JCW Sport springs and Bilstein B8s

Not shown is the K-Mac caster/camber plate.

With the K-Mac camber/caster plates, I needed to do the spring compression different from my typical method. Typically I can hook a set of Harbor Freight spring compressors right on the springs, far enough coils apart to be able to take the front shocks apart. Not with the K-Mac pates. In particular the upper spring perches take up more room within the springs than the stock ones do. So I came up with a way to capture the shock below thee lower spring perch…


Compressed spring

I have aways liked using 3 spring compressors vs 3. This is especially important with the K-Mac plates as their spring perch at the top of the spring offsets the spring from the center location of the OEM perch, which allows for more camber. To get the spring to be offset, 3 compressors were needed.

The “plate” under the lower spring perch is large size HF bearing puller. It is lightly clamped around the shock, under the spring perch. This provided a nearly perfect place for the spring compressors to hook on to. This also keeps the spring properly aligned on the shock as the compressed spring is pressing on the spring perch.


DIY tools; use at your own risk

Another tool I came up with is a standard socket to fit the top nut on the shock, into which I inserted a piece of 1/2” square tube. This allowed for an Allen wrench to fit the hex on the top of the shock. I just used an adjustable wrench and the Allen wrench, augmented with a piece of 1/2” steel tube for a handle, to tighten everything.

 

Make sure you get the "revised" version, they had issues with the original one as alluded to in that text. They also have a finicky (and supposedly necessary) break-in procedure as described in the text and on Phil's TS page, which to my knowledge is the only place you can get these....and they are bogged down with supply issues (see Phil's page) right now so they are basically unobtanium.

 

Just signed up for WGI on Aug 4th, 5th and 6th.

gbuff - did I see your name on the roster? After all of this time, I’ll finally get out on the track with you.

And there is still time to get yourself a new set of shocks for that car to go with the camberplates. That is, if you can pull your mechanic away from playing with his car…

 

Yep, I'll be there for the Fri and Sat, first time with them in over 20 years and I still see some familiar names...if I put new shocks on that car it would ride even higher than it does now, at least until they settle Anyway, the car feels good as is so the old ones will stay until they explode

 

Got the wheels aligned on Smokey, the Gray MINI. They were able to get -3 deg camber on the front and I had them max out the camber in the rear, which is basically -2 deg. I kept the toe, both front and rear, at the MINI spec range, targeting the middle of the band. MINI doesn’t have a spec for caster, but it came in at 3.7 and 3.35 left and right. By my calibrated eye, the stem of the shock is about 1/2” back, which is, what, about 0.5 deg. More than what it had.

Camber in the rear is to balance the added camber in the front. Don’t need or want any high speed oversteer. Similarly, toe is in the MINI spec range to keep the car from being “darty”. Also the MINI seems to have a fair amount of front Ackerman angle and the inside wheel turns-in quite a bit more than the outside wheel. I found, that with minimal toe-in, I was getting scrub on the inside of the tire that is on the inside of turns. This was especially noticeable in the Toe of the Boot at WGI.

The ride of the car is amazingly good. The red springs are stiffer than the ones I took out and the shocks are the same B8s that I took out. The ones I replaced were use, from a winning autocross MINI. I wonder if they had been revalved to be stiffer? Hmmmm

We’ll see how it all works on Tuesday….

 

Had a grand time Tuesday afternoon with SCDA at LRP. This was a rapid fire event of 3 twenty minute sessions each hour. Little time to rest, but exhilarating!

Smokey, with the new suspension, was ready to go. The ride there showed me how crisp and sharp the steering has become. What was “like being on rails” has become “now actually on rails”. I will admit to being a little apprehensive about it being twitchy at high speed and maybe having to make a big adjustment to the sharpness of its turn-in.

My fears were unfounded. Smokey is a delight to drive. Turn-in is predictable. It is very stable at high speed. It is well planted. With -3 deg of front camber and a little more caster, it takes T2 with much less push. The added grip up front has been offset with -2 deg of camber in the rear. But, even with that, there is more throttle steering to be had. There didn’t seem to be any indication of high speed oversteer in the down hill turn leading onto the front straight. I was a little apprehensive about that raising its ugly head, which may have held me back a little.

I met up with GKP and a friend of his for this event and was able to convince him to join me in the Advanced run group for the last session. It is so nice to not be the lone MINI on the track. Unfortunately for me, he is a tick fast than I am (more HP I am sure is the difference ) and I was left in the proverbial MINI dust… All kidding aside, it was nice to have GKP in this run group showing may others what a MINI can do. The tale of the tape (data) shows that he is about a second faster than I am and I am sure his driving skill plays into that. I hope we are able to run together in future events.

