Holly is ready to go to Nationals 2014!



Well, she's not ready, and that's why I'm making a thread to keep me motivated and hopefully get some motivation from you all. She's pretty much stock with the Winter Package, non-sport suspension..

Holly lives in NYC, and will be the last year on the lease. So this is a going away year for her and my first REAL shot at a full year of autocross and Nationals in my own car.

And here's what she's going to get for her last year with me (in some particular order):
1. HSport Rear Sway Bar
2. JCW Springs & Front Sway Bar
2.5. M12x1.5 studs
3. Some wheels & some tires (I'm really torn between 15's and 16's and ZIIs and Rivals and the Hankooks)
4. Koni Yellows (re-valved to super race mode)
5. Some kind of custom exhaust system
6. A better driver before nationals

Anyways, looking forward to this project and your input. I know Tony is on here somewhere watching and I'm following all of your H Stock/Street threads too. Good luck this year everyone!

Holly's Race Schedule:
North New Jersey Region SCCA
Whenever this schedule comes out (http://www.autox4u.com/)

Tire Rack ProSolo Series
April 26-27: Fed Ex Field in Largo, MD, near Washington, D.C.
June 7-8: Crows Landing Air Facility, near Patterson, CA (looking for an H-Street/Stock ride)
August 30-31: ProSolo Finale at Lincoln Airpark in Lincoln, NE

Tire Rack Championship Tour
May 3-4: MetLife Stadium, E. Rutherford, NJ
June 14-15: Crows Landing Air Facility, near Patterson, CA (looking for an H-Street/Stock ride)
September 2-5: 42nd Tire Rack Solo National Championships at Lincoln Airpark in Lincoln, NE

Tire Rack Match Tour
June 7-8: Devens Airfield Police Training Facility in Ayer, MA

 

Impressive schedule. I'm jealous of the time you can dedicate to this joyous pastime.


Good luck with your build.... and since Holly will be leaving you after this season, let us know when all those goodies come back off and are up for sale.

 

Wow that schedule is all over the place. You live in NYC but are going to make the trek to Blytheville? That's some dedication. The wife and I will be at the DC Pro for sure and probably the NJ Tour and Devens. Haven't nailed down 100% what we're going to be driving yet.

FWIW a lot of people weren't happy with the Rivals once they hit Lincoln concrete.

 

Thanks guys!

I made a mistake, Blytheville is not on the schedule, but the ones in NorCal are! I guess it will actually be a decision between California and Devens.

I'm also thinking about starting with ZIIs and then seeing how I do from there. The parts will definitely be on this forum come next Jan '15!

 

Great! What I want most is the "better driver" part. Can I install that?

 

Good luck, and when you are at these events, seek out Jeff Jacobs, a regular contender at national events, many-time MINI autocrosser, and genuine nice guy.

 

You can have it once I'm done with it!

Thanks! I want to say I've met him before, but who knows? I'll look out for him though at this year's nationals.


Anyone have ideas/opinions about 15" or 16" rims?

 

Welcome to the madness of MINI autocrossing. Hope it goes well and, to motivate you along, here is a thread you might be interested in:
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...kin-powah.html

Your build seems good. I would suggest staying with the 15" wheels. Wheel weight is a killer to these cars. The larger dia of the wheels, the more they weigh and the weight is at a larger radius which just compounds the problem. The holies that you have are about as good as you can get. Look at the rules really closely and do all you can including spacers to max out the wheel offset. That thread I linked you to has some good build advice.

 

I'll see you at nationals, we're planning on getting there as well. If the MINI is leased, are you supposed to make all those changes?

 

I think 15's will do it! And I am following the thread you linked to.

No..?

 

No Toledo or Wilmington? You'll want the concrete practice for Lincoln, these little things drive very differently out there.

My co-driver and I are going all in on the 15s for the reasons EddieS07 listed, hopefully Tony doesn't smoke us too badly at the first few meadowlands events since he's on the 16s...

 

One more thing to get:
Schroth Quick Fit harness. And best of luck with this.

 

Nice! I'm doing similar car-wise (see build), but nowhere near a competitive level driver wise. Hopefully that changes this year..

 

I'm thinking about Toledo and Wilmington, but I'm not that excited about the drive. :( (I realize California is also very far away... LOL)



Seen it! Good luck!

