Hey, I’m making a pitch for being at WGI at the end of Sept for the GVC event there. I am signed up for Friday 9/27, which is open track, and Saturday and Sunday, which are both conventional HPDE style session. Should be a grand time. Anyone intereste?

gbuff - can I get you to come? Last time there were 4 MINI Coopers there.

 

Yesterday was a beautiful day at LRP. Blue skies, 80-ish. Beautiful! And great to meet up with friends and see other MINIs there.

And today I am feeling pretty beat up.

I will say that Smokey was on top of his game. This was a day to have taken video and data. My butt dyno says that I came close to breaking the one minute mark… Seriously the camber plates were the last piece of the puzzle to make Smokey an “easy” car to drive quickly on the track.

First session started out really well, but close to the end the car seemed to develop what I thought was tire issues. Like I had a tire going flat or I had corded one. The front left felt like it was washing out and, if I remember correctly, I had a little step out of the rear left. What the heck was going on? No TPMS light; I didn’t know. And, oh, this happened at the top of the uphill, a really bad place for this to have happen. I headed straight to the pits thinking my day was done. That is, until the person driving behind me followed me in, too. When we stopped, he came over and asked if I had slide on the tack, too. Yup! He had too. Not the tires (I checked them anyway). Fluid. Ugh! This is why Smokey is setup to have a bit of understeer and I leave the traction control full on. Don’t need to be looping the car on this track…

After that, the next sessions came off without a hitch. Except I seemed to have burned through gas more quickly that I have in the past. I wonder if my butt dyno was right? Faster means more gas used. Might be something to get close to the one min mark…

This event was put on by the Connecticut Valley chapter of BMWCCA. I was in the Advanced run group. No instructor. All other groups had instructors. Big on teaching. The advance group did share the track with the instructors, which was interesting. Totally open passing, even in corners, with a point by. That was new to me. It worked, basically. The one point by per car rule was ignored at times, which was a bit disconcerting. No harm, no foul…

I finally saw one of these on the track:


JCW MINI Cooper GP

With a nicely done engine bay

A few other nicely done up cars…

Smokey - Of course, my car

Smokey - Yea!


Another Gen 3 JCW


Corvette row - must have at any event


Something about a Z06 says mean and fast


Best livery


Someone say “aero”?


Nicely done


Classic old Porsche


More livery


Best A$$


Quintessential at any track

 

Great photos! I was up there with SCDA on Monday 9/9. There was also GP running that day but not the same one. I've spoken to the owner of the "aero" car and he's quite a character. He uses a 3D printer to make all kinds of flaps and wings.

 

I was wondering if you had gotten out since we were last there. How did the Caddy do? Or, maybe better put - how did you do in the Caddy this time?

I was eyeing the Oct SCDA event there, but that day will likely be tied up with family. But if not, that is a possibility.

 

I'm also eyeing October SCDA, not sure yet. I'm still learning the car, tire pressures, brake points, etc and had a 'moment' cresting the uphill. In terms of lap times, I'm not yet where I was with the MINI (and not close to being as comfortable) but once I have another day or two under my belt, and get 200TW rubber next year, things should get interesting. On 9/9 my group had three black flags — a crash and two breakdowns. A vintage racer, Jon Carey, locked the brakes on his Mustang GT350 going into turn one and went into the wall. Serious damage. I was the car behind him and have video but out of consideration I won't post it.

 

Hate to see crashes. Breakdowns can happen and likely the car is fixable. Crashes not so much. Neither are good, though.

A ‘moment’ at the top of the uphill is why I run with the traction control full on. Although, I will say the MINI is very forgiving at the top there and I probably get away with things that would not be good in a RWD car. I would be wary of jumping into a RWD car just for that reason; I would need to be much more careful than I am.

But it sounds like you and the car are coming to terms with each other. Good to hear.

I’m still considering the 14th

 

I definitely found that to be true. I had the car in the most conservative track mode. Most nannies were on. If it weren't for the nannies and me doing two car control clinics before taking the car on the big track, I might have been toast.

All that said, there is no substitute for 464HP on the straights.

 

And the Spec Miata, with all of 115 hp, laughed… as it toasted the 464 hp in overall lap time…

But you are right. That GP3 was almost 20 mph faster than my R56S on the straight. Nice. My MINI hits the wall at track out and gains little from there until I have to brake for T1. Frustrating! I may need to tune the JCW to match the GP3…

In this last event I passed a Porsche on the back straight only to have it catch me on the front straight. He was nice enough to not push for a pass there. I think he realized that I would just toast him through T1 & 2, which is where I lost him… Smokey and I were both hooked up and flying at that event…

 

I've said it a hundred times — nothing was more fun than hanging on the tail of high horsepower cars in the MINI and forcing a point by. Now I have to learn how to use my 464HP to keep up with MINIs!!!

 

 

Last weekend Albert and I made it back to WGI for a 3 day track event hosted by GVC chapter of BMWCCA. Nice day, rain day, nice day. I post a writeup on Albert’s thread but I thought I would provide you with this teaser:

I had a grand time. Albert did really well. Falken 660 tires in the wet.. But all was good

gbuff - we missed you. You need to pull that golfball looking MINI out of mothballs and get back to the track.

 

When you guys see Elivan next, congratulate him on winning SCCA Spec Miata at this years runoffs…

 

It was his SON who won the race! He beat his old man.
https://www.scca.com/articles/201893...race-specmiata

 

That was a great article! I tried to find the SCCA race live feed on YouTube, but I didn’t see it. There were some in-car posts that looked like they might be good to watch.

Speaking of Elivan - I may try to go the SCDA memorial event in November at LRP. I can’t do this Monday. Family stuff.

 

My apologies……I didn’t know his son was racing as I don’t keep up on SCCA racing these days. That is cool..

 

Have you ever done a MassTuning event at LRP (or anywhere else)? A friend of mine is pushing me to go to their 10/30 LRP event. It's less money and more seat time and now that I am fully retired money does not flow as freely. I also did my first AutoX event this weekend. A lot of fun but total seat time was about 7 minutes!

 

I didn't know until I ran across the article. I've seen his son drive. When he drove at a SCDA day, the paddock was buzzing and everyone was watching.

 

His son is only 15. The youngest ever to win a championship! Not surprised there was a buzz.

As for Mass Tuning, no I have not. I looked at them for an event at NYST, near me, but couldn’t get my act together for that event.

 

Classic, ‘65, Mini Cooper racing at WGI on the short course.


Enjoy.

 

I'm not sure my Mini would make it up the long hill after Turn One!

 

However, looking at the data speeds in that video, that Mini is doing about the same as gbuff in his base Cooper. That race Mini has some amount of extra go to it.

 

Swiftune (Nick Swift) gets 130 bhp from a 1275. I bet that’s enough for mebbe 12 lb/hp. Y’reckon? Not sure what a racing mini weighs but I’d bet between 1500 and 1700 pounds.

 

Anyone interested in doing an end of the season at LRP with SCDA event? 11/1, Friday. Half day packed schedule. I can manage that better than a full day event, where I have to get up at 5:30am.

 

I may do MassTuning on the 30th if the weather looks good just to try them out. If weather is better on 11/1, I'll do that. This time of year I figure I can sign up a few days before and still get in.

 

No mention of an on-site tech inspection for the Mass Tuning. I’d need to leave by 6am to get there before 8. Oh, that would be an early day. I am definitely leaning towards the Friday afternoon event. That is more my speed.