I have the Hakkapeliitta R2 -- 195/55/R16

 

That's where I got them for my Volvo. At the time, I happened to be on the mainland and had the tire shop put the tires on the car. Easy peasy.

Last time I shopped for Nokians, I was not happy with the pricing to have them shipped to my location. I ordered the Pirellis online and ended up saving a considerable amount of money, despite still paying for shipping.

I'm happy enough with the Pirellis that I have no problems ordering another set. If I find myself back on the mainland with my car, yes...I'll definitely get another set of Nokians.

 

thx,

Yes, not the best design around that's for sure... They could have at a minimum provide a littler extra hose. For something done this frequently I can't imagine it would have been a waste of money. I wonder how the mini shop does it?

That all said, putting the car on stilts took more time than dealing with the expansion take so it's not what I would say a huge problem.
It mostly makes we nervous to break the molded in hose fitting on the tank...

ps: thanks for carrying those OEM filter kits

 

I ran those Pirelli Winter Carving snow tires on my old Winter war wagon and found them to be great in snow. I had to rotate shifts every week at work. One Saturday night, the state was shut down in advance of a significant snow storm. I got off work at midnight and by then we had 6 to 8 inches of snow on the ground and no wind, so the snow was very even and the temperature was 17 degrees. No plows were out on my entire 14 mile route home of nothing but rural roads, with not one car track on any of them. Visibility was over a mile most of the way, and I ended up making the best time ever going home. Never saw another car on the road. The Winter Carving snow tires made the trip one of the more fun rides... plus it was very quiet.

We ended up with a big 27 to 35 inches of snow from that storm in our area. I measured an average of 33 inches around our yard once the storm had ended, mid morning on Monday. Won't soon forget that event. Winter Carving snow tires are quite a bit tougher to find these days. The General Altimax Arctic snow tires are also really great performers on snow and in the wet and are quieter than the Pirellis on dry pavement.

 

Your experience with the Pirellis is very similar to my experience with the tires on my MINI.

I had studs put on my Winter Carvings to help with the icy conditions that are all too common on the roads around here in the winter. I was surprised with how well the MINI handled on icy roads with these tires that I basically quit daily driving my 4x4s in the winter. The MINI is simply more fun to drive, even on winter roads.

 

Air filter, cabin filter, oil and filter change, transmission fluid change.
Winter tires swap coming up in 1 or 2 weeks.

 

I tip my hat to you snow boys!

I cannot imagine.

 

On a quiet road, with good snow cover... a lot of fun to drive, as long as proper snow tires are installed. Have always loved driving on snow... as long as there's no traffic.

I started learning to drive on a frozen lake when I was 12 or 13. You learn a lot about vehicle dynamics on smooth ice, and in a hurry.

 

Nice video! Fun stuff!

 

Got into a minor accident back in August. I hit a delivery van at less than 5 MPH and it really did a number on my front end since it was above my bumper.

I finally got the front end repaired and upgraded. As well as some much needed TLC...

- Replacement Spyder headlights
- Black headlight trim
- Black grill trim
- JCW upper grill
- VIS Racing Carbon Fiber hood w/ scoop
- Replaced bumper assembly (no license plate holes!)
- Kensun HID kit for headlights and fog lights
- Oil change
- Coolant flush
- AC flush
- Exterior detail
- Interior detail

 

Wow, looks great!!

 

195/55/15 ,they were on sale.

 

The new hood looks great. Very nice job.

Drive Hard. Drive Safe. Keep Grinning.

 

I got my MINI tinted today, 20% on all sides.

 

Having grown up in New England, I really feel for you snowed in guys. Granted, it's one of the reasons I moved

Looks good, gotta get mine done someday. Especially down here in Texas.

After having the oil leaks repaired at a local indie due to my lack of time and appropriate skills, my Mini got some new brakes. EBC Yellows, new rotors and Motul RBF600 in preparation for his first ever autocross this weekend. FWIW the calipers were ghetto painted with Dupli-Color, and it seems to be holding up great so far.

Obligatory pics of the results:

 

Brakes, wheels and Mini looking good. Red brakes look way better than dull dirty use to be silvery/grey that are now a kind of bronze stained calipers. You did really good.

 

Changed out my rubber intake boot which had developed a split up top.

'Twas a 'pain in the ****' kind of job (for such a simple task), as the entire air-box assembly and ECU needed to be removed in order to get to the side-pipe clamps and the lower boot clamp, which were oriented in such a way that I couldn't have gotten to them otherwise.

The positives were that I was able to 'clean house' and get all dirt and pieces of leaves out of the crevices of the air-box, ECU chamber and underneath.

A duh... 'MINI heart attack' moment occurred when after buttoning everything up, I had overlooked re-connecting the electrical connector to the throttle body, then unwittingly started the car - thinking that I was done... After a moment or two of the car coughing and swearing at me, and a CEL staring me in the face, I realized my error, fished my fingers between to grab the loose connector and plugged it in...

As with the conclusion of all my DIYs, I couldn't help but to think about what this "simple task" would've costed me had I brought the car to the service dept. of a MINI dealership...

 

Then call me Ghetto as I use it on all my cars and never had it come off and I live in winter salt capital of world. Including a Corvette that saw a lot of HPDE events. I actually don think guys prep right that have it come off as I've used generic old high heat spray paint too with similar results on my last BMW.

 

The paint itself wasn't ghetto, it was the quick, slipshod manner that I threw it only on the visible caliper surfaces that was ghetto

Regardless, I've read some of the reviews on Amazon and I agree, most of the people that have had issues with it didn't apply it properly. Even on the can, it says to let the paint dry overnight before driving the car, and one reviewer decided to bed in his brakes right after application and wondered why the coating didn't last......

 

Installed a ScanGauge II on a Cravenspeed mount.

Tried to do the rear wiper delete with the Cravenspeed kit but I can't get the darn wiper arm off. Used WD-40 and let it soak for a day but it's still not coming off. I ordered this battery terminal puller from Amazon. It's supposed to arrived today so I'll give it another shot then.

 

Only thing I did with to do with mini's today

 

Nice job on those brackets, those seats look nice too.

I kept it simple. Swapped out the summer rubber for the all seasons.

 

I have not done much of anything to my MINI in the past year or so. As of Monday, I have put it up for sale. As of today, it is posted in the Marketplace.

 

Seasonal tire swap on both cars and cleaned and lubed the TyrolSport caliper bushings/pins.

 

Swapped over to snow tires for the winter. Off with the Hankook Ventus V2 Concept2s on X-lites and on with the Bridgestone Blizzaks on Silverstones. Handling's all squishy now. Oh well, only a few months until I can get back onto the summers.