Just bought a solid 25mm Hotchkiss bar. I'm really excited about this! And Konis are coming in March. Since I'm switching to M12 studs, can I use pretty much any wheel? And what offsets do I need to be within? And max 15's are 15x6? So many questions

 

Why switch to the 12 mm studs You can get 14 mm studs and they will fit most wheels. You might want to check into that a little more if you haven't already bought the 12mm studs. The 14mm are stronger and you can torque them higher which holds the wheels to the hubs better. That probably isn't as important in a Cooper as it is in a higher power Cooper S, but for me that is a consideration. The torquing is something to remember as the 12mm is torqued to 92 ft-lbs whereas the 14mm is 102 ft-lbs. You don't want to over torque a stud and have it break.

The last I looked, you can go with 1/4" more offset than the stock wheels. That is about 5mm. The interesting thing is that the Holies are 45mm ET whereas most other MINI wheels are 48mm ET. This is one where you might want to check the SCCA rule book as there are some significant changes occurring in this area. Or maybe Btwyx knows and will post.

 

is switching studs legal in stock class?

 

13.4 of the rulles:
http://scca.cdn.racersites.com/prod/...%20reduced.pdf

This where it says you can have +/- 1/4" wheel offset change and wheel studs can be changed.

Didn't your car come with 14mm wheel bolts? I have seen 14mm stud replacements; some that accept 1.25 nuts (which is the MINI thread pitch) and the more common 1.5 nuts.

 

I could have sworn there was an explicit allowance for bolt/stud conversions, but now I'm not finding it, either in this years rules or last years. The closet I can find is in 13.4 as you mentioned, but it says:

That (to me) doesn't say you can swap bolts for studs. In fact I can find it in 15.4, street prepared ("Wheel bolts may be replaced with studs and nuts."), but as street prepared includes all street allowances (per 15.1A) that kind of implies street does not allow it.

 

ughh to be honest i stopped paying attention after the last of the major big changes (revoking most of what they originally put out) - can someone re-update that 'what's allowed in stock class' thread for 2014 lol

 

It basically ended up as Stock with street tires. Wheels +/-1" and you can defeat traction control and TPMS.

Street tires is 140 treadwear this year, 2000 from next year on.

So you have:
One sway bar
(almost) any shocks
wheels +/-1"
Any exhaust from the cat back
Any air filter
Any brake pads
Any spark plugs or leads
Any thermostat
and a bunch of even more insignificant allowances.

JCW suspension is also ruled legal.

 

BAMini, Best of luck with this effort, see you at Devens certainly (and perhaps a few other places), and if I can be of service - just holler.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

WOW. Thanks everyone for checking on that. I guess I'll just stick with my bolts. I was thinking about studs for more wheel choices and just for the convenience of swapping tires at the events. But now, I'll just get wheels that will work with the bolts :bleh:

Thanks! I still need some help with understanding the stock wheel sizes and how the fit in the rules. My understanding is that I can go 15x6 or 16x6.5, or something like that. So I'm still undecided about the wheel and tire combo, which will most likely come from tirerack.

 

We were just discussing wheel sizes in another thread. It depends on whether 17" wheels were an option for your car when you bought it.

If 17" were an option, you can have 15x6.5 or 16x7 (or 17x7). Offset 42-54.

If 17" weren't an option, you can have 15x6.5 or 16x6.5 (or 17x6.5). Offset 42-54.

17" wheels were an option for 2013, but don't seem to have been an option previously except in with the JCW exterior package. You'd probably have to install the JCW aero kit to make that legal.

Tirerack don't have any good options in 15x6.5. For 16x7 they have Enkei RPF1. (I have some good 16x6.5s for sale.)

 

Some wheels only work with bolts or studs? That's news to me.

Bolts are a lot easier to work with if you have a wheel hanger stud (like this). I've swapped wheels at events.

 

Thanks for the sizing info.

What I meant was, I wanted studs because I like to just pop the wheel on the studs instead of having to line up the holes with bolts. That's why BMW made those stupid wheel pins to hold the wheel in place while you bolt them on.

And for the other reason to switch to studs, I would have more options for wheels.

I have been autoxing for 9 years now, and every time I have to think about BMW bolts and swapping tires, I just go