There should be two screw holes each side of the ball joint from where the dust shield mounted. That is what I used.

 

That is exactly my thought too. A tuner (not that tuner ) can will give it the radius needed to accommodate the pivoting knuckle.

 

I toiled all day so we can get to the track before the gate closes. We made it, and unloaded the trailer queen. She didn't fall off the wagon on the way here which is good . This would be two days of great fun only if she does not pull something silly. Tucked Desire in for the night. She would be sleeping under the starry sky.

Having a bit of trouble beaming the iPhone photos over so the pics have to wait.

 

 

Reporting from the event site.




Desire didn't fall off the wagon on the Oregon Trail to the promise land



one notable car - a factory race prep GT350



remore control Mini



a cocky little car that can



this has to be the saddest cone in the world



One of Desire's diet is bugs; oh, we dodged Kamikaze birds too on the track

I used the new pyrometer after a couple of sessions. It is indeed a nice product that is easy to use and most important extremely low thermal mass. I use iPhone's voice recorder to record the 3 measurement of each tire by calling out the temperature. I then transcribed to paper. I was expecting the outside threads to have the highest temperature but to my surprise they are not.

I am also very happy the set of Nitto NT01 has survived three long track days so far, though I would leant from a Miata owner the highs and lows of this tire. Good thing to know is there are tires that can cut 8 seconds a lap. The supercharged ND Miata is very fast and one of the best drivers of the day.



left front



right front



right rear



left rear

 

Yup, especially with the MINI’s antenna, it make for a really good looking RC car.

I don’t see any cords showing on those tires. Friends around here would figure a several more days on them...
You know when that happens. Upon turn-in, the car doesn’t....

 

So the Nitto NT01 lasted 4 long track days and has not corded yet. I am amazed how even they worn, that now I don't scrub them needlessly. Both rotors have multiple cracks and the ST-41 pads are shot. That's what you get on the Min running with some very big boys. M3s and Desire was on the tail of a GT3 RS for 3 laps. She even intimidated the Porsche in many turns. A lot of these cars are running slicks or very spendy tires and suspensions.

This track is so hard on everything because of the constant elevation changes. Each lap has 400 feet. All these are serious prep'ed track cars. We were just hammering on the brakes and the poor clutch too took a beating, as well as the Quaife got constant workout. I have been maintaining or back off the throttle less rather than lift while doing left foot trail braking. I even use left foot braking at some turns that require hard braking before turning in. The left foot is trainable old dog.

 

North country (50 - 100 miles north of me) got snow last night and today... Ugh!
Not sure what my track day (this Friday) will be like. Everyday they switch the forecast from rain to sunny and back again. The only thing that has been consistent is that it will be cool.

I tried left foot braking with the DTC all off... Still cuts power with the left foot pushing on the brake and the recovery is, like, forever!

I don’t put the track miles on my car and tires like you do, so I can only guess what I got for wear on the RE71Rs. I also run only 20 to 30 min sessions so the tires tend not to get over heated. I did get a chance to talk to a DE instructor I know who had a new set of the Hankook 200 wear rated tires on his E30 track-prepped car that he was going to try out. He didn’t like the RE71Rs for the track as he thought they overheated quickly, so he is trying something different. Maxxis and Nexen tires are advertising in the SCCA magazine. These tires seem to be aimed more at the track world vs the autocross world, but I haven’t heard anything about them. I wonder if they would be better than the Bridgestones on the track.

Have fun chasing down those big dogs! Sounds like you are having a grand time...
Enjoy

 

I feel your frustration with the event you signed up and most likely paid for. Spring can be difficult to predict. Get lucky and you get a dry and cool day and the car is so much faster and the tires do not get greasy. Our last track days started with chilly mornings but soon the sun came and helped out and everything worked out. This Sun and Mon were the hottest days that I've ever driven this frack. The car just does not feel as brisk and the pads were just smoking.

Thanks for reporting back on LFB with DTC all off. That's very disappointing. On R53 LFB does not cut power with ASC (I have no DTC) on, though I ways drive with it off.

My experience RE71R was not stellar. It could be I crammed it only the rims too narrow for it. Still I can see they make great track tires due to small thread blocks. I talked to the supercharged Miata owner and he shared with me a few things about a few tires. He had tracked many cars and have experience with a lot of tires. He put on a set of new Toyo R7s Hoosier R7s half way thru the day and he said he shaved 6 seconds . Of course there is no one size fit all tire. Just temperature alone would dictate which tire may be best for the day, or few hours. I didn't get a chance to try out the R888R and I am very glad the Nitto has lasted 4 days on this track. The NT01 was literally a set of slick now but without the stickiness of real slicks.

