One of the reasons that I haven't been using the Dual GPS with Harry's is the silicone rubber pad does not grip well in Desire's dash during corner maneuvers. I have been using the iPhone's built in "GPS" which worked OK at PIR. I know it is just 1Hz but I figure it was good enough with SW interpolation and the level of my driving skill. The problem is out in the countries with poor cellular coverage and few wifi around to augment the pseudo GPS everything has gone to hell with Harry's.

Out bring the Dual GPS and I have to figure out a way to secure the rubber mat. I tested adhesion with the excellent VHD and it would not stick to the silicone rubber pad. Most interestingly the pad has plenty of grip on most surfaces but just not on the textured Desire's dashboard. I can forgo the rubber pad and stick the GPS directly onto the dashboard and just recharge it in the car.

The other option is to put a couple of holes on the rubber pad and secure it with cable ties to harness it from excessive sliding around. Decision, decision.

the Dual GPS is a good design and hold the charge quite well for months of disuse


the silicone rubber mat stick well to a lot of surface material but not Desire's textured dash


it just need a seat belt to keep it in place under hi-G


I plan to get a Aim's Solo 2 DL so this would just be a temporary solution.

 

Dark Green Gorilla tape... best tape in the world, IMHO....
I tape over the 2 ends of that silicone pad and stick the tape to the dash. Make sure the piece of tape is long enough to extend over the two sides as well as the ends of that pad. This makes a pocket on both sides that will secure the pad. The tape will not stick to the pad. Mine has been one for 2 years now with that method.

I think my “Carpenter” app is good to tenths of a degree....

 

Thanks for the idea. For some reason I was fixated of using a double sided tape. I would just use some wide 3M blue tape to hold down two long ends. You sure about the accuracy of the iPhone app. I don't think the accelerometers in there are that good. Also it is very awkward to place a side of the phone parallel to the plane of interest. I would save my money and buy a $45 inclinometer/protractor. I would want one with a decent length may be say 10 inches.

I unwittingly signed up to prepare lunch for my track frenemies in the upcoming event. It is a good turn out and I have never cater to this big a crowd before. Most of them will no doubt be driving very high price and high power cars. I am thinking to level the playing field, I would slip in a bit of laxatives in some servings.

 

Ouch, that would be, shall I say, not good?
But,
Go you on the food prep!

 

One can't pull a joke anymore in this day and age. No laxative. Just good food made with love and affection.

The GPS is secured down. Ain't pretty but hay she is a track animal and a white trashy one at that. Racing pads are back on. I am thinking in the future I am not going to bother to swap racing and street pads back and forth. Racy pads are also for street. I never find them not having enough grip even when cold.

I promise to have decent audio this time.







Oh, and for the first time I actually removed the rubber floor maps that weigh a ton. Some day I would remove the rear seat and the most annoying rear shoulder belts that keep banging around.

 

Actually, some of the readership does OK at recognizing a joke, but not so good with a return...
Like - That would make for a crappy day....

My Dad liked real licorice candy, and would have a jar of licorice drop candy at work. He had a job that would involve periodic meetings amongst a number of organizations. He once told me that sometimes these meetings would become unproductive but would not conclude. At the point he felt the meeting should conclude he would bring out the licorice drops, which everyone loved. A bit after the licorice came out for all to enjoy the meeting would end somewhat naturally. My Dad said: Ya know, licorice can be a mild laxative... I often thought about that story when I was involved in meetings at my job...

Love the blue tape, but watch that the sun doesn’t loosen it.

What? With all that you have done to Desire, you haven’t done a rear seat delete? I did mine out of a sheet of 1/4” plywood with some pine edging to get the right height and some clips to engage the seat catches, which allows it to be easily removable for track days. All painted black and covered with a bit of black runner carpet over the top so it looks like it belongs there.

BTW - I use Turtle Wax paint polish, the version that is safe for clear coat, to remove the black skid marks. I do a light rub-down of Blue with it in the spring to remove the winter grime. Blue’s metallic paint really sparkles when that is done and the wife loves the way her car looks when I’m done.

 

I never cease to be amazed how often some can't see a joke. Oh mine, hate those pointless getting nowhere meetings. Nice that the licorice drop used as ice breaking to signal the end of the misery for all.

