Oh right. Skinny jeans is the reason it no longer fit Desire. Desire wants a friend like you rather than someone that fat-shaming her. The cover is a genuine MINI cover that I ordered with Desire back in 2004. It is the best outdoor cover money can buy. It has elastic band on the bottom but the cut is like a well fit Italian suit. No room for putting even a few ounces.

You would be surprised how little suspension travel the Mini is from nominal ride height. I reckon no more than 1.25" from hitting the bump stop. So when you gain 1" of clearance going from 17" to 15" is huge increase. I have zero rubbing in the wheel wells up front at full locks. You can see in this photo the front has no more than 1.5" of gap. Swift spring rate is not that high compared to most coilovers as well as lowering springs.

 

I wonder if some of my rubbing that I am seeing with the 225/45-17 is lateral flex in the suspension. It is more pronounced on the left side than the right, and it seems to have happened at WGI, which is a “right turn” track.

I have a renewed appreciation of your ability to take and post the number of pictures in your thread. I am struggling to even to take pictures for my Albert thread. Your pictures add a lot to your post. Thanks for sharing.

 

From my days with the PDX MINI Club, we had a member that was a certified MINI Service Tech. If memory serves me, he was saying that the total travel for the suspension is 3 inches, so your estimate is just a wee bit off , 1.5 inches up and 1.5 inches down.

 

It is very hard to get excited with the mundane stuff that you purchase. What showed up at the doorstep? I picked it up and for the weight I knew immediately this is a box of front outer ball joints. I chose Rein over other brands on Rock Bottom Auto as I know it is an OEM.



two for less than the price of one at your friendly local MINI dearlership and you don't have to put up with the parts person attitude


made in Italy like the Parma ham I like


It is the mundane stuff that save your hide least you crash and burn. I took the risk in driving with an outer ball joint that have a torn rubber boot as I was caught by the surprise but cannot procure the part in time for the replacement. No excuse now for not sorting this out.

 

Happiness is a new set of racing pads that you expect to tide you over for another 3 days of intense fun.






Only that Desire treats them like cheese. We need a continuous supply line of these stuff to keep her happy. Brake parts and tires have been a perpetual hand to mouth problem.

 

 

D-day is near again. The key to winning any battle is logistics and supply line management . Only just a few days before the next track event and some long-poles-in-the-tent consumable and parts have not yet arrived. It is making our track team nervous that the team manager is doing his job.

The show stoppers that have yet to show are the front rotors and a second set of Konig Dial In. I want 2 sets of wheels so not to be forced to throw away tires that still have some life left. You have to pay to play as always. Either pay now or pay later but pay more.

Oh, just because there is this set of new ST-45 pads does not mean we are sitting on our laurels. Two set of Raybestos are on order. Once we are happy with the yet-untried R888Rs another set would be ordered. Prefetching pipeline strategy would be our supply chain management going forward. Sometimes without the benefit of prior experience speculative prefetching technique may be required at the cost of assessed risks.

 

I was wondering if the. ST-45s were the pads that came in. Are you going to try them at this next event?

 

Yes. I will try them out and candidly report back.

 

OK. We are all relieved that our team manager is doing his job, just when the team was about to revolt and send him packing.

The Fed Ex delivery truck came bearing gifts - that we paid for. Two sets of cast iron front rotors and the second set of Konig.



I like the cheeky "fun inside" sticker

 

 

It has been countless track events since I installed the CoolerWorx (short and long) shifter so I thought I would give a brief update. I was quite apprehensive when shopping for a short shifter. I careless for the look while more interested in functionality. I chose the CoolerWorx over CAE because of the cost, but also the shift ****. I would have order one with silver **** at the time have I were able to. But the US dealer didn't have his **** together and I had to take what I could as he was much cheaper than the Canadian dealer. My wanting a lighter color **** at the time was thinking that it would be easier to see with peripheral vision during performance driving. The black **** would turn out to be the best choice due to its not screaming for attention. I never have problem seeing or knowing where the **** is even in total darkness.

While entertaining the CAE or CoolerWorx by biggest concern is how well are they designed and manufactured? Will the mechanism become sloppy or go out of alignment with use? Will the limit setting fasteners loosen over time and fail at the most inopportune moment on track? I also read about the complain that the lateral movement is too difficult due to the extra spring both designs employ. The point of these shifters is to remove some slops from the stock shifter, and reduce the travel within reason, and lastly move the shift **** closer to your shifting hand.

I am happy to report that all is well with my CoolerWorx. It is a worthwhile addition to the Mini as it provides more intimacy to the driving experience. It gives the shifter more rawness, and the knurled shift **** is most welcoming when you need to shift as fast as possible. Despite the increase in shifting effort so far the alignment setting fasteners has not shift and I have not have to make any re-adjustment. The increased effort on the lateral movement for the forward gears is not a problem. What one notice the most is when shifting into reverse which requires considerable more effort. The reverse lockout mechanism is most reassuring as you will not shift into reverse by accident.

