Ran Streets today with Danny, Jan (Minicorsa and RMW respectively) and quite a few other people (Matt and a few others from MiniNuts)

TONS of fun. There was a slight mishap in one of the Novice/Intermediate run groups, with an interesting twist. A Nissan 350Z went off the track sideways and flipped several times. Turns out it was a Hertz rental car!!! . I guess the guy flew into LAX, rented the car, and headed out to the track.

Anyway, now for the fun part, the pictures!

Here's a link to my Flickr album with all the pictures I have.

http://www.flickr.com/gp/13126639@N03/UZa888

And my personal Favorites



Passing!














Almost 2 wheeling it! These brakes rock (Most of the time anyway )!


The rest of our little "Race Squad"




Crashed Z... The guy bit it right at the quick right left right turn past the skidpad, flipped the car like 3 times . First thing they tell you at the drivers meeting is if you're gonna overcook a turn and go off...hold the wheel straight and go off! This guy jerked the wheel hard right and went off the track sideways at like 50-60 mph .

 

Ouch! At least he made it out of the car ok!
Tell me he opted for the $9.95 insurance.

 

Haha, yea, I hope so. He was fine, just shaken up a bit. Something tells me they probably have a "Racing" clause in that insurance policy .

 

here is Rustyboy and I driving away from an aerial atom

 

Here are some more....

a 240 about to get passed

 

Looks like they put a ton of cars on the track

 

Looks fun and nice day! Last time I was there they made all the drive tape up their lights. Is this not the case any more?

 

Nope... but next time I am planning on taping up my front end to preserve the paint Mark down Nov 16th Mario.... we should have a bunch of Mini's going up !

 

Awesome you guys One of these days, I hope to be able to put mine on a track....

 

Sounds good! I need to get my suspension dialed in and then upgrade my brake lines and pads.
I agree about protecting the paint. I have a black car

 

yes, we will have you dialed in soon!

 

I was there and it was my first time on a track (except the parade lap last year at Laguna Seca). It was a blast. You really don't need to do anything to the MINI to make it perform on the track. The whole thing is to drive within your limits and improve your skills. Everyone should do it. The only thing you might want to do is either wear down your tires a lot before you go, so the tread does not chunk out, or get an extra set of wheels and tires for track. I drive my street tires on the track - Azeni RT-215 (215x45 x16 on X-light wheels) and they work just fine.

For $40 you can take a brief class which includes having an instructor drive you around in your car and then coach you around the track as you drive. It is a bargain and if you ask, the instructor will give you some feedback on how your car is doing. My instructor was Vincent, who drives a prepared Prelude (front wheel drive). His car runs a 30 or 31mm rear bar with stiffer springs and shocks. It must really be stiff and loose in the rear

Passing was officially only permitted on the front and back straight. My only scary part was when a faster car passed me on the inside at the start of the straight and I didn't know he was there until I almost moved into him.
With Streets of Willow, the front straight actually starts with a sweeper where you cut to the apex flat out. If someone is coming up on the inside as you are cutting to the apex you may be in for a nasty surprise. In the last turn before the straight I didn't glance behind for possible passers as I was busy turning, so I didn't anticipate the pass.

For those who have not been there, SOW is not a real high speed track. You only get up to about a hundred (in my case) and there's lots of runoff room if you overcook the turn at the end of the straight. So it is good for novices like me.

For $30 you can rent a transponder and have your laptimes posted. I didn't but I'm confident I was faster than every other novice and just a second behind Danny and Jan.

(just kidding). It was a lot of fun and everyone there were really friendly.

The RMW head just pulled great. Jan was kind enough to loan me his JCW injectors for the event. He's a stand-up guy. Danny (Minicorsa) put them in and changed out the fuel filter. My car has 50,000 miles on it and it was WAY overdue for a new fuel filter. Gas coming out of it was black, per Danny.

 

Glad you had fun, hope to see you at our next track day .

 

rustyboy, looks like fun . What suspension are you using? Looks nice and low . Oh and BTW where is SOW?

 

SOW = streets of willow
suspension = cross/jic-magic

 

the handicapped version obviously

 

Here is what the engine bay looks like in the 1:30 car

Stock software for now
Stock jcw airbox with STOCK FILTER
What is that? OOOOOOO a STOCK JCW pulley
stock JCW pads/brakes
stock fuel pump and rail/ does have big injectors

What makes this car so fast?

It's the Revolution inside.............................. more to come!

 

must have been or I surely would have broken 1:30

sigh******

Good catch... forgot about that

 

Suspension: I'm running the CROSS/JIC Magic Coilovers (As Jan said). It'll be even lower on Wednesday! My 16" Ultraleggera's come, and I'm running a 40 profile tire (215/40/R16) so i'll be about .5 inches lower .

SOW: Streets of Willow, a technical track located in Rosamond, CA. It's part of the larger Willow Springs International Raceway.

 

great pics and great comments. i'll start saving up now to hit the november run with y'all.

 

Here is a shot of SteveS fuel filter

that is a tastey concoction

How many have changed their fuel filters with big mileage on their cars?

 

Here are my videos of session 4 (two part):

video 1

video 2

Second part ended early as I ran out of gas (rookie mistake)

I have another one, but it's 500 meg and needs to be edited.

 

ahh that the red thing on front?

 

"I'm confident I was faster than every other novice and just a second behind Danny and Jan."

You should have included the "Just Kidding." which followed.

On the other hand, I WAS taking mental note of my exceptional lap times and skillful driving (judging by my rectopuckometer), so maybe the statement WAS true.

 

I was NOT about to check to find out but I am most certain goaljnky would have .... going to sign up for the 16th of Nov, let's see if we can get enough Mini's out there to have our own run group!!!!