It is crazy with our club days. Often we have too few cars to play with. On Sun we had 11 cars and yesterday we had 6. Very often you have the track all to yourself and can get boring fast.

A few more photos.


dusk and I tucked Desire in for the night under the would be starry night sky



Desire got stranded out on the track trying to chase the big bad wolf; I thought the left front caliper has came loose or cracked rotor was catching the pads; Mr. ORP came to the rescue



a miniature lone car out on the vast plain; Desire had to wait out on the track while the other cars played; she was not a happy camper



both days we were the last men (men as man and woman in the true meaning of the word in this context ) standing at till the bitter end

So we didn't go off track but had a few mechanical dramas. Desire could not keep the left front wheel from coming loose. On one session the wheel lugs came loose after 2 laps and I checked the torque before going out. Fortunately I notice something was amiss and immediately slow down and pulled to the side. We thought it was the new ball joint that has came unbolted and barely hanging on. It would turned out to be the lug bolts that has came loose and the wheel wobble causing the stud of the ball joint to come into contact with the wheel barrel.

Driving this Mini hard on this track breaks things and break often they do.

Desire drunk one full tank plus close to 30 gallons of fuel in two days, in addition to her insect diet supplement.

 

Your dusk picture is great!

Sorry to hear about the mechanical issue. I never heard of the wheel bolts just coming loose. I have know people to go out on the track with “pre-loosened” bolts...
They caught it like you did. Paying close attention to how the car is doing every second it is running is a must.

Have you figured out what allowed the wheel bolts to come loose? I would guess that the threads on the hub are worn. Or there is something causing the wheel not to seat, and when you run it allows the wheel bolts to loosen. Or is there some defect in the wheel where the bolt holes are? I’m very curious about this one.

The 200 wear rated tires are a curious lot. I would guess that for tires like the RE71Rs, that are intended for autocross, they make them sticky when cold and they run the wear test in such a way that they can get them to meet the 200 limit. But I would also guess that when these tires get hot, they overheat, hence the low life on the track.. The Dunlop ZIs and ZIIs were a good track tire, with good wear. But I am hearing that the ZIIIs, on the track, wear like the RE71Rs. Seems like Dunlop is taking aim at the autocross market, too. The R-Comps tend to be expensive; at least 50% more than the 200 wear rated tires. I know they make the car quicker but, as you are finding, they put more stress on the car. And they don’t wear any better or may even wear worse. It is an expense on top of expense. Like a sail boat - a hole in the water that you throw money into...

 

I have been complaining the Gen 1 Mini lug bolts and pattern (4x100mm with 12mm lug) is very inadequate. I torque my lugs to spec 89 +/- 7 and up'ed to 96 ft-lb (89 + 7). the Wilwood aluminum rotors hat rotates from the braking torque and bent the Torx head rotor retaining bolt. I changed the bent bolt with new and still they bent. In this past event I torqued the lugs to 110 ft-lb and checked all 4 wheel before I went out. I was driving really hard trying to hold off the GT3 RS so I was braking really late and just hammered on the brakes, and soon I noticed something was really wrong on the front end so I pulled over to check. I could see the smoke from the left front pad and almost as though something has melted.

I have been checking the lug torque before each session and the front ones tend to work loose a bit. The left front is the worst. I do think the aluminum rotor hat aggravate the problem due to greater thermal expansion of AL (Wilwood) over Fe (stock).

The thread are not stripped on the bolts or the hub. Just worked loose from the awesome torque the ST-41 pads and hard turns. MINI changed the lug bolts and hubs from 12mm to 14 mm in mid 2006 so only convertibles built after that date have 14mm lugs. It is obvious an admission the 12mm 4x100mm hub design is inadequate.

There was another drama. Half day into the first day the ABS light came on. Very unsettling and I pondered what could be the cause:

• low brake fluid level causing air to enter into the ABS
• intermittent failure of one wheel speed sensor
• ABS system malfunctioned
• ABS detected too much activation and decided that something must be wrong

I gave the matter some thought and decided I would not let it stop my driving. ABS should fail passive, which means it should just de-activate itself and I would just drive like a pre-ABS car. My thought too was once ABS decided some thing is wrong, it most likely a latched failure and will require one to specifically clear it like the airbag system. I immediately regretted not bringing the Notebook and OBD cable with me to the track.

