Lol. I know exactly how you feel. My wife ended up getting a Subaru Forester. I know, I know, a Japanese car but BMW wasn't in a negotiating mood when she was shopping. I got about 20k miles out of the tires so far, so I guess I really shouldn't complain after what I've put them through.

 

Had a couple of track days scheduled Feb 3rd and 4th at Homestead Speedway but with the shape these tires are in that ain't gonna happen. A friend of mine is a certified instructor with a seriously badass, race only, LS6 powered RX8. Would have been a really fun couple of days but hopefully after I get Vlad squared away I can reschedule.

Speaking of tires. I really like the Bridgestone RE-11's even though they're a bit heavy, but since they're discontinued I had to look elsewhere. TireRack had Dunlop Direza Starspec ZII in my size but they are being discontinued for the upcoming ZIII. No ETA on the ZIII's and the ZII's tip the scales at the same 25 lbs as the RE-11's. So I've decided to give the Toyo R1R's a chance and ordered a set. Many of the reviews on these are older and based on the 140AA wear rated compound. Most of the sizes have since been upgraded to 200AA wear ratings so well see how they stand up. With the V tread I'm expecting more noise, but at the same time I'll shed 3 lbs of weight on each corner. Sounds like a pretty fair trade to me, and with my exhaust I doubt I'll even notice. After some beak-in time I'll post my thoughts on them.

 

Ended up replacing the shift ****. Pulled the round chrome **** off which was getting scratched and installed a SS weighted **** which I like much better. Same weight but smaller diameter. It also threads slightly further down. It's hard to describe but the shifts just feel crisper and any scratches can be easily removed with scotchbrite.


I'm very happy with the Toyo's so far but we'll have to see how it does on tread wear. First thing to note is the tire is slightly wider both in cross section and footprint. It has a more squared shoulder which is the reason for the slightly wider footprint. The cross section increase is small but definitely there. With the RE-11's I had about 9mm clearance between the tire and the shock strut in the front. With the R1R's that has decreased to 7mm. There are a couple of pro's and con's to be aware of. The first would be that the ride is improved with the R1R's primarily because it has a slightly softer sidewall. The down side to this of course is that initial steering inputs aren't quite as sharp as the RE-11's. It's a small difference but it's there. Ultimate grip is higher however. When applying power thru a curve I had to be more careful with the throttle on the Bridgestones. It was also easier to induce snap oversteer with the RE-11's. Another noticeable difference is in the weight. The three pound lighter R1R certainly accelerates quicker and is more responsive to changes in the road surface. The only real negative I had was due to the increased width of the footprint. They're certainly flush now but rubbed the wheel arch both front and rear when driving over a very uneven surface. Not the end of the world as I messaged the fender support and trimmed the arches slightly. I made sure to take the wife for a ride so she could see the necessity of adjustable coilovers first though.

 

Also changed out the LED's in the Phormula knock sensor. The blue didn't blend in well with the rest of the dash.

I also thought about changing out the blue LED's in the boost gauge but since this is going in its place I may pull the Aquamist apart and seeing how difficult changing the white would be. Being OCD can suck sometimes.

 

Uh... Houston we may have a problem.

 

Your looking at this problem the wrong way round
You need to make all your other lights blue

 

Lol. You may be right and it would look pretty sweet. Sounds like a lot of research and soldering. Probably wouldn't be that bad but I can hear my lovely wife now as I drive around for several days with the dash torn apart Maybe after the coilovers. Ya have to work them through these things slowly or they can get cranky. I'm referring to the Mini of course

Well since I couldn't find a setting in the LogWorks 3 software to change the color of OLED display on the ECF-1, I sent an email to Innovate. Turns out there is no backlighting as it's the screen itself that illuminates in white. Guess I'll try the Joey route first and start looking for tinted plexi before getting all reverse engineery on it.

 

They make tint to go over lights these days, could just tint it and the white would adjust to the color of tint for the most part.

https://www.ebay.com/i/152699493522?chn=ps

 

Have a Wagner Competition Intercooler that will fit that model if you need one. Asking $550

 

I want to copy your mods onto my car! lol.

Every time I check in on this thread it gets better and better. It makes me excited to see what the 50mm I have will feel like.

I forgot to ask you before, for the Stage 3 tune did you have to tune specifically for the 51mm compressor? I'm wondering if my current tune with the 47mm will be okay short term for the 50mm until I can find someone to upgrade the tune?

 

 

I'm not answering for the OP, but the basics from my experience are: More adjustability (ride height, compression, spring rate, etc), can be made custom to fit a specific setup, rebuilding each coilover is relatively inexpensive if you buy from a good company.

 

 

Reason number 289 why I like this site. NAM members helping each other out. I didn't even think of using film. Great idea thanks.

 

Thanks Navyboy1955. I bought the Helix Gen 2 but almost went with the Wagner Competition model as it's a great intercooler. Can't go wrong with either one really.

