Hey guys,

I know over the years and right now the build threads on NAM have really helped me make mod decisions, since it's not a theoretical discussion of this manufacturer vs. that one but real world experience. In that light, I thought that logging my build might be useful to others.

Am I going to say anything new/novel? Probably not, but maybe a tip or trick I come across may help somebody else. And worst case, forum space is cheap

Anyways, a quick background. I've always loved cars, back in high school I got a bit obsessive and started reading through mechanic textbooks to learn as much as possible. I've read through tons and tons of internet articles, and I play a LOT of Forza racing. All of that said, the most important part is I have pretty much ZERO real world modification experience. I'm learning as I go along. So hopefully some things I mess up, you won't have to!

I currently have a 2010 JCW, bought it used with ~14k miles and have put ~6k on it in six months... crazy considering my commute is less than 10 miles. Juicy details below + in signature. My "garage" is a hand-pumped jack, four jack stands and a bunch of hand tools (nothing special here!). I work on my car in my apartment's parking space.

I'm building this car to track, I'm young, and I'm single. This isn't going to be a comfort oriented build . That said, I'll call out anything that seems a bit too harsh for a DD.

I got to drive a 2003 Justa CVT back in High School and installed a KN Typhoon intake on that, but did no other modifications. I'm now a software development engineer working at a large multinational corporation (not trying to be sneaky, I just don't think it matters which one) and have the means to make my passion for cars a reality.

For organization I'm going to separate posts, but expect write-ups of the following over the next few weeks (I've already installed these):
-Helix SSK + NM cover
-M7 FSB
-NM Titanium turbo heat shield
-Hotchkis Competition RSB
-Silver fog light kit (no more orange crap)
-Numerous blacked out trim parts
-NM Torque arm inserts
-ScanGauge II (not really a modification...)

Over the next few months expect:
-Hotchkis or NM rear camber links
-NM RSB end links
-KW variant 2 coilovers (TSW spec from Way)
-Michelin Pilot SuperSport tires

Likely not until next summer:
-Helix FMIC
-Akrapovic DP
-RSW Tune

At some point when I have nothing better to do:
-M7 C-Wing
-M7 front splitter

 

Positioning the jack is really key. You'll learn this pretty quickly your first try. My jack has an almost four-pronged piece on the plate where it seats on the car, which has chewed up a few spots on the bottom of the car. Other people have recommended this and I'll throw it out there again: use a piece of wood between the jack and the frame. You have to go a bit deeper under the car to get the two to fit, but it's worth it. I usually cant get the first jack stand as high as I want doing this, but after putting it in you can reposition the jack to get a few more inches.

A few pieces that are never listed in how to manuals but are essential:
1. Gloves. Get a cheap pair, closed finger is best.
2. Clear glasses. When you're inverted under the car, crap tends to get in your eyes.
3. Shop rags and soap with some pumice in it (I forget the brand name) can come in handy
4. Mini-branded baseball cap. Keeps sweat off your brow and generally awesome.
5. Shoe box or other thing to carry all your crap from your house to your car. Keep in mind torque wrenches are pretty darn long.
6. Needlenose pliers. You will drop small pieces and not be able to reach them.
7. Lubricant of some kind. A lot of people here recommend one but I can't remember the name. WD-40 has served me fine for, say, removing the exhaust from the hangars.
8. Beer, preferably craft beer. Sierra Nevada is a great call. Hoptimum is unbelievably good.

Also, it definitely helps if you're strong. There have been a few pieces (downpipe <-> exhaust clamp comes to mind) that are practically impossible to get off with the minimal leverage you can get while underneath a car only a foot off the ground. Patience is helpful.

 

I'm going to do these in order of when I installed them, so this is first.

This is (as the How-Tos show) a dead simple part to install. I'll give a brief overview then a few thoughts.

1. Jack up the front. Rear can stay down
2. Take the arm completely out. You can to it by just loosening the front, but I was able to get the insert seated much better with the whole arm out, and it really isn't that hard.
3. Put the arm back in. Install the retaining arm that (should have) come with the torque arm insert. If you didn't get a retaining arm, email NM and they'll take care of you.

