V -

Where'd you get your bleeder valve covers from? I need some too. It literally shouldn't have cost Wilwood more than $1 to include these <forehead slap> I'm breaking in some BP20 for my street pads and Polymatrix H as track pads I'll break in closer to the next track day..

~Mitch

 

Tod at TCE.Yes. That is how these companies get more gravy. A bit like the inkjet printer business except they nearly give you the printer for free. Not so much with BBKs.

 

Hi Mike,

Thanks. I am undecided which to use as I have a copy of Mathlab somewhere, which I should learn to use as self-punishment. If that fail or proves to be too much pain then I will pony up for one. There is nothing like learning things the hard ways. After all, I could have just get a remote tune without investing in the R53 Full Access and the Lambda gauge.

 

LOL. The bunch of R53s that frequent PIR most share many track performance bits. Call it arm race not. Just good tastes among friends - or better put frienemies.

 

So wife and I are in San Francisco for about 10days. I have not seen so many Mini’s in or around one town...lol
Sorry for the hijack
I felt like a kid in candy store.
Ben

 

We have a bunch of Mini's here in PDX too.

Yesterday I spotted this R52 while waiting at the lights. When I saw the driver wearing a full headphone (those you should only use at home, or on a plane) I thought it is no point to try waving. Of course he did not see my R53 even we were only 2 cars apart.

Sure, it can be a noise cancelling headphone. Cancels emergency vehicle siren too so you can live in your blissful music.

 

Spotted at Costco. Brand new preowned bad and long AMG twin-turbo that is a hot-inside beast.

 

Mini has spent a lot of time being examined lately. Just sorting out a few things and performed track worthiness inspection, especially with some of the recent additions.

fluids, steering, brakes, suspension, all got checked out


swapping pads - again


someday I will invest in a hinged tow hook


sock for the external mic


good to go

 

I knew there are use for the socks my wife kept buying for me, Just could not figure WHAT.
LOL

 

Nothing goes to waste in my outfit. This is just perfect. Thick tube sock does not work well and put too much stress on the boot door as you have to really slam to close it.

one of many notable cars



Mini spun out and went into the cow field in the last session. The tires got very greasy. I checked the pressure in the morning and I should have in the afternoon. On the front straight both front tires were spinning in 3rd and 4th. The front brake pads were 400 F even after the cool down lap.

 

As I have long been wanting to find out with 15% pulley without tune, would the engine run too lean during periods of WOT in the straights? That is one main reason I went through the trouble to install the Innovate MTX-L Plus A/F gauge. I am very glad to find out it never. The ratios are quite healthy under WOT open loop. Mini runs very well from the first day after the pulley installed, with just one step colder plugs. The only lean conditions is when you let go of the throttle and do engine braking. These seem to be the source of pronounce burbles and pops of the exhaust when you lift the throttle. Of course this is by design for emission and nothing to worry about.

So far the Bosch WB sensor survived 2 track days. Quite encouraging. If anything, track day will kill it fast given the only viable location is like 10 inches after the collector pipe. It is recommend it be installed 24 inches after the collector pipe. For Mini, that is about at the exhaust flange of the header.

 

Which pads did you use on the track?

Nice Mustang! It is always interesting to see what people bring to the track.

 

The same BP-30 you bought. So far so good. I will examine them closely next time Mini is up in the air, which has been almost daily of late. I am thinking about installing a lift in the driveway where Mini parks.

 

a highly modified gen 1 Miata


I am warming up to the Quickjack


a brand new Honda Civic Type-R


crazy low aspect ratio tires that is standard issued


this BMW Mx has crazy amount of camber front and back, but the photo does not capture them


very badass mustang race car; I wonder about the restriction of the smallish dia. radiator fittings and hoses; I infer this car has a dog box as he had a helper push it from standstill each time


I have never seen this before


I am dreaming of a lite-weight trailer; and Mini thought he would be towing it

 

Brake! Brake! Brake! Seems that I have been spending copious amount of time, money, and energy just think, work, and pay for these slow down bits.


the brake wear indicator illuminated during track yesterday; I knew it is the rear brakes as I expected them to be done after this track event


I cannot remember what the pistons of the rear caliper looks like as I am dreading to have to rewind the piston without the unwinding tool; I found this photo



the Mini's A/F ratios has been mostly very close to stoichiometric during most driving until you step on it; at WOT typically is around 11.5ish but never exceed 12.0ish


I have these two set of race pads which I hope are the right size


one is Colbalt XR5 and the other Hawk HP Plus that midwestinsocal so generously threw in with no charge when I bought a set of used front racing pads from him


here is the Hawk pad graphs that includes the HP Plus



Cobalt pads seem to be not that popular but I found this totally useless marketing "graph"; where the hell are the units of the axises? Ignore these if you are a thinking man


Here is my brake fluid boiling point numbers from a couple of posts which I had a hard time finding; seems I am at the end of the road of dry BP with Motul 600 that I did a drive home pitstop fluid change between sessions

 

Mini got a spanking at the track. Animal cruelty mistreatment.

