Totally different subject.

Did you know MINI marketed a whole bunch of JCW products for the Base Cooper?

Well, a while back I found someone who was selling a "lightly" used JCW exhaust for the Cooper and I decided to buy it. It looked to be in really good shape when I got it. Our Blue really needed a replacement exhaust. Last weekend I installed it. Looks the same as the stock system except the much larger exhaust tip. Now the difference is the tone...Really nice and not too loud but louder than stock and not "ricey"


So Blue now has his first "Mod" after 13 years

Side note:
This weekend is WGI with GVC...Wooo Hoooo

 

Hi Eddie:

There's a JCW brake kit also available for the early base models.

http://new.minimania.com/Search_Results/jcw%20R53/All




Drive Hard. Drive Safe. Keep Grinning.

 

Eddie 07, I hope the rain missed WGI this morning. We got a very heavy downpour here in the Berkshires around lunchtime. I was planning on heading to Manchester, VT, for their big car show with the Classic Mini, but bailed out when I checked radar in the morning. Hope you had fun on track! It sounds like you've done a lot to your car recently!

 

Veggi - Great to hear from you
Any track plans? I am up in the air at this point for my next event.
Yah, I heard about the bad weather up here from my main-squeeze back home.

For Saturday at WGI, the weather forecast was for thunder showers all day. They all missed us but it got really warm (mid to upper 80s). Had to drink a lot of water and my oil temps got pretty high. Sunday was almost perfect; mid 60's and blue sky. The only down side to both days was the wind blowing across the track that would push the car around. At 120 mph that is a little uncomfortable.

The event was great and my car did me proud. The new track surface is amazing. While I didn't improve my times, I believe most people found it to their liking and fast. A lot of the "track markers" are gone so there is a bit of re-learning to do. But I survived and greatly enjoyed myself. Saw some guys I knew from previous events and met some new people. There was a group from Wisconsin area that were taking trips to all of the major tracks in the US and they ran with us. They had great praise for us and how well we did on the track and this was in comparison to what they had seen at other tracks. Humbling...

GVC always run a tight ship and there were no major issues. In my run group there was everything from a brand new Porsche GT3RS (wicked, wicked fast and a good driver) and a wicked fast Corvette down to me.

There were 2 other MINIs; both Gen I's. I got to talk to the woman driving one of them. This was her first event and she was a bit unsure of herself. I remember you talking me through my earlier events and I used a bit of that on her. She did say afterwards that things were going better for her.

I will try to post some video.

Let me know if you have any plans. I would be great to meet up.

 

But it might be over-kill on a base Cooper with a CVT...

 

It was super windy around here, too. I've never felt the MINI buffeted on track to the point of feeling the car move sideways, but I can imagine not a good feeling! Looking at SCDA's schedule, even though I'm not working much these days, dates aren't meshing until late August…I probably will do Lime Rock on August 22nd as my first track event of the season. That is embarrassing! I'm keeping busy with the Classic Mini and my buddies in the Berkshire British Motoring Club in the meantime.

 

Gotta share! One of the classic, vintage Mini Mania entries at Indianapolis Speedway!




Drive Hard. Drive Safe. Keep Grinning.

 

Very nice! That thing must be a beast on the track!

 

Veggi - wow, I missed the picture. Congrats on the trophy

I surely know that your classic Mini rips up the road

 

Third Time's A Charm (I hope) — Wilwood BBK/TCE Rear Rotor Kit Update (should anyone care or be researching Wilwood BBKs and the TCE Rear Rotor Kit). Did a track day at LRP last week with the Wilwood 6-Piston setup on the front and OEM rears. Serious stopping power but I was not happy with with the bias. Fronts were just too overpowering so this weekend I took a third shot at installing the TCE Rear Rotor Kit (previous problems reported earlier in this thread). Although I am not 100% sure why, this time things fell into place and I was able to get the passenger side brake working smoothly. I tested the setup today (to the extent I could on local streets) and the braking is clearly more balanced. A few weeks ago I was frustrated and questioned the TCE Kit but I'm feeling better about it now and hope to feel great about it after my next track day. It is a tricky installation, but I will chalk up my problems to "installer error" — even though I can only speculate what the error might have been.

 

Congrats, VeggiVet! Great pic.

 

gkp, good to hear you solved the issue. Maybe this is the same issue I have since I you have the 6 pot fronts. Once I get the suspension sorted I will have to look into the TCE rears.

 

What were you feeling on the track?

 

In threshold braking the car seemed okay, under trail braking, especially in the left-handed the back end was unsettled. Maybe I was braking too hard because at the other corners I did not feel the same.

Let me know how you solved the installation issue so I don't have the same problem.

 

Did you consider the Way larger rear brake package? 11.08" rotor versus the 11.75" rotor for TCE.

 

Funny you should say that — I had to minimize trail braking all day because I couldn't trust how the car was going to react. So I went old-school — brake, then turn. But even at the end of the front straight I was having problems and the car was a bit unpredictable. Until I go at the brakes on the track again, I won't know for sure if things are smoothed out. If nothing else, my experience is turning out to be an educational one. If you go with the kit, PM me and I'll write up a Tip Sheet to supplement the instructions. You will have to grind down the trailing arm in a few places and I recommend a Dremel for that. The instructions say you can use a file but it will be like trying to light a fire by rubbing two sticks together. BTW — what pads are you running on the front?

 

No, but I just looked at the kit on the WMW site and I imagine it would put less stress on the e-brake cable. If I haven't solved the problem, I may try it.

 

I run BP-10 for street, tried the BP-20 on track were junk, went to the Polymatrix H and these worked well on my last track day at LRP. Also I was using EBC Yellows on back and Eddie07S suggests the Carbotech XP8 which i want to try.

 

Hey glad you got it worked out with the brakes. I have had issues with the rear brakes when I have just changed the pads. Last fall I changed from the XP8s to the stock pads and the hand brake wasn't right all winter. Changed back to the XP8s and it went back together better. Go figure.

Those rears you have are as big as my fronts
They might be a bit much for my car.

My experience with the Yellow stuff pads was that they are not linear. They would gain grip as they heated up. I would not use them in the rears because of that. I would be afraid that, if you were trail braking, they would want to lock up the rears. The Carbotechs are really good in the rears.

Hey is any one planning any track days in the near future?

 

Doing some research it appears the GP2 brake kit has 6 pot fronts with 13" rotors and rear rotors are 11". This would make the WMW rear kit balance the front like the GP2. Have to try after I have the front bushings installed next week.

 

While you are correct they are also the brakes that go with the smaller JCW brakes. I have looked at them but with the smaller 11.75 rotors I am now using, I wonder if those rears will be too much. I will be curious how they work for you.

 

Driving the Classic Bubble Bee Mini at the SVRA at Indy, Mini Mania's Don Racine took 1st in class in the SVRA Vintage Races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway! Stay tuned for more!

 

Woo hoo

 

Does anyone know about the track HPDE event organizers "Track Time 4 Cars"?

These guys have day rates for LRP that are a lot less than anyone else. But it seems that they few rules and nothing about instruction or instructors. So I imagine that it is for solo drivers only but wonder how much of a free for all it is.

 

Had Power Flex front sway and control arm bushings installed at Minihaus in Westbrook. Art is very knowledgable and very fair pricing. Also had the brakes re-coded for the Big Brake JCW settings.

Ordering the Big Brake Rear Brake kit from Way along with new rear sway bar bushings since I still have noise in rear

Will report on rear brake setup once installed