I have a chance to play with the CAE shifter a bit to compare the feel and shift efforts. The two shifters feel nearly identical with the exception of the shift ****. Without a doubt for me the CoolerWorx **** is better.



It was a lot of work installing the shifter to make it not appear to be a hacked job. The most work is to cut the plastic trim pieces.

 

Going parametric here. We are in need for more accuracy. We can no longer trust the HF clicker torque wrench to tighten wheel lug bolts we bought another cheapo HF tool. Some people just make no sense at all. 1 cheapo tool + 1 cheapo tool = 2 cheapo tools.

I thought at least we get a second opinion.

I am not counting on great accuracy. I would be happy with +/-5% which should be much better than a clicker's repeatability.


I went and played with it but it was getting too dark to see the display clearly. Seems pretty nice to have the audible and tri color LED indicators.

here is the instruction page


the storage box is super nice for a $24 tool




I like these two shots. Extra creamy white due to the setting sun. They really show off the fat donut tires and wide wheels.



Desire sits so low too with just the Swift springs that promise only 0.75" drops.

 

There are some who believe there is no such thing as a car sitting too low..

Desire just looks like she is looking to pounce on something...

I have an old (‘60s vintage) Craftsman beam type torque wrench that I got as a kit for reassembling my MGA motor. When the preload nut came loose on my click type torque wrench I thought it was done as the place that I knew of that had a torque wrench calibrator had closed shop. Then I got the bright idea to back drive the click type torque wrench with the beam type one to recalibrate it after I reinstalled the nut.

 

D-day is approaching and I have been dreading having to deal with wheels and tires again. Like the old timers like to mock, staring at the problem and it would not go away or fix itself. The last place that I found to mount and balance the wheels is nice with respectful staffs. However I noticed some weights fell off and I rectified them myself. I went to another place that I know that I can trust as these are brand new wheels. The problem is they want a premium over the average going rate of $100 a set even though I always bring in the wheels and tires to save them having to mount and dismount off the car.

Back to my discounted tire place and I like how I can watch and even help. The owner is very cool guy from South Central LA.

I tactfully told him the problem and he was very receptive. He said he himself always install the stick-on weights properly but his staff don't always aware or pay attention. They mounted and balanced the new wheels and tires while I watched and helped like always. This is important for me as the weight have to go on specific places on these 15" wheels to not to interfere with the Wilwood caliper. With my feedbacks they did a perfect job this time.

This set of Toyo R888R are heavier than then Nitto NT01 and I noticed it right away picking up the tires. Checking the weight they are heavier by around 2 pounds, because of the greater thread depth. I don't know if I just got lucky with this set. Two tires require no balance weight and the two only need two 0.5 oz each. I now have a habit of marking where the weight(s) is/are in case they come off and I would know to restore them. I also would go over the weights myself to make sure they are pressed on tight and formed properly.




I am happy to have found this tire shop and establish the on-going relationship.

 

It was not my intention that Desire ending up at this ride height. Swift's spec of right height drop is officially only 0.5" - 0.75". With some settling being heaving braking at the track it must have settled more. With the 15" wheel and 45 series tires resulted in the present ride height but it is not bad at all as a runabout if you always pay attention.

From what I infer beam type torque wrench is more accurate than the clicker type. My cheapo $12 HF clickers are the first torque wrench that I ever bought. In high school days I could not afford one at the price then so I just guesstimated. Eyeballing the length of pipe extension that I put onto the badly abused 3/8" ratchet wrench I torqued the cylinder head bolt to 175 ft-lb knowing it is just perpendicular force times lever arm length. In a bind I still use this technique.

When you yank on the lever arm with you hand you can feel the strain and that is our biologic strain gauge. The only challenge is everyone's accuracy is different, and sure won't stand in a court of law as proof.

Note to self as a thought to check the accuracy of a torque wrench/gauge: use a known weight per the definition of torque.

 

Like a parent of a unmarried daughter I worry about Desire's recent increase in width. Fortunately it is mostly on the hip so hopefully it is just a sign of female fertility. I remarked earlier that the Toyo R888R felt to the hand considerably heavier - by about 2 pounds compared to the same size Nitto NT01. I also pointed out the Toyo has greater thread depth.

I just weighed all four wheels with Toyo and they are only about 1 to 1.5 pounds heavier on average compared to the Nitto. I pulled the specs again and I realize I had made a mistake that the Toyo has greater thread depth. They are in fact identical at 6.3/32". The listed weights are however 23 for Toyo versus 21.41 for Nitto. This is exactly consistent with my weighing of both. The Toyos are marginally heavier at about 1 to 1.5 pound. All is good, and our team can't wait to find out how these new tires work out.

 

Reading Bentley while taking nature's call I came across something I didn't know. It says the out CV and boot (31607518261) is available from MINI as replacement parts. This is something that I previously don't know. The inner CV is not serviceable per the manual.