It really is as simple as everyone says. Keep in mind this was the first mod that required jacking the car up that I've EVER done. A few tips:

-Let the car cool down or you'll scald yourself (this generally goes without saying).
-Trying to jam the piece back in with brute strength after putting the inserts in is pretty much impossible (I'm a competitive powerlifter, so I feel decently qualified to assert this). That said, just swing the arm back and forth with one hand (gently) while pushing the insert up. It's REALLY easy to do it this way.
-After driving the insert may protrude out a bit on one side. As long as your bolts are torqued correctly this hasn't seemed to be a problem (keep in mind the car usually drives without anything there anyways).

NVH is up a bit, but after having this part on for a few months I really don't care at all. It makes a noticeable difference in the general "tightness" of shifting and accelerating.

Worth it: 9/10. It's a bit annoying that the piece pops out a tiny bit, but otherwise a great part.
Difficulty: 3/10. Not hard, but you get your hands dirty.
Time: half an hour to an hour, depending on how good you are at jacking a car up

 

Figured I'd also write up various interactions with different vendors as I go along.

NM Engineering: Big shout out. These guys have awesome customer service. Jerry in particular has helped me out with various things, even when it involved me being a bit disorganized and losing a bolt. They've been extremely quick to answer emails and questions and very friendly. When I first started getting into which modifications to do their slightly higher prices threw me off a bit, but their parts are top-notch and so is their customer service.

OutMotoring.com: Good selection, fair prices, quick customer service turnaround.

WayMotorWorks: Good selection, fair prices. I do like that they walk the walk with TSW parts. Haven't interacted with customer service there and/or Way yet.

M7: Can't really comment yet, everything I ordered got here on time and in one piece. Haven't really interacted with customer service.

 

Here's the list:

1. OEM Black HL/TL trim (from OutMotoring.com)
2. Beltline blackout with 3M Vinyl (from OutMotoring.com)
3. Headlight washer blackout (vinyl wrapped the chrome)
4. OEM Grille upper/lower blackout

General tips/tricks:
-It's kind of easy to break and/or lose the clips from the HL's, it's good to see if you have new ones in your kit. Otherwise, take it slow. It's not really the end of the world if you break a few, they'll still stay on fine.
-I mangled a few clips on the old chrome TLs. I don't really care, but again, this is pretty hard to get off cleanly.
-Beltline blackout isn't hard, but it takes a HELL of a long time. I'd advise not doing it in a glary environment as the glossy black looks almost identical to the chrome under glare making it hard to line up.
-Trimming the ends of the beltline blackout requires a REALLY sharp knife. Use a fresh exacto. I used a (sharp) benchmade 3" and it wasn't sharp enough for a clean cut.

IMO, massively improves the look of the car. Makes it stand out a lot more.

Worth it: 10/10
Difficulty: 2/10 OEM parts (careful not to break clips), 4.5/10 beltline (a bit tricky to get it perfectly lined up).
Time: 10 minutes for OEM part replacements, beltline was about half and hour/45 minutes

 

Not much to say here, it's about as simple a bolt on as you can get. I wanted a strut brace with strut tower defenders and this fit the bill. Well machined piece, looks cool.

Performance wise I can't offer any real world numbers on a slalom or anything, but I took the car to a parking lot before and after and did some extremely aggressive slalom and tried to upset the weight balance as much as possible, and the front *seemed* tighter. That said, I didn't buy this part expecting the world, I figured "it can't hurt, and it may help with strut mushrooming".

Worth it: 6.5/10. Nothing wrong with it, good piece of mind, well built. Likely doesn't buy that much in terms of performance is why the rating isn't higher.
Install: 1/10. If you can use a screwdriver you can install it.
Time: 10 minutes.

 

Get them. They make you go faster. Awesome factor is 11/10.

 

This is the biggest mod I've done so far. Most work, longest time, most "I might be seriously stuck here" moments. That said, got it done in a reasonable time.