Here is what a rear brake pad looks like. It is genuine MINI brand not recommend for track.

quite crispy; I have never seen anything like it; what ever the binder material must have transformed into a not yet discovered element in the periodic table


a pair of needle nose plier and clamp this time does not do the trick of retracting the piston; need to go spend more money

 

Grip is intoxicating. When you don't have enough, you would do anything to get more. Sounds like good drugs.

Need to plan ahead for grippy tyres. These were brand new not in distant memory. Time to order a set. The house is choke full of Mini stuff already.





Slowly I feel I am sorting out the brakes. At 110 MPH coming up to a sharp turn and the brake pedal sinks to the floor is unnerving. Keeping calm with nerves of steel and pump a couple of times saved the day. The boiling brake fluid up front did clamp the fun to say the least.

One revelation is if I had time to pump the pedal with boiling fluid up front, I am braking too early and not hard enough. Need to shave it closer without crash and burn. How lucky do you feel, punk!

I am warming up to a home brew data logger and use a couple of thermal couple to monitor realtime caliper temperature in situ.

 

I tried to be as careful as I can servicing the Mini. Sometimes there are a lot to think about, like changing the rear brake pads that has been toasted to crispy and crunchy at the track. As I just fill and flush the front calipers with precious Motul 600 that is $34 a litre I thought through what I have to do so not to waste what is in the reservoir. I came home for a quick pitstop to change out the Napa DOT4 fluid between track day sessions. I only had 30 minutes to get the job done, so I flushed only the front calipers.

So to push the rear piston back in and thus pushing the Napa DOT4 fluid back into the reservoir and mix with the expensive Motul 600 is not wise. To avoid this I disconnected the brake lines at the hard line junction before retracting the pistons of the rear calipers.

Once I have the new pads installed and replaced the calipers. I just fill the reservoir with more Motul 600 and flush and bleed the rear brakes. All done with just 500ml bottle of fluid.

this is 500ml, not 1000ml


this baster was incredibly useful to suck out the Napa DOT4






I decide to give the Colbalt XR5 carbon ceramic pads a try, instead of the Hawk HP Plus.

next is to address the brake pad sensor that has been tripped; I stripped the end and soldered the two wires together


I then tidy it up good


Next I carefully inspected the BP-30 racing pads after one track event. I am quite happy with them. On track they didn't squeal. My concern was if they will eat the rotors fast like the Hawk HT-14. The result is very encouraging. The rotor wear is very little and so do the pads too. No abnormal deposits on the rotor faces.










Happy with the brake work and rotated the wheels, I called it a day and were going to go for a test drive and bed the rear pads in. I decided not to, and fortunately for me I would realized I made a big mistake.

I was just browsing thru my own posts and I saw this photo of the retaining spring of the floating caliper. I realized that I forgot to re-install them for the rear calipers that I just changed the pads, flush the fluid, and set the parking brakes. The reason I missed this step was I put the springs in another box of hand tools that I used and put them away knowing that I didn't need them again.




what's wrong with this picture?




While the outside pads wouldn't fall out without these springs, the pads will sit crooked and cause too much pedal travel, which would be a safety concern. Moral of this mishap is to keep all the parts together in one box.

 

Great thread! For your rear brakes, get these to replace the rubber bushings.

https://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-3...e-bushing-set/

 

I had no idea that the slider rides on rubber bushings. I assume the rubber thing are just for sealing the elements out. I call these toy brakes and they sure live up to the reputation. Thanks for the brass bushing tip.

I will wait a bit until I am sure I won't upside them to the one from R56.

 

Sometimes it is better to downgrade. I ordered a set of $1.49 apiece NGK BKR7E copper nickle plugs to swap out the fairly new $7 apiece Laser Platinum premium BKR7EQUP.

time to do some downgrade

 

Mini and Miata stalking a 650 HP Z06 Corvette

please skip pass the warm up laps viewing from 3:50; Youtube removed the editing tool that I planned on trimming it down

 

Great track day,
Your car sounded very healthy.
Wished we could see mini specific races in U.S as in U.K more often.
Ben

 

Thanks. The drivetrain is bone stock except 15%, LSD, and SMFW clutch. I am amazed as to the difference of the 15% alone makes. This was the session early in the day and I had Napa DOT4 fluid which soon boiled, and I had to pump the brakes. I wanted to find out when does the standard DOT4 becomes inadequate.

I was very unhappy that I made this poor judgement, but I did learn and obtain valuable data. I drove home for a pitstop fluid change just for the front brakes, and that made all the difference. The spec difference is about 100F increase of dry BP. I would really like to rig up some thermocouples to monitor the front calipers near the pads.

 

I had a few clean laps in the late afternoon after the brake fluid change. I came shy of 1 second of my best time last season. The brakes were still, at times doing strange things and lock up a tire faster than ABS can intervene. Each episode is a learning experience. iPhone 6S Plus' optical image stabilization makes for a lousy track camera. I had a lot of problem with GoPro Hero 5 and it didn't record with the external mic, and no video for these sessions at all. The shaky iPhone video is all I have.