GOOD LUCK

I'm going on a road trip with "Taylor" labor day weekend too!! Heading down to LA!!

 

A word to the wise: DON'T SPEED ON THE RESERVATIONS!!! Even 1mph over and you'll get nailed. Also, if you've never been to the Four Corners region, brace yourself for some jaw dropping scenery. IT'S AWESOME!

PS: Your MINI will be down on power a bit 'cause most of the time you'll be over 6000ft.

 

Downshift a gear or two when going down hills to maintain speed as much as possible through engine braking, so when you need to slow down or stop, you have some brakes left.

I grew up driving air-cooled VWs, which have fairly inadequate brakes, so you *had* to do this. John Muir said it best in How to Keep your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot: "Brakes perform a negative function, applying negative acceleration to stop the car, remaining inert when not being used." He went on to suggest that due to this fact, they should be thought of negatively, and your driving habits should be adjusted to minimize their use.... Some of the illustrations in that book, as well as the occasional philosophical bit, are worth the price of the book on their own. The illustration with the guy bug-eyed at 4am imagining the exploded view of the engine is priceless, as is the one presumably set in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland, with the roadsign that says "Hügel".... We've got a Hügel like that out between Superior and Kearney on AZ 177.... Sign claims 10% Grade, but IMHO it underestimates by a fair bit. I had to downshift all the way to 2nd gear to keep the car at 50mph without toasting my brakes....

HTH!

C ya,
Dutch

 

Washed and waxed with this cool ICE product. Worked great!!

 

Had an interstate business trip today so got mine washed while at the airport valet, nice to get it back sparkling at the end of a long day

 

True, considering my wife drove her.

 

 

GP Rear facia. Picked up the parts off one of NAM's Sponsors: www.Penskeparts.com.

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And Lamin-X tint on the HD Lights. Good stuff, been using their brand for about 5 yrs now.

FrontnewstripesLAMINX001.jpg?t=1283365918

 

Where did you get the checks on the sunroof wind deflector? Also your mini looks really badass.

 

I have to agree, grey raven probably has the most slick MINI on NAM.

 

Put an ALTA CAI on this past weekend. If it weren't for dropping a bolt here and there, and then making sure to get them back out from the bowels of the beast, installation was not that bad.

It sounds good, and feels a little more peppy. Just need to make sure not to over do things.

 

Over do? On a MINI? You've got to be kidding!! LMAO (see sig.)

 

When I said I needed to make sure not to over do things, I meant not to over do things with a heavy foot. Because there is so much out there, it is easy to personalize them. You can do as little or as much as you want (or your wallet can afford). No matter what you do, they put a smile on your face.

 

True dat....

C ya,
Dutch

 

fixed my Xgauage so I have Boost without MAP... I can't believe I didn't set it up that way from the start...

 

I "finally" put a GA tag on it!

 

Ordered a MINI wind deflector for behind the seat..........so my wife will quit hollering "SLOW DOWN"

 

I removed the headliner because my sunroof got stuck. I'm waiting on a new motor cartridge, but it looks ghetto.

 

Got my MINI back from the body shop...
Good as new!

 

 

The flippers come out easy enough. Once out clean them up good and find some 1" wide masking tape. Two strips edge to edge just covers the entire length / width of the flipper. Measure and cut out the equal sized squars, then remove the ones you want to be white. I put them side by side when removing the tape squares so it would make a complete flag pattern across both when paired up on the car.

Once you have enough coats of white paint, remove the flippers then coat the flippers front and back with DuPont Clear Acrylic Lacquer.

So far they are as good as the first day I painted them. Been several years and really easy to do.

 

gRay, I have to agree with Cole.........your MINI is one of the best I've seen

 

Bought '10 MCS last week ...
Just ordered set of 17" Enkei wheels, Hankook V12 215/45/17 tires, and NM Eng Springs.
Hope to maintain the stock ride after replacing the runflat and adding lowered springs.
That maybe it for now
Next will be JWC kits

 

Took off the outmotoring beltline blackout and did it the right way with Plasti-Dip. It looks so much better now. Did the door handles and gascap too.

 

The NM RSalpha springs will make for a firmer ride than the Sport suspension package, but certainly not brutal. It'll just feel like you didn't get tid of the RF's. The improvement in handling, steering and braking is worth it IMHO. I would strongly advise that you get adjustable rear camber arms. If you don't you'll end up with about 2.5deg. negative camber and will wear out tires real quick. Also, trim about 1/4-3/8" off the bottom of the front bump stops or you'll be bottoming the the front end a LOT. I've had no clearance issues on mine other than speed bumps and steep driveways and then only the air dam scrapes a little. Have fun!