Now, maybe I just need to get an engine tune….

Tires… That’s it. I could pull out a second with a set of Hoosiers.

Instruction? Data analysis? What good would those do me? I’m an excellent driver…

Take care. Enjoy. And motor on.

 

I was only running the tune at 50%. And my tires were toast. Good to see you again and if we're at the same event again this year I'll make sure we run in the same group. 8/12? 9/11? This will be my last year running the MINI so......

VV: I assume you still lurk. Someone asked about you and the Blue MINI on Tuesday. I forget his name, a young guy (compared to us) who ran a Cayman and another Porsche and now does sanctioned racing in a Spec Miata. He was bummed that you're not tracking any longer.

 

A few pictures from last Tuesday. Sorry I didn’t get around and take more, but the day was so hectic that I wasn’t able to.

The haze in the sky is smoke from the Canadian wild fires that has drifted in (from western Canada). Air quality was much less than ideal, but that didn’t seem to slow anyone down (yes there is a bad pun there… )

Probably the neatest car there was the ‘65 Daytona Coupe. The owner was taking it to every (major?) track in the country for a track day. He had never been to LRP. When I asked how fast he might be going on the front straight, he said…. 110 mph… That is MINI Cooper speed. Hmmmm, going to be driving very carefully? I did warn him about the dangers of the uphill.



‘65 Daytona Coupe



A Radical and our 2 very out classed MINIs



Our likely view of this car out on the track



Porsche, of course



A ground pounder doing its thing



GKP doing what he loves to do…

Chasing down and passing ‘Vettes and the like. Why? Because he can….


Another Vette to chase down

 

[QUOTE=Eddie07S;4656992] Probably the neatest car there was the ‘65 Daytona Coupe. The owner was taking it to every (major?) track in the country for a track day. He had never been to LRP. When I asked how fast he might be going on the front straight, he said…. 110 mph… That is MINI Cooper speed. Hmmmm, going to be driving very carefully? I did warn him about the dangers of the uphill.


‘65 Daytona Coupe



A Radical and our 2 very out classed MINIs


GKP doing what he loves to do…


I can't believe I didn't take photos of the Daytona for my book (I keep albums with pix of great cars I have seen over the years). I was so wrapped up with Robert's Radical that it completely escaped my mind. Speaking of Robert's Radical, I've been hearing from him all week about his mishap. On hindsight, he is thinking he just wasn't straight at the top of the uphill. Also cold tires. He knows better. He's kicking himself for that and for not having his GoPro on to confirm. As for me, I eat 'Vettes for lunch!

 

You are welcome to my picture of the Daytona. I can email the original if you want it. The one here is cropped and not sure about the upload quality. It was so hectic that afternoon that I forgot to get more pictures of it.

Not being straight cresting the top is probably the number one reason for that tire barrier on the right side guardrail. I hope Robert is finding only cosmetic damage and nothing structural.

 

[QUOTE=gkp;4657085]whoa….I hope it was nothing too serious. I haven’t caught up with him in a bit - hopefully his attempts to sell will continue.

 

If you could email me the original file, that would be great. No structural damage on the Radical.

 

[QUOTE=S-Driver;4657143]I forgot you know him. Once he gets the new engine cover, it will be back on the market. The purpose of bringing it out last week was for me to take video and edit a short movie to help with the sale.

 

Saw last night that TR is now offering these.....$$$
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...omCompare1=yes

Just returned from two days at WGI with Chin, shared the track with Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon of Cup who were driving Australian Supercars (a Holden and two Mustangs)(!)....I've seen a lot of fast cars but these are near the top of the list especially being driven by A-Listers, the closing speeds were just insane I don't have photos of them but a pro photog was there shooting so some will be available soon, meantime here's one of a slow car that looks fast

 

Holy butt pucker, Batman, that is a lot of $$$ for those tires…

I am sure that even with those I won’t be able to keep up with the likes of Kyle Busch in a supercar, so I think I will stick with my Falken 660s, thank you…

Slow cars are always easy to make to look fast in a picture as they are easiest to frame.

That is a really good picture.

Interesting that those 2 were doing a Chin track day. Cheap track time for them. Hope Kyle was in a good mood and not bump-spinning-crashing other cars out of his way…. I wonder if he even recognizes the need for point bys?

Did Kyle seem lost coming out of the outer loop? He’s not used to heading down into the Boot….