 

You should be fine with the Stage 3 for a bit. I would datalog it however and record at a minimum the following.
RPM
Lambda
Timing
MAP or Boost
Absolute Load
Fourth gear on a dyno from 2500 to redline with the DSC completely deactivated. Dyno's are safer but I have been known to use the occasional highway on-ramp but don't recommend it. DashCommand or Torque will work for this. Their not comparable to what I use for tuning since they can't record cam angles, knock sensor voltage, injector or wastegate duty cycles (target and actual), etc.. but they're good enough to let you know if it's safe.

 

I think the Swift springs are a great choice for a daily driver for lowering the vehicle without costing a lot. The spring rates are comfortable and designed to work well with the factory struts. However, they are not a good choice if you intend to track the vehicle as the front spring rates are too soft. During hard cornering the front end dives, and combined with the reduced ride height your on the bump stops which can unsettle the vehicle. I've driven Mini's with BC's, Megan, Bilstein and others where this it not a problem. In addition, with coilovers you have a much wider selection of spring rates available. Coilovers are adjustable, rebuildable and can be revalved to match your choice of spring. With the R58 being slightly more front heavy than the R56 I think an 8k front and 6k rear spring combo would be a good place to start. For spring manufacturer I'd prefer Swift or Hyperco. Most coilovers also include the ability to adjust front camber. So if you plan on any competitive use there really is no comparison between the two. Finally, the adjustable dampening and rebound of a coilover allows you to crank it up for a track day then soften it for the ride home.

 

Sorry I haven't posted any updates for a bit. In March I suffered a subarachnoid brain hemorrhage. For those that were aware I want to say a big Thank You! for the well wishes and your prayers. The good Lord was listening and I am 5x5 now. No weakness, loss of speech, strength or motor skills. I'm still half crazy but I was that way before so no change there.

Having time off however did allow me to spend some time pondering my coilover quandary. Which was a good thing as Vlad's been riding a bit rougher than usual, and a little investigation revealed the left front and left rear struts were leaking. Not sure if that's a because I take more hard right turns or if Vlad is making a statement about carrying my fat @ss around. Anyway, after kicking it back and forth I finally ordered Ohlins Road & Track coilovers with Vorshlag camber plates.


I was intending to run either Hyperco or Swift springs with 8 kg front and 6 kg springs on the rear. While speaking with Performance Shock however, I learned that Ohlins has made a revision to their spring rates for the Mini. It is now 7kg front and 6kg rear instead of the 5 kg they used to have on the rear. Probably take a couple of weeks for them to show up and I know I'm going to need spacers with my tire and rim combination. This could be a problem but I'll address that when I get to that point.

 

Glad to hear you're doing much better. Looking forward to hearing your experience with the Ohlins as that's what I want to run and it'll be nice to have another Coupe running them versus reading Hardtop reviews.

 

Thanks. It could have been a lot worse. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how the Ohlins perform and will gladly report the results. I'm also considering installing Powerflex control arm bushings. I may install those first though so I don't attribute the effects of one to the other.

 

geez! Glad to hear you're doing great!

Looking forwards to hearing more about the coilovers and this awesome build.

 

Build should hopefully get more interesting soon. I finally bought a JCW builder motor for Vlad. It's sitting on the engine stand at the moment awaiting teardown. Just have to figure out how much I can sneak past... er, um... I mean fund properly with my wife's full knowledge.

Anybody happen to know if were allowed to post a kidney in the "For Sale" section?

 

I think there's a category for "Body Parts"

 

The Ohlins arrived and I was looking forward to getting Vlad up on jacks. My work schedule and a new garage door felt otherwise.
Still felt almost like Christmas when the packages arrived.


Love the quality of the kit and the Vorschlag plates.


Then came the fun part. The good news is the rears went on without a hitch, and with plenty of clearance as expected. The fronts are a little different story. I knew spacers were going to be a requirement I just didn't know how much I'd need until I got a strut installed. So out with the old and in with new along with a big stack of washers. When all was said and done it took 10mm just to get the tire barely off the coil. Think RCH (red curly hair) of clearance. Uh oh my wheels were already flush. It just won't fit she said ;-) So out with the new and in with the old at least in the front. My Swift springs were 5.5kg in the rear so I just left the 6kg Ohlins installed and set them 10 clicks from full stiff. A few mm I could massage into Vlad but 15-20mm... nope, not gonna happen and would look like dog poop if I tried. So now I'm looking into custom fender flares. I'd been doing some looking beforehand as I had a pretty strong feeling the Ohlins wouldn't play well with the 235's.

It's funny because all of my cars before Vlad have been loosely based on the sleeper concept. In fact I almost didn't buy him since the paint scheme is kinda in your face. But he looked so sad sitting there without a home that I fell in love with the little beast. And since that time everything I've done has been a little more out there... now fender flares lol. Ah screw it the engine can wait. I think it's time for 45mm flares, some big azz spacers and maybe a rear spoiler.