Overview of the install process then tips/tricks:
(Sidenote: from memory, might miss a step. Look at a real how-to for instructions)
1. Jack the whole car up, four stands, as high as you can get it.
2. Remove heat shield. This is dead simple. Don't be afraid to bend it a bit, it's basically super duper aluminum foil.
3. Disconnect the exhaust from the DP. This is freaking hard. Comments below.
4. Detach the exhaust hangars (tip below), pretty easy.
5. Remove the shift linkage box cover. I couldn't do this so I ended up just ripping it apart.
6. Detach the shift cable from the shift assembly at the ball joint. This is easy to do, but I managed to crack the black ABS that was covering the shift cable in the process. This hasn't been an issue even though it slides back and forth, but realllllly be gentle while forceful here.
7. Install the SSK (easy part) with some locktite.
8. Click everything back together and install the shift box cover
9. Reattach the exhaust hangars
10. Reattach the exhaust to the DP (this is the HARDEST part, where you may get stuck)
11. Reattach the heat shield

Tips/tricks:
-Clear Glasses!!! I wish I'd had these and got a TON of junk in my eyes.
-This will take awhile. Patience is key.
-Tough shirt and pants. This is not the time for a tank. I was on the bare ground so a dickies work shirt was key for not tearing my back up.
-To get the exhaust out of the rubber hangers seems impossible dry. Add a bit of wd-40, shimmy a thin flat head screwdriver through, and voila, it's easy as pie. Ditto getting them back on
-You don't need to detach the whole exhaust. I only dropped the front and let it hang from the rear.

Getting the exhaust detached from the DP:
This was by far the hardest part. There's probably a trick to this, but I never found a great one.
First off, the clamp is extremely tight and pretty much impossible to loosen up. The way I got it off was using a long flat head screwdriver wedged in at an angle to pry the clamp off of the attachment a centimeter or so, then jamming another screw driver in and using that to pop the piece off. This took probably 10-15 minutes, many attempts and a lot of frustration.
Getting it back on was far worse. It took a good bit of torque to get the piece wide enough to fit back over the attachment, while at the same time using my leg to jam the piece together tight enough to couple up. I think an extra pair of hands could be pretty valuable here, I regularly found myself wishing I had a third hand.
To make this explicit: Unless you know a tip or trick for this, you may very well get stuck here solo. Having a friend will probably make this much more doable. Be prepared.

Removing the assemble cover:
You really need some form of 90 degree hook like the instructions recommend to unclip it. More than one would be a good idea. I have VERY small screwdrivers and couldn't do it. I ended up just ripping the thing apart with my hands because I got frustrated, since I had the NM cover this wasn't a problem.

Lot of work, but a very rewarding mod. The throw is right about where I'd want it now, and it just makes the (normally a bit loose) throw a lot tighter. I'd still like the Mini to shift a bit crisper, the whole assembly in general seems a bit loose, but the modification is by far and away a lot better. It's still soft enough to throw with one finger (I am decently strong though) so using it in traffic is no issue.

Worth it: 10/10. Great mod, a lot of fun to install if a bit difficult
Difficulty: 8/10. This is mainly because of the damn clamp between the DP and exhaust, it's so bloody difficult to remove. Also, getting the shift assembly cover off (without the right tools) is really tough. The rest of the install is more like a 4/10 or 5/10
Time: 2-3 hours. Can't remember exactly.

 

Really cool piece. Not a ton to say about it.

I've got it connected to the OBD and then just jammed all of the wiring behind the steering wheel adjustment lever, which has stayed in place fine. I've got the piece attached to the dash with Velcro right behind the tach and can see and read it fine in all lighting conditions. Current readouts are:

RPM: easier to read then the tach, since the steering wheel obscures half of the tach and the ScanGauge is in my peripherals better)
BST: had it set as MAP for a bit but it's too much fun watching this)
EOT: engine oil temp. This is HUGELY nice to have, I used to have zero idea how long it took the engine to properly warm up, but now I can tell exactly. I've noticed normal operating range is about 200-240 (240 when running at 90mph on the freeway for a long ways)
FIA: (with a funny looking f): air intake temperature. I'm mainly watching this to get a feel for where it usually is so I can see how various modifications affect it.