I have seen some interesting cars/people when I have done G52 and Kajote, for cheap test and tune days. But not people at that level. I have been out in my MINI with that Jäegermeister Porsche 962 and have seen some wicked fast closing speeds in my rear view mirror. I would think that car in the right hands would give those Supercars a run for their money….

I am looking forward to next week at WGI.

 

I think they were at Pocono on the weekend and came to have some fun in advance of the WGI race which I believe is the weekend after GVC. I don't know how Kyle did in the Boot, I didn't see him in there at all but everywhere I did see him he was doing just fine. He passed me on the inside going into the B/S, jumped the curbs and I didn't see him again until he came around again in a few laps. My friend who was doing 1:58s in his Vette race car said the Holden left him in the dust so probably low 1:50s for him, yoiks!

Yes, the Jagermeister 962, I remember, also the Bridgestone 962 captured here in one of the most familiar and famous motorsports shots ever taken

 

That is a great shot!

The MINI looks big next to that car….



A few years ago…


Did you get your camber plates in yet?

 

Saw Anthony this morning, he's trying to find some time, hopefully soon. They are moving out of MINI dealership building this weekend (the Ferrari dealership next door is moving in) and moving back across the street to the BMW building so this is not a great time

 

Had a grand time at WGI last Friday and Saturday. I took a pass on Sunday; too much wear and tear on this old body…

gbuff - it was great to finally get to meet up with you at and on the track. Hope this BMW event was to your liking. I know you put the time in to wear out more than one tire so I expect you did… Hope you get Anthony to put in those camber plates. When he does, I think there may be even more cars/drivers lacking the ability to follow you through the turns. Amazing the way this guy motors a base Cooper…

For anyone who cares to read about these 2 day, I made a couple of posts on my Albert thread…. Starting here (Link)

Enjoy and motor on.

 

Thanks Eddie and likewise, I think you were embarrassing many faster cars with the laps you were putting in.....beautiful driving at a really fun event, was great finally meeting you and seeing many old faces once again. To the Albert thread.....

 

I know that when my MINI passes a Ferrari F8 Spider on track it's not because my car is faster, or even because I am the better driver. It's most likely because the Ferrari driver has no interest in losing it in a turn and having a $50k day. On the other hand, I could drive my MINI into the woods, walk home, and it would not have a huge financial impact on my life. That being said, it still is a sh**load of fun!

LRP 9/11/23

 

Kudos to the Ferrari driver for being heads-up enough to give the point by. Great picture!

And yes the MINI is a boatload of fun out on the track.

A very track-wise person I know told me early on in my track adventure days to never take a car out on the track that you can’t afford to loose either financially or emotionally. Not long after that, I saw a guy with a limited edition Firebird WS6, serial #0001, at NJMSP. Late in the day he backed it into the guardrail at about 60 mph. He was emotionally devastated. Hard lesson to learn.

 

That happened a few years back at Mosport with a guy in one of the first reissue Ford GTs.....first run of the day, cold tires, into the guardrail. He was fine but car was a writeoff

 

So many times I've seen close calls or worse during first runs on cool days.

 

Major disappointment today. I was prepping Smokey for the upcoming track event at LRP on the 21st.

Oh, yah - I forgot to mention - I have signed up for a half day track day event with SCDA at LRP

Anyway, I was prepping my Gray R56 S for this up coming track event, pushing and pulling on things to check wheel bearings, ball joints and general loose things, when I heard a faint noise coming from the passenger side camber plate. Ya know, the new one I put in a few months ago (link) and had only one track day on it. The car was up in the air, with tires off the ground and I inadvertently pushed down on the wheel to look over the fender to see the camber plate and lo and behold the wheel sank under my weight. The urethane that holds the bearing had came detached from the housing it was in and was free to move with little effort…. I am not so sure that with some effort that it would not have come fully out of the housing.



I was not happy with these plates originally as they were made wrong to begin with. I was at first blaming this failure on more less-than-stellar workmanship.

Then I remember that I had taken a torch to them to fix the mistake they came with. Even though I thought I was being careful to minimize the heat that was getting into this area, did I fail? Did too much heat get into this one? The other one is still fine. Was I better with that one?

None the less, a major disappointment. I can’t fully blame the manufacturer for that one as I may have screwed it up fixing their screw up.

But I am glad I caught it before heading back to the track with the car. That might not have ended well…

Hmmmmm … I wonder if this was the source of the banging noise I was hearing towards the end of that first track day with these? Ya think!

So, I now have a new winter project - Spend the big bucks for some Vorshlag plates and install them.

And time to get going on Albert to get him prepped for this upcoming event…. Ugh