Going electric? Not quite. While I have seen both Tesla S and Model 3 at PIR I would not be caught dead in one any time soon. Hybrid like the Acura NSX for sure. So what electric?

I have been toying with the idea of a track transport, something light and does not take up much space because of my pint size motorhome. I prefer something simple but even with foldable bicycle they are not all that small. I am thinking of an eScooter because of its compact size being a stand on rather than sit on.

You can buy them for circa $600. Rather than buying the typical consumer version I thought if I can source the similar ones that city eScooter get theirs. They must pay much less for each, and the design should stand up better to abuse - and hence more reliable. I almost enjoy videos of kids trying to kill them like throwing them off the bridge.



A quick research suggests Bird must use Xiaomi's. A consumer version is the Mi from the company and seem to be a very nice one. The company has set up a US site but doesn't seem they are selling it yet.

 

Wait. I found it on Amazon.

 

I had never thought that I would entertain a track side transport. I keep seeing all sorts on Grassroot Motorsport Magazine. Soon I would realize walking back and forth in the paddock in 90 F can wear me out and I often have to run so not to miss my sessions. I am a sucker for good design, and as soon as I lay eyes on the Xiaomi Mi's industrial design I have to have it - at least try one first hand. Come to think of it, this was how I got stuck with Desire, the cheeky little car that can .

I have been intrigued about the Chinese Apple (Xiaomi means little grain of rice "小米" in Chinese) so this would be my first product from them. The company pride itself of selling H/W product with very thin margin and the price of this scooter seems to be consistent with it. I exercise the Try Amazon Prime for 1 Month Free so I can get one in my hands sooner. It is cheaper than some not so bad competitions and it is Amazon's Choice and sold by Amazon. It has regenrative braking (take it with a grain of salt), and real Li-Ion battery. It also comes with 2 spare tyres and am sure I would wear them out in short order. I am good in putting typres to rest in peace .

 

I've taken the first step to setup a system for sufficient meals for Desire's voracious drinking problem. I am planning to outfit the trailer with four 5-gallon fuel jugs carrying capacity. The first step is to determine the payload. I figure each gallon of petrol weights about 6 pounds, so that would be about 70 pounds per dual jug carrier on each side. I did a bit of research as well as observing which container people use at the track. It seems Scribner is the consensus winner. It seems to be the original and is made in USA.

I found that the best price is to get 6. This would give 2 as spares. Anything of value not chained down tends to disappears these days. I refrained from buying the fuel nozzle as they look overpriced and I figure I can make one cheaper. What stands out is they use grey PVC electric conduit fittings instead of plumbing fittings.

they arrived in no time from CA, USA


they are nothing flimsy; the thickness is very substantial as well as uniform unlike the government approved fuel containers that fail miserably; the threads on the neck and the big cap are also well designed and made unlike those crap ones on government certified red gas jugs that emit more volatile organic compounds into the atmosphere than any other containers


this does not seem right - 30 ft-lb?


the cap has a well made seal and the mating surface of the jug neck is well made without a typical mold seam so I expect it to seal very well


sure enough it is not pipe thread - hence explains for the grey electric conduit fittings


note the grey electrical conduit fittings used to build this filler hose



I have this grey electrical fitting handy (off my desk ) to test; I grab the largest o-ring from the HF o-ring box and it seems to do the job (if the gasoline do not kill it prematurely)



note that the cap is very well made with recess groove for the flat seal


While the small cap of these containers are very well made, it is too small to use in a hurry efficiently. In addition it requires a strange tool to tighten and remove. I think a better system is to fashion a filler hose using a big cap from one of the spare containers. By leaving the filler hose to a big cap it is much easier to use and avoid the tiny cap from getting lost in a hurry.

 

As I improve my time driving at PIR, one point that stands out glaringly that I could do a bit better is at the chicane that is turn 1 and 2, if I master the art of left foot braking. At present I trail brake during 1 to 2 and hence delay powering out of turn 2. Actually there are a few other turns that I can benefit from it in minimizing the time Desire is coasting. Any time spent coasting is time wasted. I found this video that illustrate the technique very well at a similar chicane at Goodwood Circuit as well as a few other turns where brake and throttle application are needed. This is by far the best video illustrating the technique and where to use it.


For some reason the video does not resume from the point I want. It is at 1:39.

If done badly left foot braking can turn into left foot breaking. Yesterday I played with it a bit in the GT4 on public road. Mini was very jealous.

 

This is advance left and right foot braking at their best.