Sure enough I found the German Meyle is reasonably price at circa $55. Not that this would change anything with the axles I just replaced. However I kept the old axle and I suspect the outer CVs are what went since they led the toughest life. When I checked them with my hands the outer joints have some play but not the inner ones. I was planning to open them and examine anyway. Looks like there is a good chance I can rebuild myself a pair of OE quality axles.

 

I learnt early in life mistakes are expensive, and often when bad things happen we ourself are the one to blame rather than suing someone else for negligence. So with all the money spent we want to conduct our due diligence that we didn't fok up. I learnt my lesson that spanking new wheel comes in a sealed box can be defective so better check each before mounting the equally brand new tires.

For this exercise we want the least work so just jacked up at the front jack point which left the head heavy Desire completely off the ground front and back. A well place jack stand frees the rear axle for mounting each wheel for a quick and dirty spin check to look for manufacturing defect. These are not Porsche $1,500 forged wheels made in former E Germany so you have to set your reasonable expectation as they will not be perfect. However they will be infinitely better than the JCW branded boutique wheels that cost 4x the greenbacks and half the weight. Yes, I used a jack stand.







The wheels checked out so new tires was mounted.

When I opened and checked the rotor my heart nearly leap out of my throat. The rotor seemed huge rather than the 11.75" dia that I was expecting. While I triple checked the part number before I hit the final "place your order" web button mistake can be made. Rather rely on checking the part numbers (there are two as these are directional) I grab the tape measure to check the diameter. To my relief they measured 11.75. They just look huge indoors in the pizza box alone like the optical illusion of the horizon moon looks huge and zenith moon looks tiny. Next is to check the part number to be sure I received a L and a R.

Strangely the directional rotors that cost more than 3 times the cheapo utility grade counterparts (in the middle) have stupid braindead packaging. The pizza box is just plain stupid and poorly protect the precious rotors. The packaging did not fare too well during shipping compared to the $35 cheapo rotors in the middle.


a bountiful supply of front rotors our team now has ; Desire eats them up like potato chips and she like them crunchy


We still need a stead supply of race pads and this next track event will help us decide which to order next.

 

It is high time that I share our R53 owner's blog rather than keeping it to myself. The owner post rarely here at NAM except selling his stuff with fair disclosure, but he has an excellent blog going since long time ago. I would not reveal his ID except to cite his signature if something to this effect - "if everything is under control, you are not going fast enough". GeorgeCo whoever you are we see eye to eye on a lot of things on ICE engine cars that a lot of our planet's co-inhabitants think should be outlawed and banned.

 

Desire got lucky and survived a track event with a questionable outer ball joint. "how lucky do you feel, punk?" cannot escape our minds. We decided better not push our luck too far with the torn boot.

left front outer ball joint with a torn boot


We know our car pretty well and are sure left attended it would probably last another 50k miles before the front axle falls off. The only reservation is the dread to remove a ball joint. Often seemingly a simple job can throw you a curve ball and its something you don't want to do the eve before the track event. We procrastinated and waited until the last minute.

the new Rein ball joint


always double check before attempting to remove the old part; look close enough said our Mini guru



We were hoping with a couple of sludge hammers we could avoid to invest in a HF ball joint separator. Normally this is the case but the problem here is there is no room to swing a hammer to give an meaningful impact. So off to HF we went.


$16 less wealth later we have what we thought a passible tool


the fork could use a bit more thickness so we wondered is the ball joint going to win





Thankfully a pop finally and the ball joint is freed.

There is no going back now that we put the vice grip to it to remove the lock nut.





the new ball joint turns out to be rather tight going into the knuckle


it comes with two bolts


the only trouble is they require different box wrench so we decided to reuse the old bolts for ease of service


we needed the bottle jack to prevent the tapered shaft from spinning so we could tighten the lock nut






while we have Desire up on the Quickjack we swapped in the race brake pads and installed the titanium heat shields

 

That looks like heat damage from the rotors...
I have head of this happening. When I had the brake shield off the car, I did heat damage to the abs sensor line. I actually had a piece of brake shield that covered the ball joint.

 

I think you are right. It did cross my mind but I went, why it does not happen on the other side? But it make sense as Desire is more ferocious and faster going CW than CCW. The left front rotor always takes more of a beating. So add one more thing Desire routinely kills to the victims list. Ball joints. Need to stock up when they go on sale.

Serious, I need to fabricate a tiny heat shield for the rubber boot.

 

Titanium?

 

Titanium sure would scream high performance. Or I can come up with all sorts of impractical ideas and patent them, like liquid nitrogen supplied rotor cooling, rotor cooling by mean of heat pipe etc.

One simple idea is to start with a can of tuner. Here is a photo that captured the char broiler. You are spot on on the cause. Also goes show the importance of the cooling lap.