing it up with these other beasts!

Finally got around to having the Koni FSDs put into Blue (our base Cooper). OK, why didn’t I do this sooner? I know the MINI shocks are crap, but I thought the relatively soft Cooper shocks wouldn’t be that bad. But, guess what. Even those are crap. The FSDs are sooooooo much better, even in pothole city here. They smooth out everything (not going to try and see if they smooth out a really big pothole...LOL) and the car handles like a dream. Best of all worlds.

I’ve put a few more miles on Blue, even highway miles, with the FSDs and find it hard to believe how well the FSDs match the rest of the suspension. Even with the base Cooper’s relatively soft springs the car doesn’t seem to be over-dampened. I had these on my 07 S and liked them on the street, but found they were too soft for the track or autocross. The valving in these seems to be perfect for the street with what seems to be the right stiffness but the valving doesn’t seem to be up to the task when the car is pushed to the limits. Just my thoughts on them.

I would add to your list the B6 and B8 shocks. While it seems that these might be too stiff to compare to the others, the B8s, at least (I would believe the same of the B6), have that same “suspension genius” built into these shocks. The B8s that I am using have, what I would call, a high level of control but the ride isn’t harsh like it is with the MINI shocks. The ride is good enough that I am running the OEM Continental run flat tires for my street tires.

Maybe we we should pose that test thought to Tire Rack. Think they’ll do it?

HEY!
Monday is is an SCDA Track day at LRP and several of us MINI folks will be meeting up there for a bit of socializing and some will actually be driving in the event. I’ll be there along with veggi, and I understand that slinger688 will be making an appearance. Any other takers out there?

Say Hello to Suan for me!

Veggi has done the clockwise direction.

We will say hi to him for you 2.

Maybe a MINI meet-up!