HPR/LOD/Throttle (forget the abbr.) are neat to see how they impact each other, but don't seem tremendously informative once you've got a baseline since they ratios are more or less fixed, and you kind of know the throttle positioning based on your foot pressure. Seeing how HPR maps to RPM in various gears and rev ranges is pretty great so you can get a better idea of when to shift, but again, you kind of develop this sense in the back of your brain so a readout isn't that huge.

A few of the other features would be great to diagnose weird behavior but don't enhance daily driving.

Oh, and yeah, it does MPG, if you care about that sort of thing

Install: 1/10
Worth it: 10/10
Time: 5 minutes.

 

<Placeholder> (lost two of the screws)

I'll see if this has any noticeable impact on any of the various engine temp readouts, I expect it not to. Got this to save my hood on track days.

 

Buy one, right now.

Just got done the install and a quick test drive around the area. I'll talk about the fun part first. Bar is set to the softest setting (I think... I just realized I should double check that).

Disclaimer, if you haven't ever done real, sanctioned performance driving in some sense, this is a dangerous modification that will likely end up with you skidding rear end first into traffic. Doing donuts in a parking lot does not a performance driver make. I'm far from an expert, but I have taken performance driving school before (Skip Barber at Laguna Seca) so I have an inkling about car dynamics. That was also six years ago so I've had plenty of time to learn, apply, and perfect the basics. I'm no expert, but I can handle a skid and control a drift even in traffic because I'm used to and comfortable with those. Before you buy and install this, take a school or go learn some AutoX, you'll get WAY more out of that than this modification.

Now the fun part: my area is pretty great for test driving. I've got everything from constant radius, increasing radius and decreasing radius swoops on various highway interchanges with/without elevation gains and with/without pavement angling. I've also got a few designated "U-Turn" areas on a main road with an extra wide U-Turn zone, and a few parking lots that are basically skid pads. Finally there's a massive hairpin - nearly a full 180 and downhill too (it's like a Mini corkscrew, hehe).

Here's the breakdown (took 3-5 of each):
-Hairpin: Took this first off and cooked into it, piled on the brakes, then gave a moderate turn in (nothing jerky), but with that + the downhill + all of the weight on the front end, the back came RIGHT out. Quick wheel correction and some power and I blew out of it. Right away I knew I had a winner - the old RSB came around this like an arthritic grandma no matter HOW much weight I put on the front.
-Parking lot/skid pad: Took the car up to about 30 then JAMMED the steering to see how much skid popped out and was very happy. The back end came out but that + a reasonable amount of power rounded out some very well shaped U-drifts around a nice moderate radius. This was NOT achievable with the stock RSB without some very careful-if-heavyhanded E-brake application.
-Highway sweepers: I didn't punch these fully since I don't know the breaking point yet and the safety margin is lower. That said, I could actually feel the rear wheels participating in the steering which was always a sore spot of the stock setup. On freeway onramp where I usually start to push just over 50 I was able to take a few over 50 without any push, feeling much more neutral, and not going as flat out as normal - a definite and measurable improvement. Will give a tighter number once I gain confidence with the part.
-U-Turns: These were the best part :D. Nothing like jamming on the breaks, whipping the back end out then applying just enough throttle to smoke a perfect 2-lane U-Turn.

Summary: Massive improvement. Under the limit and at it the rear tires assist in turning much more and offer much greater stability and control. Pushed past the limit the rear end comes out in a dependable and controllable manner allowing for yaw control via throttle alone and drifts if that's your thing :D.