So as I was ready to head out with Desire to push our luck with the ABS illuminated the flat tire warning light came on. I thought WTF, it must be an indication one of the wheel speed sensor failed. Or may be just the front and rear tire pressure differentials are so great that it trigger the low pressure warning. I press the button to reset the flat tire warning light. I noticed the button felt odd as though it is not returning to the off position. I didn't think much of it at the time as there were too much other things to tend to.

I went out and after less than a lap the ABS light went off. Immediately I knew the cause. It was cause by the sticky low tire warning reset switch. The ABS worked flawlessly the rest of the track event.

 

Like I said our team had many mechanical challenges. In the evening of the first day I noticed Desire's right front paw looked odd. I check the pressure the next morning and the gauge registered nothing. I scrounged for a spray bottle to look for a puncture or a leak around the bead hoping to be able to find the cause. While I have a full set of new tires ready to go I really want to use up the Nitto NT01 and I didn't want to waste the time to switch the wheels if I could avoid it.


the front right tire sure looked flat



a thorough spay bottle check with soapy liquid on the rim's meat tire beads found no leak; I move onto the wheel barrel next and that too is good

So what remains could only be a hole in the tire. I sprayed the thread surface with plenty of soap water. I would find the tiny leak judging from the slow grow of the bubble. It is a rather slow leak and I felt comfortable driving with it. To reduce the risks I swapped the front to the rear and monitored the pressure after each session. All was good and no crash and burnt. While we got the jack out we took the opportunity to flip the front brake pads. Love these Wilwood calipers. Changing the pads takes less than 3 min if they are used, and 5 min new with just a pair of channellock pliers.

A spray bottle has been added to the track equipment list. Oh, since we are now taking the wheels off so many times the team has decided we are sliding down that track focus slippery slope a bit more. We will bring our battery powered impact wrench from now on. More payload on the already gutless Sprinter motorhome.

 

I take the small Dewalt 1/2” drive impact wrench, with a 2 or 3 Ahr battery. It is lightweight and pretty powerful.

Will a R56 hub fit the R53? My guess is that it is the same hub that they put on the R52. The 14mm bolts are torqued to 102 ft-lbs. Then, again, I have been told by my Solo group instructors that some of these high bolt torques can damage some alloy wheels and actually suggested lowering the torque. Also, don’t forget that you have alloy wheels up against the aluminum hat of the brake rotors. Even with a steel brake rotor hub, you still have the alloy wheel that would present the same postulate problem. Also, this is a combination that is used in all race cars and it doesn’t seem to be a problem. So it would seem that the alloy/steel combination shouldn't be a factor. But, you clearly have an interesting issue going on here. It will be interesting the hear what you figure out.

A thought...
From left field...
Do you have a wheel bolt that hasn’t been used on the track? If you do, measure the length of it and one of the bolts holding on the left wheel and see if you have stretched your bolts. Not sure if it is even possible.

 

I believe R56 hub fits R53 given the transition history, but I need to look into that further. I have been texting with my track Miniacs on this issue. One had his wheel fell off at 110 mph, and now he has custom hubs with Porsche GT3 pressed in studs. I was under the impression that people do stud conversion do it for greater tensile strength with better fasteners but my search only result in convenience of wheel change and more aggressive look.

I also under the impression there is 12mm to 14mm stud conversion. My search return with people with 14mm lug wants to use 12mm wheels.

Also I question with other people's lug breaking if they are sure their lugs has never been over-torqued. I know mine never as I don't ever let anyone else touch them.

 

Your point about too high torque may damage some alloy wheels is well taken, but only if we know how much is too much.

On your point of comparing the length of used lug bolts with new ones sound good. But what if they switch suppliers. Might be more practical compare front from rear if I don't mix them. Also I wonder by how much a stretch is too much for these fasteners.

 

I would say that any stretch is not good. I think that would mean you yielded the stud under tension. But as I say that, I seem to recall that, even at 100 ft-lbs of torque, the stresses in the stud are moderate and yield strength is good at elevated temps. Hopefully the studs are not getting that hot as that would also mean heat is getting into the hub and maybe the bearings. I am leaning away from this idea. And your comment about them maybe manufactured at different length would make this a little untrustworthy.

I had another thought after I posted last night. It started with “I hope he isn’t checking the torque when everything is hot, because, if he tightens the bolts, when they cools they will shrink and the bolts will become over-stressed”. That lead me to think that the opposite could be happening. That is, enough heat is getting into the studs that they are expanding to the point that they are loosing pre-load. You say that this seemed to happen after braking really hard and the pads were smoking. As we all know the MINI brakes (including the Wilwoods) don’t dissipate heat real well. You may just need to get more cooling into those brakes.