 

Left foot braking is a good tool to have in the tool box, but I'm curious to see how much gain you see from using it. I find it most useful in faster turns, so I'm not sure how helpful it'll be in a chicane. Especially with a syncromesh transmission, if you have to shift while braking, it starts to take up alot of your mental capacity which leaves less mental capacity for hitting your braking points, apex, and getting on the throttle at the right moment.

 

Thanks for chiming in. Left foot braking of manual gearbox car is an advanced driving skill that few managed to acquire. Like heel and toe it sets good and not so good drivers apart if used effectively. I would put left foot braking being more effective in letting you drive faster in a track than heel and toe. H&T is not necessary if you don't care about your syncromesh gearbox. I know a lot of instructors cannot do it. Rally driver often do not use it as they are more concerned about winning the race than reserving the gearbox and clutch. Yet left foot braking is one important skill driving older manual gearbox cars.

On track when you need to employ left foot braking you seldom also need to shift. Left foot braking, when used effectively, reduce the time spent coasting to nil. I reckon for a circa 90s a lap track like PIR the potential time saving can be 0.5 to 1.0 s. Each time I transition right foot between throttle and brake the time is lost to coasting. While it may seem only say 150 ms the time from brake to throttle is actually much higher. The reason is there is additional time for the engine to respond to the throttle position change because of mechanical factors - like the vacuum actuated bypass valve. The other benefit of simultaneous modulations of brake and throttle is one can more finely control the weight shift and hence relative traction of the tires.

For me driving a slow car on track is all about my skill and the car. I would want to shave a second off from the improvement of my skills rather than from a modification to the car.

 

Desire has become a trailer queen, and getting less and less duty these days. The Xiaomi eScooter is now the official personnel runabout at the track for our team, thank to fast shipping by Amazon.



It is quite cute and is everything I expected. The iPhone app seems decent and I like the "cruise control" feature. Scooting around in our neighborhood in slow speed consumed 31% in 4km. Not bad as some streets have modest grades.



The riding position is comfortable. The thumb activated throttle can get tiring after a while so the cruise control feature is most welcomed.

 

I have tried to left foot brake and it was not fun for me or the car. If I ever get an automatic or DSG type car I would probably like it more. I do roll on the throttle without taking my foot off the gas on a couple of turns if I scrub too much speed. Oak tree at VIR is a good example, if I over slow over the first curbing I'll roll on the gas without taking my foot off the brake, just release pressure, roll, then back on the brake.

I'm working on the whole minimize Vmin in the data now, no coasting!

 

 

That's most unfortunate. I know a lot of newer cars' overbearing nanny don't allow this self-endangering maneuver.

 

Yeah, if you're not shifting, then left foot baking makes alot more sense. I tried to go back and watch your vids, but I couldn't find the chicane to see if you were shifting or not. I guess I learned driving a bit backwards, I started racing karts when I was 10, so when I started driving cars one of the harder things to learn was right foot braking. Driving a car with a sequential dog ring gearbox is a whole lot of fun because you really only use the clutch to get started, then it's all left foot braking. But I agree, driving slower cars, like these minis and formula fords, fast is supremely satisfying when you get it right.

 

Out track team headed to PIR for a Sunday track day. Our plan was to arrive at the track on Saturday afternoon to watch a bit of the endurance race and camp out overnight.

it was a hectic Friday and Desire passed DEQ with flying colour




then to flip the tyres inside-out to get one more track day out of them


this is the best one in the bunch


next is to fight the darkness downsizing the Wilwood 12.20" BBK to 11.75" not-so-BBK; we have high hope this change would allow us to use the 15" Konig Dial-In wheels


there is very very little clearance


the other two spots of tight clearance


We were not planning to run the 15" Konig until we have more time to carefully assess the limited clearances and more carefully adjusting the caliper mounting.

the Xiaomi eScotter fits nicely into the upper berth of our pint size motorhome


we arrived at PIR on Saturday afternoon, but we could not enter the paddock as the track that we have to cross was hot during the endurance race


Desire play peekaboo behind the motorhome


So we just hung tight to wait for a break of the race to cross into the paddock.

this photo happen to capture a race car passing in front of us in excess of 100 MPH


more photos of the race cars passing right in front of us







I rode the eScotter down to the grandstand by the chicane to watch the action there


a few hours later they pause the race to allow us into the paddock


this is one well constructed Miata race car






we found a nice spot to camp out with 15A/110Vac hookup


our team's personnel transporter


this is how to haul enough fuel for the track - in 50 gallon drums


a very sophisticated fuel dispensing system for small time endurance race; there were two of these








a rather rare Renault 5 Turbo



We spent the Saturday night camping out at PIR. The next day we would have 4 R53 Mini's in the Mini Corral.