Installation breakdown:
First off, way easier than the SSK to install
-Pop off the tires
-Disconnect factory swaybar endlink
-Remove cables from the coilovers(I popped only one all the way off, took the other halfway off)
-Remove the coilovers (this is really, really easy - I've never done it before and it was a joke)
-Unscrew the stock RSB
-Detach the rear subframe. I did this without a jack supporting it, and was able to get buy leaving one of the outside bolts still attached, making later steps really easy.
-Pull out the stock RSB. It's a car, made of metal, you don't need to be overly gentle here
-Slot the new one in. Some patience, twisting, and pushing down on the subframe is all it takes. Not too bad.
-Grease and put on the new bushings. These are the hardest part, since the stock screws are barely long enough to get threaded with the Hotchkis part. MAKE SURE to get them both seated before torqueing them.
-Screw down and torque the bushings. You can maneuver the bar even after torqueing the bushings due to the grease, so don't worry about having to adjust it.
-Tighten up the rear subframe
-Reattach the coilovers (top first). My damn torque wrench exploded on the bottoms and I had to hand torque them for now. Really not ideal. I can't find a brand on it, but it's the generic 1/2" drive torque wrench Ace has right now. Big thumbs down.
-Attach the RSB endlinks. Make sure to use the same hole on each side
-Attach wheels

[EDIT] I'm 95% positive the torque wrench in question is http://www.sears.com/schwaben-1-2inc...12000P?prdNo=7. If you have one I'd recommend checking the screws in the head before it blows up, since once it does the torqueing feature doesn't work anymore. Or, don't buy such a cheap wrench! Now I just need to decide to 1.5x the sway bar cost on a SnapOn or not!

After you attach it, take it slow. I thought I was taking it reasonably slow and the back end popped right out. It does come out controllably (again softest setting) but it's a massive difference over stock.

To reiterate: amazing modification, make sure you're comfortable with a drifting car, because it will drift. Wish I'd done it sooner. Don't let the number of parts you touch throw you, it really isn't difficult.

Difficulty: 6/10, only because it's a lot of parts touched and takes a while to do. Kind of hard to mess this one up I think, although I'm sure someone has done it. SSK was way harder IMO.
Worth it: 10/10. Night and day.
Time: 2.5 hour install, infinite enjoyment.

 

Nice thread sir - I'll be back. May the force be with you on this build.

You will autocross this puppy, right?

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Hey Charlie,

I fully plan to, but need to first find a way to satisfy the SCCA rule about glass sunroofs. I'm not quite sure what material is used in the Mini roof (need to look that up) but I'd expect some custom fabricated aluminum would be in order. I'd expect I'm going to hit a similar issue on road tracks (although haven't confirmed that yet for Pacific Raceways, my closest track). I haven't dug around enough to find if/how other people satisfied this.

"All glass panels in the roof must be removed. [] Any openings in the roof resulting from the removal of a panel must be covered with panels of stock contour made of the same material as the stock surrounding roof structure. "

-Zack

 

Zack, is that in the Solo rules? Could I trouble you to tell me what chapter? I just did a search for "glass" and "roof" in the 2012 Solo Rules and do not find this reference. I do not believe that an OEM sunroof is an issue for Solo competition sir.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Found it in the 2013 August GCR - page 88 "9.3.18. DETACHABLE PANELS/SUNROOFS". To be fair, I don't know if that rulebook applies as I don't know the SCCA organization all that well, but it seemed like the main rule set.

I'd LOVE to find out that was only for certain divisions/levels of competition . I think it would be pretty damn near impossible to flip this car at AutoX speeds so it seemed like a silly rule.

Best,

-Zack

 

That, oh my wise brother, is the road racing rule book. Try this one....

Autocross yer brains out...

 

That right there is GREAT news . Thanks for clarifying!

With the RSB I can actually get around an AutoX speed turn as well :D

 

As an old OG I applaud your efforts. Instead of a dickies work shirt, way kool fools wear grubby heather t-shirts with a few rips and somebody's car logo and lay on a movers' blanket (48x72) from harbor freight. It's $4.99 with the coupon and maybe some free screwdrivers. Beats the cardboard box and it can also be used for warmth when you sleep in the car. Nice posts.

ISAMIN