Or, think about doing something like I did:

1” thick rotor on left, Wilwood 0.81” on right

These fit my 15” wheels. Sad to say, I have not yet put them through a “real” test (no track days at WGI with them yet). But they have worked really well for where I have used them.

 

I appreciate we are bouncing the ideas off each other. My initial thought was the lug bolts somehow loosen themselves from the minute stretching and unstretching due to the constant changing forces and the flexing of the stack that is the hub face, AL rotor hat, and the alloy wheel sandwich. I secretly hoping that the bolts are not elongating each time ever so slightly, but stay within the elastic range.

I am now warmed up to the thought that they are in fact stretching past the elastic range, and your point of extreme heat from the brake rotor exacerbate it makes sense. When I bounce my experience off my track Miniac. He said that racing Mini's break lugs all the time. The shop who built and services his track R53 has extensive experience building Mini race cars and it is this shop that installed the modified hubs for his Mini with Porsche GT3 pressed in studs. I know current GT3 has a single center wheel nut like race cars so that sound like a mistake and the shop fed him ****. However I believe older GT3 has regular lug bolts.

To determine if the bolts are being stretched I would mark the bolt head WRT the wheel next time. If they rotate after a session I would know if they unbolt themselves, or elongated.

I am seeing brake cooling ducts are inevitable - it is something that I have resisted as I like the front fog lights. I also believe the long ducts from the fog light location typically does not work as well as they seem. The flexible and long hose generate a lot of internal turbulence unless you use a large dia hose and large dia hose simply does not fit in the tight wheel well. I might fashion a brake duct like how Porsche do. A short L shape rigid duct that fasten to the lower control arm that feed air from under the car.

On you thicker rotors I am open to that too. I used to think it just have more static thermal capacity but it is more than that. The increase thickness also comes with larger vanes so circulate that much more air thru the vanes.

I learnt so much tracking this little car and it has been an incredible journey, starting from throwing in $2k to make it slightly more fun for occasional track driving. In retrospect I am extremely please of how far she has taken me in my driving skills. Desire can put up a good fight against my buddy's highly modified R53 but I know the clutch, brakes, and most important suspension are being taxed heavily on this track.

 

When I drove at PIR my constant wish was let's hope there would be less cars in the run group. I thought becoming a member at ORP will be heaven for all you can eat driving any time you want, pass everywhere, and much fewer cars and nearly no newbies. All are true except I now realize it can be very boring when you have the whole track to yourself very often. We had just 11 cars the first day, and 6 cars the next. And my Miniac that have been driving this track for close to a decade has not been driving this track yet this season.

Desire got a new nose ring; there is already one on the dirty butt


as promised we brought spare parts for the front brakes








our team arrived to the event site the late afternoon and unloaded Desire; the ran carts that day and would have been entertaining to watch; I also thought would it be nice to switch to carts for less damage to one's finance and mental stress


the new wheels with Toyo R888R; and we brought 6 jugs of fuel this time


I went for a track walk before dusk, and this 2.3 mile track is quite a walk with 400 ft of elevation changes each lap; that is equivalent lifting and lower Desire up and down a 20-story building each lap once every 2 minutes, and it is at ~2,000 ft elevation


this is one turn that I fear the most in both CW and CCW runs; we were told most total their expensive car when trying to catch it ending up hitting the concrete wall


at the turn-in point going CCW


and a dip shortly after apex


the following turn is very deceiving as well and I'd gotten bitten thinking it is a turn I didn't need to worry about - big mistake


the infamous Valkyrie Hill where the bones of the remains of the warriors and their horses littered; the ride of the Valkyries it is; going thru there and Desire had to go up into 5th and brake approaching the turn and into 3rd for the turn all in very short order after the last crest


the last crest before the dip and I am still in 5th accelerating before the inevitability very hard braking and Desire's rear end tends to get really loose


the supercharged Miata ND has some very nice suspension bits like the Ohlins coilovers; this is the stock rear brakes but the front has huge Stoptech


GT350 factory built race car - I would buy this in a heart beat if I have a place for another vehicle











the gorgeous flat plane crank mighty V8


the most robust camber plate that I've ever seen with no nonsense shims rather relying on fasteners to hold it fastened; also note the welded-on reinforcement


a bad *** SC camera but looks too pedestrian next to the GT350 race car


Desire was a bit low on engine oil so I made an improvised funnel





an all wheel drive Palatov with turbocharged Hayabusa; I am very happy to see the owner get it out onto the track and drove a lot more this time


I heard in the grapevine that this track is Mr. Palatov's test track for very good reasons.