With the help of the Columbia Gorge jet stream we made it to ORP with Desire in one piece. We were glad we made it out of the afternoon Portland traffic without incident. She get to sleep under the starry sky again. The incessant wind here at 2,000 ft can rob your body heat fast. Desire has another R53 to play with and we might also get dome drone video.

I haven't want to remove the rear seats as they work well as a flat platform for carrying good amount of cargo in town. Sometimes it is just nice to be able flip the seat backs up and acts as cargo refrain. The down side of rear seat delete is I have to find a place to store them at home. I am deferring the inevitable.

We are camping out for three days of track fun and good food.

 

Desire is most thrilled to have someone to play with at this great playground. A couple of foto of Desire und Freund.


Desire is most glad to see his friend arrives



Desire's friend also ride on the same wagon and towed by a Sprinter motor home too

A strange thing is I went to Ohio to pick up the Trailex trailer before we met this Miniac at PIR for the first time and saw that his has a near identical trailer but has it much longer.

 

My low tech DIY alignment appears to be working satisfactorily as I expected on the track. This set of new Toyo R888R is wearing more evenly than all previous set of tired driven on track aggressively, The two main changes that I made was to increase the rear camber to about -3 degrees and nulling out the front toe in caused by the Swift springs and increased camber of the IE fixed camber plate.

This set of R888R seen about 100 miles or may be less. Desire ate them like donuts while playing with another R53 track car that is highly modified.


left front (right) and left rear (left)



right front (left) and right rear (right)

The rear tires no longer has the very rounded outer edge. The lack of rear cambers has been one biggest cause of uneven tire wear and now is much improved.

 

This continues to be my favorite thread on NAM!

The frequent updates make it lively and the conversation is always a treat to follow,
and all the pictures are super bonus good stuff.

Thanks for keeping it up and runnin'!

After seeing your tire pressure gauge...

.
.
.
...I thought I'd take a pic of my oldie-but-goldie gauge too.

I've had it forever and ever.

It fits perfectly in the glovebox lid recess:



Old, well-worn, and scuffed up,
but still accurate!



I even got myself a brand new fancy one but the old one still has my heart,
call me a romantic!

I don't carry this one around with me and only use it at home:

 

Nice that the DIY alignment worked for you.

Did you notice a difference in handling on the track?

 

I never have a good quality gauge until recently. I would like to have a USA made gauge of yesteryear like your oldie. It has a far superior dial face than your new one despite it is 0-100 versus 0-40. To be very blunt I don't like the QuickCar you showed. The fonts (too many to count) leaves much to be desired. The no nonsense applied science of the USA made gauge wins hands down. I have no idea of the accuracy of the USA made gauge but some has provision for adjustment.

 

I am pretty sure I noticed the difference. The rear now has more grip. As I also trying out a set of new Toyo R888R at the same time for a while I thought that the tires are not too good as I was getting a little bit more understeer. I would later realized it must mainly due to the increased rear cambers. I would soon gotten used to the change and then it no longer felt much different.

I should added that I was most concerned with the front and rear toes change on the stability at high speed especially max braking. There were no drama at all except when I brake extremely hard and late going downhill (and over a crest ) before a tight turn.

 

Here are some photos of Desire and friends. It is a three days event but we cut it short into two days as Desire complained having a headache after the foreplay. More on that later.

the weather was forecasted to be godsend for the three day event





Desire and her track buddy best friend



they are the dualities of R53 Minis; one is bad to the core money no object track car and the other is a street car named Desire yearns to be a track animal



this track has to have the most of GT3 RS in PNW; we have three in this event



a Hennessy Camero with 650 HP



I checked to see if the axle boots were holding on these communist made axles and so far they are good



I was expecting more pad wear on these ST-45s



the $35 Wilwood disposable rotors are holding together too





























this is the most impressive rig there this weekend, it is brand new and has a built in light weight lift, carries two race cars, and a living quarter up front; the whole set up with cars and tow vehicles is over 3?,000 lb






Desire being eccentric



she consumed 1 full tank plus 25 gallons of fuel in less than one and a half day of driving

On day one morning the infamous Valkyrie Hill claimed a victim that is Porsche Carrara S in the CCW direction. The damages are extensive so likely a total loss financially to restore it to road worthy condition.