 

I conducted a lot of research for a winch that suit my priorities for the Trailex open car trailer. To limit weight gain and reliability I decided on a manual 2-speed for its simplicity. Fulton makes some of the best manual winches. Originally I wanted a 3200 lb one with 7/32" diameter steel cable. Then a 2600 lb one came around with a price that is right and I jumped on it. It supports synthetic strap or synthetic rope.

It arrive and the design and quality do not disappoint. The design has a unique gear shift lever which you can select high or low speed, or free wheeling for fast line payout. Additionally the winch includes a manual brake function that used to be a paid option. As the drum inner diameter is 1 inch it is not suitable for used with steel cable - they make the steel cable version with 1.75" diameter drum.

I put it onto the winch mount of the trailer to check for compatibility with the mount


the mounting is not as plug and play as I expect - only two of the bolt holes are aligned; the Trailex mount is extremely well made and there is nothing on this trailer is corner cutting


note the crank lever handle just nicely clears the trailer front wheel jack; the zipped down fabric front shield is designed for the winch access


this is the manual hand brake kit for the winch; how it works is ingenious


The way the brake works is the lever rotates one end of the steel spring coil. The clockwise rotation cause the diameter of the spring coil to reduce, thus clamps tight against the pinion gear shaft like a drum brake with the friction shoes on the outside.



here are how I lash down Desire onto the aluminium trailer; you certainly should not take corner aggressively when towing a car trailer especially with a tall and narrow motorhome

 

Desire is always eager to step up for something new. This including spinning around on the track.

In Sunday's track event as soon as we were let out of the gate we enthusiastically trying out left foot braking at every opportunity. With cold tires and damp asphalt tarmac that nearly spelled disaster. Undeterred we exercised this new trick on and off. In the video you can generally see when we right foot brake or left foot brake. You can always hear the pop when the right shoe hits the plastic air duct switching from brake to accelerator. Only once did I nearly put my head on the steering wheel stepping on the brake pedal instead of the intended clutch pedal.

Please see next post for the video.

I was delighted that how fast I feel relatively comfortable trailing braking with left foot while modulating the accelerator with the right. For now I avoid using it at places that requires threshold braking when simultaneous gear change is not required.

Very early in the day Mini developed a strange tremor whenever braking was applied and the tremor persists even after the brake is release. The symptom worsen as time passed and I could not drive at the normal pace. I resigned to practicing left foot braking. I took off the front wheels 3 times and removed and re-installed the front pads twice. I also checked all the front suspension fasteners least one had come loose causing the tremor. The tremor was so bad that on one session that I returned to the pit after 1 lap and inspected the front and rear ends as well as all the brakes. It almost felt like it could be caused by one of the axles.

I have no usable video from the iPhone from the day. I updated the iOS for the support of the new Apple Watch and that rendered Harry's totally sluggish that became unusable.

Update: I replaced the original video that has segment of no audio as well as poor video quality with one that I reworked. I thought I would save some time using non-rerendering apps like MP4plitter and MP4joiner, rather than using my Vegas editing suite. It turned out I wasted more time doing it and the resulting file was huge, and took forever to upload to Youtube. The joining app also terminated unexpectedly twice leaving the output file not closed properly.

 

Again I am running into the same bug trying to replace a video in a post by editing but the old video remains. I had to delete it all together and post the new video in this new post.

 

Good stuff all around.
Nice trailer also.

Love this thread.

Enjoyed the video --- I used to do LFB in my old Saab, but rarely on tarmac, only gravel or dirt.
Stig Blomqvist was a master of the technique and the reason why I tried to emulate...


...I think LFB is highly effective once you get the modulations down and it's especially helpful for a frontwheeldrive car.

 

That's one great video illustrating this classic rally technique. I love watching Goodwood Revival racing of cars from 50-60s as the kind of technology and driving techniques are so applicable to a slow car like our Mini; or any relatively old road cars with manual gearbox.

 

This page now takes almost 100 page up / down to traverse. I think it counts how many posts to make a page. I will try to force a page brake by adding a few dummy posts.

 

page break

 

page break again. i realize this is a futile exercise as continuous scroll is in vogue with most forums.

 

Page break maybe,
with Paddy & Rauno...

 

Great drivers. I reckon it takes 25 posts to make a page. The reason I try to force a page break as I notice it takes forever to load a page in this foto laden thread. Just a couple more posts now to get to #1025 + 1.

 

We parked the RV such that we can have our private grand stand seeing the front straight from 11 feet up.

this orientation also avoid the solar gain into the living quarter


it is a long way down there


watching the endurance race from our private grandstand