 

Great track walk pictures!
It is amazing what you see standing still vs at 100+ mph. Hills look much steeper and turns with camber look a lot less flat. And it is a long ways around a track, walking, no matter how short it

I like the Mustang. I have also seen a GT4 Camero at one of my events. Also nice; maybe not as nice as your Mustang.

Your comment about just doing laps on an empty track is spot on. One of the things I find interesting is managing traffic. Most interesting is finding a car of similar performance as the MINI and doing laps with them.
I have a friend who used to track his R53. Crazy fast and fearless. He too resisted taking out his fog lights to use the openings for brake ducts. He never did.... As for the suspension mounted scoops, one of the NAM vendors (or used to be vendors) has them for the R53. I think they show up on some thread I follow.

Glad to share my experiences with you. I have 2 friends who break parts on their NASCAR stock car track day cars. It is never ending, even with purposefully built cars such as those. As for brakes and the change that I made, I solicited advise from them about rotors. Both of them and the guy who put the kit together for me said “more mass is best”. The thinner pad walls and wide vane openings that you see in my picture was not their choice. From their experience rotors with that configuration, they crack much more readily than rotors with pad face thickness and less vane space. Also, they said the thermal mass is important for cutting down the peak temperatures. So I have a set of thicker and heavier rotors for my brake killer track. These rotors are 12.2” rotors and I will run them with 17” wheels. However, I bought the rotors that you see for the shorter tracks I run with less braking. I opted for more vane space because the 15” wheels tend to trap heat and I wanted to move more air. It is an experiment. So far it is working, for the short tracks.

BTW - I think you are right about the Porsche stud thing being a bit of BS. The only thing it should buy one is an easy way to replace studs when they break.

 

When it rains, it pours. As if I don't have enough to deal with I pulled the left front wheel as well as inspecting the entire front suspension as post track routine, I found a greasy mess.

For a moment I thought what Eddie's point that the hub bearing may exposed to too much heat. However there are just way too much black grease spread all over an expanse that cannot had been from the sealed wheel bearings. Judging from the most grease I knew most likely there is a puncture at the outer CV boot. I could not begin to look for this likely small hole until I clean off the grease off the boot surface, and get a good light under there. Oh, and it was drizzling and raining intermittently while I crawled under Desire and got grease on my hair.

from where the most grease you can expect to find the puncture - I thought so I cleaned the grease off the CV boot surface


after slowly rotating the axle and inspecting the boot carefully I found a slit; there is no sign of abrasion and there is nothing near it from the suspension



you won't see the slit until you deform the rubber a bit





I took extreme care handling the axles when installing them so the most likely reason is just manufacturing defect.

It is an unrelated distraction.

 

AutoHausAZ support is top. I called and explained what I found and followed with photos. He agrees it is a defect and there is an axle on the way to me soon. I just need to return the defective one with a return shipping label they will send.

 

 

Is this under warranty? Both front rotors are like this. This left front has two radial cracks the go right through across. I could really feel the pad catching initially until the rotor warmed up and got smoother. Then it braked like all is well so I drove until the bitter end.


doesn't look that bad really



this in hardly worst



the bloody mess left from the punctured CV boot



this is the first time my tires worn this evenly across the width

 

Hmmmm - My guess would be you past the “life time warrantee”.... Life time being at the point they crack...

I’m going to take a guess - the cracking is the result of over heating.

I watch IMSA racing on YouTube. I have watched the 24 hrs of Daytona (the whole 24 hrs). At night you can see the brake rotors glowing on most of the cars. The lesser cars are running steel rotors, like those. And they don’t break, crack or fall apart, and that is after 24 hrs of abuse. I have often wondered, we are nowhere near to being as abusive, and yet, our brakes fall apart after just a few hours of running. Why? Sorry, I have no good answers except to say that they have massive brake cooling on all of those cars.

I may have provided this link before, and don’t know if it will help. These guys supply the stock car world and their rotors do pretty well. They provided the rotors on my setup:
http://www.colemanracing.com/Brake-R...ne--P4664.aspx

 

There are a couple of front brake cooling brackets out there that I have long aware of. However they don't appear to me as well design until I found this set from AAF. They seems to cover only the center of the rotor and direct air towards the inside of the vanes. They have well formed feature to prevent the forced air from escaping from the side but it is hard to tell until you put one on with the specific rotor.