 

It is unfortunate that there was a loss of a car. I have seen it many times. When Smokey was new and I couldn’t afford to replace him, I bought track insurance. I was at an event where a brand new M5 was rolled. The driver was unhurt, car was totaled and the insurance covered it...

Nice that the alignment worked that well for you. A little understeer it gives just means that you can trailbrake deeper into the corners.

What a beautiful day(s?) you had.

 

None of us want to see a bad loss, especially it involves a member. With track driving beyond the novice one advances fast if we use a certain level of aggressive driving. With out going slightly over ones comfort zone we learn slowly. The difficulty is how much is too much. There is always lessons to be learnt from incidents like this. Each time I went off track and had to catch the car I try to conduct post mortem as soon as possible to understand what I did wrong. I was busy cooking for the group that first morning, but earlier in the drivers' meeting there were already cues of what were to be unfolded.

A couple of more advanced drivers encouraged him to switch off the traction control. I don't have first hand account of what happen but according to my instructor buddy there were three things that contributed to the crash, and to certain degree switching off the traction control may be one as the car is too much car for the driver's skills. He lost control going circa 99 mph at the bottom of the hill just before the heavy braking zone. The car ended up climbing up the slope to the top of the hill and it was very fortunate that the car didn't roll. Even our Mini's get close to that speed before braking for a turn at the bottom.

The first day was extremely windy and the cold gusts was relentless. I cooked outdoors and the brisk wind made it very difficult. Thankfully a couple of members jumped in and helped. I don't have photos of the finished dishes. It was a six dishes lunch ending with Key lime pies. I became the most popular person with the turn workers after. Everything was made from scratch with fresh ingredients except the Key lime pies. There were 22 lunch guests.

I only have few photos of the preparations.






there were 10 lbs of these


















test, test, this is a test at home


I hand made all these on location in addition to many other dishes

 

Damn.........I missed this track day. Would love to have come up and watched you.
Glad you had fun.

 

Randy Pobst says there are a few cars that he will not drive without the traction controls on. Corvettes are one. I have to believe Porsches are another one.

People have the mistaken opinion that they are better than the electronics in these cars these day. They are wrong, especially in cars like Porsche and Corvette (I have read that Corvette’s are amazing). I have a picture of a new Corvette that is a foot shorter in the front end than it was made with. I would be willing to bet that driver had the traction controls off. When I bought my 2012 MINI I made sure it had nannies. I then found that MINI had designed in multiple settings, one of which is great for the track, and I fun with it on either full on or that “half” setting. The last thing I want to have happen is for the back end to step out on me at 80 mph with the guardrail 2’ off the track. Been there, done that...

 

Porsches without traction controls:


Start about 5:30 into the video. The commentary starts out being serious, but by the end they see the humor in it.

Even the best of drivers can have problems with a car that has an inherent transition to oversteer...

 

Love the food dishes!

and the presentation - Fabulous!

That has to be good for a ton of respect on the track.

 

I'm way late to the game but the Porsche you saw with the mattress on top could have been 996roadtrip from Instagram.
Instead of putting a bird on it (thank you Portlandia) they put a tent on it.

https://www.instagram.com/996roadtri...ource=ig_embed

 

Good catch! No sh1+ it is that Porsche. I went to the trouble to find the original foto with the license plate number and it is the car! I don't care for social so I careless what this is all about. So wrong! Get yourself a proper car for whatever you are trying to prove. Oh, unless you are as Reich as I am you can't afford to drive a Porsche on beach sand unless you have not idea what sodium chloride is.

 

Very cool... But on a Porsche? I might do that, but my wife would be thinking Hotel.

 

It looks like someone who maxed out on his credit for the hand-me-down Porsche and can't afford to rent a Home Depot truck for 1 hour and need to pick up a mattress from Mattress World, Mattress Mart, Mattress City, Mattress King for their forever "going out of business sale of the lifetime"...

What the fok am I doing wasting time on the interweb? I have to go and unload Desire *** trailer park weiss trash, and figure out why she made excuse of having a headache.

 

I have a number of guest passes and would love to see more PNW Miniacs out there. Please PM me if you want to come for a day. If you are worry about if bad thing happen, be rest assured that there are many helpful folks including me, and will get you Mini home should it happens. We had a blast with two R53s chasing each other for two days until mine pulled a limp home mode in the last 20 minute of the second day. We put up a good show and the turn workers were entertained.